I lived in Archery Road from 1945-1965.  My parents were stationed at RAF Gaydon during the Second World War and they married in 1944 in London (they were both Londoners).  I was born in February 1945.  After renting in Leamington (there were no married quarters in those days), they bought No 9 in Archery Road.  They took in lodgers for several years to help with the running costs as my mother wasn’t working.

The house looked different then from today as two of the arched windows were bricked in, but have since been restored to the original design and the loft has been converted to a room with Velux windows.  The house faced north so as with a lot of other people of that era, the windows would ice up in winter.

Coal was delivered by a lady with a horse and cart.  In between no 9 and no 11 there is an alleyway, and coal would be delivered to both houses via a hatch. In the wall.  Both houses had a cellar, and we also had a well in our garden which had a pump in the kitchen to withdraw the water.  My mother had a copper kettle which she filled from the pump and we used to wash our hair with this, as in those days too, Leamington water was hard.

There was a man (Mr Clarke, I think,) who used to come round regularly( on his bike, to sharpen knives, scissors, garden shears, etc.  He was well-known in Leamington.

The large house on the corner of Archery Road and Victoria Street was owned by Mr & Mrs North.  From it Mr North ran a dairy.  He delivered milk in churns and ladled it out into residents’ jugs.  Later he converted to delivering the milk in bottles.

Mrs North was the local Conservative agent, and made sure that as many people as possible voted at elections. My dad helped collect and take older folk to the voting station (Not sure that you could prove that they voted Conservative), which was the United Reformed Church in Spencer Street.  She also organised the Coronation Tea for children, in 1953. ( for Queen Elizabeth II). It took place in the bowling green pavilion, and I remember it well. (Sadly, I have no photos of it now)

I am now a member of the Royal Leamington Spa Bowling Club and could not have foreseen that 70 years later, we would celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III, in the same clubhouse.

Most of the houses along Archery Road used to be divided either into two (maisonette style – lower or upper floor) or into flats.  When Warwick University arrived in the mid-60s, teaching staff and professors bought the houses and because of their better salaries were able to convert them back into single dwellings.

Between No11 and the Cricketers’ Arms Pub, run by Len Brooks, there was a courtyard with four houses at the back.  One housed a family with a boy I used to play with, and another an elderly lady who I found rather frightening. (I am sure she wasn’t).  The front two houses in Archery Road had two families living in them.

Billy Smart’s Circus came to Victoria Park every year or so.  They arrived at the station and walked/ paraded along Avenue Road, Adelaide Road, into Archery Road.  The band played and it was very colourful.  There were clowns, jugglers, fairground lorries and caravans.  (Billy Smart’s van was very posh and all chrome.  He was a very flamboyant man with silver hair and dark-rimmed glasses.) As a child it was was very exciting to see other animals, tigers in cages, (- thankfully none of this is allowed now) and elephants walking trunk-to-tail.

There was an orchestra and several of the players stayed with families  B & B in Victoria Street and Archery Road.  We had the same musician each year and it was a way of earning some extra cash.  We had free tickets to the circus performances , as all the local children did.  We were able to explore around the caravans to see jugglers and other performers practising, and see the animals being fed.

At No 7, there was a large Irish family who were lovely and later when the children left home, the parents had a house built next to Victoria Park and lived there for many years.  My memories of this family was listening to their Irish music playing when the windows were open.

Victoria Park

In 1953 there was a very tall clock installed that could be seen from all over the park.  This was to celebrate the Coronation year and it meant there was no excuse for being late home!

I left Archery Road to live in London in 1965.  My father died in 1973 and my mother then left the house to live elsewhere in Leamington.

I love the fact that I still have an attachment to this road through being an active member of the Bowling Club.

Anne Tarrant

nee Cunningham.