William Lewin, uncle of two Leamington HG members, was a qualified carpenter and joiner who worked for many years at local builders Wallsgrove Bros of Clarendon Street and Leicester Street. He later became a buildings inspector for the local council. He was also a well known musician and played the accordion at many local cabaret … Read more
This obituary appeared in January 1941 in the Railway Magazine, a monthly publication which is still published today. Mr Antrobus died during a bombing raid on Leamington Spa when a bomb demolished 15 York Road, where he lived with his father who died in the same raid. MR G P ANTROBUS Born 12th October 1892 … Read more
Mary Louise Vellacott was born in Bideford, Devon in 1863, the only daughter of Jane and Henry Vellacott, a master mariner and latterly a shipowner. Mary spent a good part of her childhood in Penarth, near Cardiff, but by the time Mary was 17, she was back in her birthplace, lodging with a widowed uncle … Read more
The ‘Leamington Spa Courier’ newspaper dated 20 December 1918 described Henry Tandey as ‘a hero of the old berserk type’. Never were truer words written about a Leamington man who was the most decorated British private soldier to return from the battlefields of the First World War. Early life Henry Tandey was born on … Read more
Miss Emilie Browne came from an extended family of educators. Her paternal Grandmother had been a Governess, her aunt, Miss Mary Salter Browne was the founding Principal of the College, and at least two of her female cousins also earned their living as teachers. For over a decade, Miss Emilie Browne was Principal of Leamington … Read more
Few towns can claim as a resident someone whose portrait would later appear on postage stamps and on his country’s coinage. There can be little doubt that Prince Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, the Pretender to the throne of France was the most illustrious of Leamington’s erstwhile residents. Louis, the nephew of Napoléon Bonaparte, had, like all members of the Bonaparte … Read more
The building you see here is the Polish Centre, which was originally Leamington Spa’s Town Hall, designed for the Town Commissioners in 1831 by the architect Russell, who also designed the now demolished Warneford Hospital. The building, although small, housed the Commissioners’ meeting rooms and offices, a ballroom, a magistrates’ court, and a police … Read more
The motives of those who visited Leamington Priors during the early years of its expansion were many and varied. Some came in the expectation of improved health from taking the waters and many others arrived to indulge themselves on the hunting field or to immerse themselves in the social round of fashionable balls and banquets … Read more
In the early 1970s, Kit and Ivy Reading were interviewed for the 1st edition of the Bath Place Times, painting a vivid picture of their lives and the area where they grew up. The Reading family kept the Althorpe Arms in Althorpe Street for 42 years, until the area became a trading estate in the … Read more
Leamington Priors was one of only four Spa towns in 19th century England to have Bath-chairs as a form of transport, and Thomas Timms played a major role in developing this form of transport. Towards the end of his life, he published a short memoir, detailing his early life and experiences. He was … Read more
Alice Rosa Barker, was born in Wolverhampton in 1843 and was possibly the child of her mother’s 20th pregnancy. She arrived into a world of great change, energy and creativity – only a month after the launch of Brunel’s SS Great Britain. With motion at the very heart of nineteenth century industrial expansion – wider … Read more
From its earliest days as a Spa town, Leamington has always hosted bands and their music. There used to be military bands playing in the Pump Room Gardens every morning in the summer season, – an unwelcome distraction in the early years of the 20th century, for the girls at the Grammar School, sitting examinations … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026