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
George Cunnew was not Leamington born, but he made Leamington his home and built up a successful business here. He came from Bethnal Green, one of the poorest parts of the East End of London in the nineteenth century. George, born in 1822, worked for a bookseller, and looking for better opportunities, moved with his … Read more
Recent research on local iron-founders and ironmongers has uncovered a quite remarkable man with a busy career in court in the second half of the nineteenth century. The man in the spotlight is George William Grove. He first appears in the Leamington Courier as the executor of a will in 1871. Over a period of … 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
Frederick and Elizabeth Whitehead were born at 3 Lansdowne Terrace (now numbered 5 Willes Road), Frederick on the 6th January, 1853 and Elizabeth the following year on the 21st November. The Whiteheads had been farmers and brick makers in the town since the eighteenth century but William, the father of Frederick and Elizabeth, had become … Read more
In 1782, Ben Satchwell with his friend William Abbotts found the second mineral spring in Leamington Priors ( the first had been discovered at least two hundred years earlier, but never exploited) and the Abbotts Original Baths opened a couple of years later in 1784. This coincided with a nineteenth century trend for “taking the … Read more
Part One, 1777 to about 1875 [Note – A version of these articles in a different format is available HERE] This follows the firm from some early members of the Flavel family to the time when Sidney Flavel junior took the reins from Sidney senior. The history of the Flavel family in manufacturing has been … 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
In 1856, Mr JH Hawley of the Castle School Kenilworth, announced in the Leamington Courier his intention to set up a ‘Classical and Commercial School’ in Brunswick Place, Leamington. An advertisement in the Courier in November of that year referred to ‘Brunswick House School, most healthily situated outside the town’, where a first class education … Read more
Elizabeth Anne Galton was a Victorian gentlewoman, the eldest of six daughters and three sons born to a wealthy Quaker banking family and related through her mother to the Darwin family. She was not a feisty high-achiever, explorer or philanthropist, but she played a significant role for future historians at least in recording her memories … Read more
Beech Lawn, “Dr Jephson’s splendid mansion” once stood at the corner of Warwick Street and Dale Street. Designed by a local architect, William Startin, it was built by a workforce of 140 in 1830-31 for the Leamington doctor, whose advocacy of a plain diet, exercise and the taking of the Leamington waters made the Spa … Read more
James Brown, (1804-1854) Parish Clerk and Builder James Brown was one of the group of builders active in the first half of the nineteenth century who together developed the rapidly growing town of Leamington, shaping the town we know today. Alongside contemporaries in the trade Brown benefitted greatly from the sheer scale of the population … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
June 9, 2026
May 26, 2026