News

Gallery of Plaques

This page begins as a reminder of the 40 Blue Plaques in the town. In addition there are two or three other plaques in memory of events. Clicking on the image of the plaque will lead to an article about the person. Most of these have been written especially for this website. (Images by Allan … Read more

Rev Arthur Margoschis

Rev Arthur Margoschis was born in Leamington Spa in 1852. He died of ill-health at a relatively young age in 1908 in India. He had dedicated his life to the people of the village of Saan Pathu (now known as Nazareth) in Tamil Nadu, South India. Thanks to Leamington Town Council for these pages from … Read more

Lucky Dip

Explore the history of Royal Leamington Spa with our Christmas Lucky Dip of a dozen random pages … Simply click on any number and see a page chosen from our website to, hopefully, widen your knowledge of the town. However if you want to search for a particular subject or page please use the Search facility … Read more

Heritage Day 2025

In 2025 our Heritage Day was on Saturday, 13th September at All Saints’ Parish Church from 10.00 am to 3.00 pm. We had 25 different exhibitors who joined us and we thank them all for making it a very enjoyable and successful event. At least 532 people came to look at the displays and talk … Read more

LEAMINGTON BOROUGH POLICE, Two Hundred Years

The Leamington Borough Police HQ was housed in what is now the Leamington Polish Centre in High Street, and until 1968 it was the original Leamington Police Station, which then moved to Hamilton Terrace before being incorporated within the Warwickshire Criminal Justice Centre in Newbold Terrace.   Leamington Police had been formed in 1825 and … Read more

Alan George Griffin, 1941-2025

Sadly, we have to announce that Alan Griffin, long-term member and founder of the Leamington History Group, has died. Margaret Rushton has kindly written this summary of his life. Alan grew up in Southam, one of three sons of a baker who lived at Southam Windmill. He passed the 11+ and attended Leamington College until … Read more

“Enterprising Leamington”

Leamington History Group successfully launched its latest local history book on 7th May. Copies can be obtained for £20 from secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk chair@leamingtonhistory.co.uk Anthony Eden Barbers, Clarendon Street Warwick Books, Market Place, Warwick Leamington Studio Artists, Royal Priors Waterstones Bookshop, Warwick Street Kenilworth Books, Talisman Square, Kenilworth Over 50 volunteers have contributed to researching, writing, photographing … Read more

Samuel Shepheard Stanley of Sydenham Farm, 1848 – 1921

Samuel Shepheard Stanley was one of four sons and four daughters of John and Sarah Stanley of Sydenham Farm. He was born in 1848 and with his siblings was taught at home by a governess.  His older brother Joseph later became the farm manager, and eventually took over from their father. Another brother ran The … Read more

Balraj Singh Dhesi M.B.E

It was a fine day in Royal Leamington Spa as Balraj Singh Dhesi and his wife, Palweet, rose from bed and made special preparations for the day. It was 24th March 1988 and this was the day that they would meet Queen Elizabeth II as representatives of the residents of the town. We explore how … Read more

Lillington Library

This page is one of several pages which are based on articles in our book entitled Royal Leamington Spa, A History in 100 Buildings which was published in 2018 and is no longer in print. This is a branch library designed by Henry Fedeski, F.R.I.B.A., Dip.T.P.,A.M.T.P.I of the Fedeski and Rayner Architectural practice, in the … Read more

Lights of Leamington

We are delighted to commend the project by Whittle Productions to record the Lights of Leamington 1951 to 1961 and especially the memories of people from the time. They have two websites which describes the results of the project and several events this year, Lights of Leamington Switched on Stories A 30 minute video about … Read more