Most references to a Workhouse or Poor-house in Leamington relate to premises in Court Street. However, before trying to establish some details of this place it is probably appropriate to deal more widely with how the community of a small place like Leamington Priors in 1800 cared about and cared for the poor. Generally, there … Read more
Despite the fact that there were five baths in the town already, one man was desperate to find a spring or well of saline water on his land north of the river. That man was Bertie Greatheed (later Greatheed Bertie Percy) of Guy’s Cliffe House and indeed a well was found on his land just to … Read more
The expansion in the population of Leamington Spa brought with it the challenge of treating sewage, a subject not often recognised. It was common practice in the 1850s to allow such effluent to be discharged into the nearest watercourse or river, with the attendant risk of spreading infectious diseases. Other sources of contamination were from … Read more
There is a substantial building with a certain ‘presence’ on the east side of Kenilworth Street which is now the home of many retired people. At its heart is a Victorian building enlivened with patterns of different colours of bricks. Many will recall that in the 1960s part of it was the home of Griffin and … Read more
Abbotts’ Baths (or Well) were a key factor in the step-change in the fortunes and growth of Leamington Priors. The man they were named for was William Abbotts who ran The Dog Inn (sometimes the Black Dog) on the south side of High Street from 1776 to 1793. This inn was to the east of … Read more
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
Lockdown Living History Research Challenge Thank you to all contributors for the Leamington History Group’s Living History Lockdown Project. A new contribution from a youngster was added on 29th April. The ‘Leamington Scrubbers’ When the Covid pandemic took hold, Ashleigh Linsdell, a nurse from Cambridge, started a grass-roots movement For the Love of Scrubs to … Read more
One of Leamington’s longest established businesses became yet another casualty of the increasing rents demanded for commercial premises when H B Dunn the Regent Street Chemist moved to alternative premises this year. The properties adjoining the old Lloyd’s Bank including the Golden Lion Inn were some of the first buildings to be erected when … Read more
Mrs Fowler, legendary owner of Leamington’s pre-war Blue Café, was born in Derbyshire and grew up in Polesworth, where her father was Vicar of the Parish Church, and Rural Dean. In 1906, at the age of 25, she married George Herbert Fowler, an Oxford-educated mining engineer who was managing director of Arley Colliery in nearby … Read more
In the days before the introduction of the benefits system of the welfare state, it was the job of the Relieving Officer to identify the needy in his district and address those needs to the best of his ability. The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act introduced a National Welfare System (of poor relief) covering the … Read more
The photograph is plainly of a mid Victorian gentleman: dark suit and waistcoat, high turnover collar, dark circle of cravat, and yet not over-tidy, rustic almost; a shortish man with a short neck, chunky rather than burly; leaning forward as if in conversation, fair hair flying as if he drags his fingers through it when … Read more
A NEW METHOD OF ADMINISTERING THE MINERAL WATER OF THE ROYAL LEAMINGTON SPA. By JAMES THOMPSON, M.B. In April 1874, in an effort to promote the health-giving benefits of English mineral water and to defend English Spas against a popular perception that those of Germany were more beneficial, Dr James Thompson wrote to the British Medical Journal in … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026