The streamline cycle, shown here in an early press photograph, used a new energy-storing device calculated to revolutionise cycling by storing energy when travelling downhill and releasing it on climbing. It was designed by Ben Bowden, a well-known Leamington industrial designer and consulting engineer, to be displayed at the Britain Can Make It exhibition in … Read more
Long before Concorde went into service and as long ago as 1943, the Coventry firm of Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth developed an experimental, tail-less jet aircraft, the AW52 which became known as the Flying Wing. This aircraft had no fuselage or tail section and was essentially a large fixed wing powered by two Rolls … Read more
When I was a young lad growing up in the nineteen- fifties, my father was a baker in the small Warwickshire town of Southam. In 1947 he had purchased the old windmill and the bakery business that went with it and my two brothers and I moved in to the small cottage that went with the … Read more
Back in the mid – 1950s, following my success in passing the eleven plus examination, I was offered a place at the Hugh Clopton School for Girls at Stratford upon Avon (later The Stratford upon Avon Grammar School for Girls at Shottery Manor). When I first started there a lot of Leamington girls chose to travel by train, … Read more
As many of us begin dusting off our bikes for a burst of spring fitness, we don’t usually give much thought to cycling’s early days, or how cycles came to be made. Many of the early models were very much a local product but still hard to come by. In 1837, the young John Charles Manning was desperate … Read more
In 1962 my family were packed off to 19 Waverley Road on the Rushmore Estate, a modern area built on the old Rushmore Farm land in the mid 1920s and early 30s. For us there was a new life to be made and a wealth of new discoveries to be made, starting with the Eagle … Read more
Leamington’s Motor Car Heritage: Charles T Crowden 1859 -1922 Charles Thomas Crowden, an early automotive designer and engineer, settled in Leamington with his family, in Eastnor Grove in the 1890s. Charles Crowden came to Leamington and the motor trade via an early interest in engineering and tool-setting in Bath, fire-engine design in London, safety-bicycle development, and finally, the Great … Read more
This is a long story and is told in three parts – 1. Coventry to Leamington and then to Rugby on the LNWR 2. Leamington to London and Birmingham on the GWR 3. “Merger” by Nationalisation and Beyond Part Three – “Merger” by Nationalisation and Beyond On 1st January 1948 all … Read more
This is a long story and is told in three parts – 1. Coventry to Leamington and then to Rugby on the LNWR 2. Leamington to London and Birmingham on the GWR 3. “Merger” by Nationalisation and Beyond Part Two – Leamington to London and Birmingham on the GWR This GWR line through Leamington … Read more
This is a long story and is told in three parts – 1. Coventry to Leamington and then to Rugby on the LNWR 2. Leamington to London and Birmingham on the GWR 3. “Merger” by Nationalisation and Beyond Part One – Coventry to Leamington and then to Rugby on the LNWR … Read more
The Beginning Trams followed their steel tracks from Leamington Spa to Warwick for nearly fifty years. The trams are now a distant memory for only a few. The idea for a tramway was born when an Act of Parliament authorised the construction in 1879. The system was engineered by a local man, John Fell, and … Read more
Rather surprisingly for a town about as far from the open sea as any in England, two Royal Navy ships have borne the name Leamington. The first ship to carry the name was a Royal Navy ‘Hunt’ class minesweeper (above) of 700 tons built by the Ardrossan Shipbuilding Co. in North Ayrshire and launched towards … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026