Gallery of Places in Leamington
This is a Gallery of Places in Leamington which have a page on this website describing them or something related to their history. Page being edited March 2023
Frederick William Newton Whitehead (1853-1938) and Elizabeth Whitehead (1854-1934), Artists
Frederick and Elizabeth Whitehead were born at 3 Lansdowne Terrace (now numbered 5 Willes Road), Frederick on the 6th January, 1853 and Elizabeth the following year on the 21st November. The Whiteheads had been farmers and brick makers in the town since the eighteenth century but William, the father of Frederick and Elizabeth, had become … Read more
Corporal William Amey VC, MM, 1881 – 1940
Corporal William Amey VC, MM, – the Man William Amey was born on the 5th March 1881 at Duddeston, in the Aston area of Birmingham, the last-but-one of the eight children of Charles & Elizabeth Amey. When he left school he worked as a chandelier maker for Verity’s Ltd, electrical manufacturers, so presumably had some … Read more
Henry Peach Robinson: pioneer Victorian photographer
Here is a presentation by Alan Griffin of Leamington History Group about Henry Peach Robinson: pioneer Victorian photographer. A blue plaque in memory of Henry Peach Robinson was unveiled at 60 Parade on 23rd September 2015 by Dr Michael Pritchard, Director-General of the Royal Photographic Society. He has written an article for the RPS Newsletter … Read more
Kinmonds
Kinmond Court There is a substantial building with a certain ‘presence’ on the east side of Kenilworth Street which is now the home of many retired people. At its heart is a Victorian building enlivened with patterns of different colours of bricks. Many will recall that in the 1960s part of it was the home … Read more
A Curious Footpath
This photograph shows the ancient cobbled footpath and bridge across the River Avon at Saxon Mill. Outwardly this is just a footpath crossing the Avon, which happens also to mark the Milverton/Warwick parish boundary. The footpath extends from the river crossing as far as the Coventry/Warwick Road and is properly defined with a row of … Read more
Gilbert Lawford Dalton (1903 or 1904 to 1963)
A Comics Genius A man who lived in Royal Leamington Spa from 1945 to 1958 at 18 Milverton Terrace was probably the most prolific fiction writer of his time. He was Gilbert Lawford Dalton. He wrote several books but deserves greatest recognition for the stories in comics which he penned for many years for the leading publisher, … Read more
Josef Kalaś, 1912 – 2008
Josef Kalaś was born in Czechoslovakia and served in the Czech army before the outbreak of WW2. During the 3rd Reich Occupation, he fled via Poland and joined the French Foreign Legion. He was released to fight with his countrymen at the outbreak of war, and eventually, having survived the last battle to stem the … Read more
Memorial to Civilian War Dead
During the 1939-1945 war, Leamington experienced a number of air raids which caused the death of 13 people and severe injuries to 39 others. This information was not made public at the time, for fear of damaging morale, but it came to light when the Local Medical Officer of Health published a report after the … Read more
A Time to Remember
Thursday 18 June marked the 73rd anniversary of Operation Anthropoid and the mission of the seven Czech soldiers to assassinate the Nazi tyrant Reinhard Heydrich. The Friends of the Czech Memorial Fountain, including many living relatives of the 4000 soldiers billeted in and around Leamington in WW2, gathered in Jephson Gardens on Sunday 14th June to … Read more
Bath Place School in the 1940s
History Group Member Jeff Clarke was a pupil at Bath Place School just after WW2, until he left to take up an Apprenticeship at Henry Griffiths’ jewellery factory at the age of 15. He recorded these reminiscences of his school days with Margaret Rushton. He remembers the overcrowding, in the Infants, Juniors and Seniors, – … Read more
Benjamin Satchwell 1732 – 1810, pioneer, philanthropist and ‘father’ of the Spa.
In 1782, Ben Satchwell with his friend William Abbotts found the second mineral spring in Leamington Priors ( the first had been discovered at least two hundred years earlier, but never exploited) and the Abbotts Original Baths opened a couple of years later in 1784. This coincided with a nineteenth century trend for “taking the … Read more
