Robert (known as Bob) Lee was born on 16th January 1938. He became a pupil of Leamington College for Boys, from 1949-1956, although he lived at Finham on the outskirts of Coventry. Norman Painting, (aka ‘Phil Archer’ of radio fame) was also a pupil at the College just before Bob was born. In his foreword … Read more
Delivering Newspapers for W H Smith My friend Chris advised me that he was leaving WHS and asked if I wanted a job. I certainly did! The hours were 7-8 a.m. Monday to Saturday and the Education Committee issued a card stating when I was allowed work and for how long. Chris was with me … Read more
An article written by Virginia Ironside, daughter of the two recipients of a Blue Plaque. I am delighted that Leamington had chosen to commemorate my parents with a Blue Plaque, because I lived in Lansdowne Circus until I was 2 1/2 and it was here that my parents were happiest. (Their marriage didn’t last long … Read more
When I obtained my Mk V Saloon I had little or no knowledge of the model, history or heritage of the marque. Once I’d spent 2 years coming to terms with restoring, running and attending some shows, I started to appreciate the whys and wherefores of the car, the Designers/Engineers, and Jaguar Cars as a … Read more
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
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
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
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
In the days before mobile phones, as far as I have been able to discover, this system for contacting police officers on the beat, or allowing them to contact the station, was in use in Leamington from 1941 to about 1956. I have managed to find the location of nine of the known pillars, and … Read more
Tachbrook Road was one of the early residential streets in Leamington, but it has changed character several times over the years. In 1893, Tachbrook Road included such smart addresses as Claremont Terrace, Eastnor Terrace and Park Place, where a Miss Collins ran her own school. Shrubland Hall (Home of Rev W G Wise, incumbent of … Read more
Charles Richard Burgis was descended from a line of traders in Oxfordshire going back to the late 17th century. Some of our Burgis ancestors were millers in Benson, and I have a certificate of Indenture of a James Burgess, dated 1761, from his apprenticeship to Henry Goodwin, a Tallow Chandler and Soap Boiler in Benson. … Read more
John (aka Jack) Milton Woodward might have become a household name in Leamington as the second generation of the family to own Woodward’s department store on the Parade, but instead chose a career in showbusiness. Leamington History Group member and member of the Inner Magic Circle, David Budd, learned his first tricks from Jack Woodward … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
September 9, 2026
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026