Alfred Tomes was born on 4th October 1853 at Rouse Lench, Worcestershire. He was apprenticed in his teens to printer and stationer, Edward Adams of Stratford upon Avon, then worked as a printer in Oxford. By the age of 37 he was married and living in Grove Street, Leamington and in partnership with … Read more
I was posted to Christmas Island in the territory of Australia in 1957, from RAF Wyton in Huntingdonshire, just after getting engaged to my future wife, Evelynn. Plans for marriage were put on hold, and my fiancée and her cousin Doreen spent the time while I was away making a wedding dress and preparing for … Read more
Charlie Johnson Payne never had any formal training in art nor did he ever exhibit a painting at the Royal Academy. That said, he was blessed with natural artistic ability and was described by his biographer as one of the leading equestrian artists of the first half of the twentieth century alongside such eminent practitioners … Read more
Basil Nightingale was the youngest of the ten children of Elizabeth and Robert Nightingale R A, a reputed animal painter of Maldon, Essex. Nightingale is thought to have been trained by his father and worked with him on known pictures. He certainly showed early promise: at the age of twelve he produced a copy in … Read more
Mary Dormer Harris was a remarkable woman. Multi-talented, hard-working, an enthusiastic party-giver with a great zest for life, she had a wide circle of friends young and old. She wrote and published books and plays, lectured in local history at the University of Birmingham and was Vice-President of the Workers’ Education Association and an associate of the Dugdale … Read more
Part Two, about 1875 to 2015. [Note – A version of these articles in a different format is available HERE] This follows the firm from the moment when Sidney Flavel junior took the reins to the present day. Sidney Flavel junior (1847 to 1931) was educated at Warwick School and was later a governor of … Read more
Robert Wilfrid Levick Simpson, internationally renowned as one of the most prolific 20th century composers of symphonies and chamber music, was born at 21 Rosefield Street Leamington in March 1921, where his parents, as officers of the Leamington Spa Corps of the Salvation Army in Park Street had an Army house. Mrs Simpson was Dutch, … Read more
Beatrice Janie Whitby was born in Ottery Saint Mary, Devon where her father Charles was in medical practice. The family numbered three daughters and five sons, the oldest of whom, a professional soldier, was killed in the Afghan war of 1880, almost at the same time as Dr Whitby moved to Leamington Spa, where he … Read more
As a result of the Spanish Civil War, over 4000 children, some only just over the age of six, were evacuated from Northern Spain to Britain in 1937. Suffering extreme hardship, violence, imprisonment without trial, and widespread poverty under the Franco regime, for the families of the Basque evacuees life had become an endless struggle … Read more
Two of the attributes of the late Victorians were large families and the multi-skilled “polymath”. There was more to Arthur Conan Doyle than the creation of iconic detective fiction, and to C B Fry who played cricket for Sussex and England who also held a world athletics record, won an FA Cup winner’s medal and … Read more
Ryland took on all our employees except, understandably, me. They rented our existing premises until a new, smaller dealership was built on Tachbrook Park Drive, later tagged ‘Leamington’s Motor Trade Alley’. As they wished to retain the goodwill of the name, they traded as Ryland Soans until in turn selling the business on to Allen … Read more
In the early and mid-60’s much thought was being given to the future development of Leamington, in terms of housing, industry, traffic and roads – rather like the recent Local Structure Plan. A.C.Lloyd acquired planning permission to develop Sydenham Farm, partially for housing, partially for industrial use. Stanleys Lane, a turning off Radford Road, renamed … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
November 6, 2026
November 6, 2026
November 6, 2026