20th Century

Rosemary Guiot and the Pugh Family of Bath Street

Rosemary Guiot (pictured left, as a small girl) now lives in Cubbington, but has close connections to Bath Street and its Victorian past.  Her great-grandfather, William George Pugh grew up in Leominster, Herefordshire, moved first to Liverpool, then Nottingham, and finally to Leamington with his wife and four sons, William, Albert, Henry and Percy, in … Read more

Rosa Harriet Newmarch 1857-1940

              Rosa Newmarch was born at 29 Lansdowne Place*, Leamington, the youngest of the family of four boys and three girls of the physician Samuel Jeaffreson. She was an artist, an accomplished musician, linguist, poet, writer, critic and composer, – and a wife and mother. Mrs Newmarch began her … Read more

Derek Billings, A Tribute

Derek was a long-time member of the Leamington History Group who sadly passed away in July 2021. He was always keen to contribute to the activities of the Group and he was particularly noted for his collection of items relating to the history of the town and his huge collection of photographs. He was a … Read more

Henry Fedeski, Architect

Henry Michael Fedeski, FRIBA, Dip.T.P, AMTPI, 1907 – 1993 Henry Fedeski was born on Friday, 6th December 1907 at 28 Clarendon Street (now Road), Aston, Birmingham. His father was also named Henry and his mother was Mildred Mary. Our subject Henry, was one of five children; he had one brother and three sisters and his … Read more

Woodbine Street Recording Studio

The recording studio at this house in Woodbine Street was established by John Rivers in 1977. He converted the cellar into a basement recording studio. John moved out in 1981 to build a new studio at St Mary’s Crescent in Leamington Spa; it retains the original name. The studio is perhaps best known as the … Read more

Dr E A Huntley, (1852-1917) Medical Pioneer

Dr Edith Ara Huntley, 1852-1918, Pioneering woman doctor Edith Ara Huntley was the older of two daughters of Arabella and Richard Huntley, born at Kings Langley, Hertfordshire in 1852, where their father was then joint owner of a Brewery. Edith lived in Leamington Spa, with her parents and younger sister Eliza from at least 1861 … Read more

A Wartime Telephonist

Betty Monica Still In an interview  a couple of years ago with Betty Still,  Betty recounted her early life in Leamington and her work as a telephonist up to and through WW2, in Leamington and Coventry.  She was born at 4 Victoria Road Leamington Spa.    When she was five, the family moved to 42 Willes … Read more

Harry Warr, Builder and Bandleader

Harry Warr joined his father George* in business as a plumber and house decorator when he left Clapham Terrace School aged thirteen in 1923.  By the outbreak of WW2, he had become a Special Constable, and joined the Police War Reserve.  In October 1943, Harry was drafted into the Navy, and the business was ‘mothballed’ … Read more

Victoria Eleanor Louise Doorly, 1880-1950

  Victoria Eleanor Louise Doorly, known as Eleanor, was a teacher and writer of children’s books. For her biography of Marie Curie, ‘The Radium Woman’, she won the 1939 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, which recognises the year’s best children’s book by a British subject. She was born in 1880 in Richmond Hill, Port … Read more

Council Houses 1919 to 1939

This is a video of the talk on Zoom by Barry Franklin on Monday 22nd March 2021 with Introduction by Michael Pearson.  Please excuse the untidy start in the first 30 seconds or so.   Council Houses 1919 to 1939.

Some Architects Who Built Royal Leamington Spa

NOTE:   This page is a revised and more comprehensive version of the subject than the previous page with a similar title and lists over 140 architects. Introduction Following the date when a village of simple cottages, a spring and a small church, named Leamington Priors, quite rapidly morphed into a burgeoning town from after 1800, … Read more