Mary Louise Vellacott, Suffragist
November 15, 2013
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
Henry Tandey VC DCM MM
November 13, 2013
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
Miss E A Browne, 1852 – 1939
October 10, 2013
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
Napoleon III
August 30, 2013
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
The Polish Community in Leamington Spa
August 12, 2013
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
Some early aristocratic residents
July 9, 2013
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
The Reading sisters: growing up in the Althorpe Arms
July 5, 2013
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
Thomas Timms 1855 – 1934 Leamington’s Last Bath-Chair Man
June 26, 2013
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
Miss Alice Rosa Barker – A Bustle Abroad
June 24, 2013
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
Leamington Spa Brass Bands: A Brief History
June 21, 2013
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
