In October 1940, a fresh-faced young American named John Buccellato, just out of his teens, enlisted in the United States Army Infantry. His parents who were middle-class Sicillian immigrants lived in an apartment block facing Central Park in New York City. His mother was a milliner. Within two years ‘Butch’ Buccellato found himself in … Read more
“Don’t touch it with a barge pole!” A piece of advice that the Hampson family did not heed when purchasing no 8 Lansdowne Circus in 1966. Its bulging gable end wall, run down condition and an elegant two-storey staircase painted ‘fire-engine’ red did not deter us, – it was definitely a heart buy. We loved … Read more
When I was a young lad growing up in the nineteen- fifties, my father was a baker in the small Warwickshire town of Southam. In 1947 he had purchased the old windmill and the bakery business that went with it and my two brothers and I moved in to the small cottage that went with the … Read more
Back in the mid – 1950s, following my success in passing the eleven plus examination, I was offered a place at the Hugh Clopton School for Girls at Stratford upon Avon (later The Stratford upon Avon Grammar School for Girls at Shottery Manor). When I first started there a lot of Leamington girls chose to travel by train, … Read more
William Bradley was born into a family of Leamington basket makers, who grew their own osiers on a small island in the River Leam, adjoining Welch’s Meadow. Both Kit Smith and Eva Sabin remember a smallish, kindly man, working on his little patch in the river. Kit’s father, the boot-maker from Bath Street, had a small boat which … Read more
Local residents Graham Cooper, Michael Wills and Mr Murray all have memories of a Military Camp on the site of the present North Leamington School playing fields, between Kenilworth Road and Cloister Crofts. Access to the camp was by gates on Kenilworth Road, where until recently traces of the gateways could still be seen in the hedgerows … Read more
In 1962 my family were packed off to 19 Waverley Road on the Rushmore Estate, a modern area built on the old Rushmore Farm land in the mid 1920s and early 30s. For us there was a new life to be made and a wealth of new discoveries to be made, starting with the Eagle … Read more
Following the Festival of Britain in 1951, for a whole decade, Royal Leamington Spa and Jephson Gardens became THE autumn venue for hundreds of people from all over Britain. Thousands of coloured electric lights transformed the Gardens into a wonderland for both children and adults. In August and September each year, the streets of the … Read more
Mrs. E. A. Ashwin – 90 and wants to fly A nonagenarian wanting to fly for the first time would undoubtedly make headlines in any newspaper, even in 2014. The headline above was published in the Leamington Spa Courier as long ago as 4th June 1954, which makes Mrs Elizabeth Anne Ashwin from Shrubland Street … Read more
Jill Walters, now living in Norfolk, remembers her first school, St Albans Preparatory School, 28 Clarendon Square, (North side) Leamington Spa My parents had a disagreement when I was a five-year old about to start school. My father wanted me to go to the local authority school nearby, but my mother, thinking I would be … Read more
A lot has been written about Leamington’s wells and churches, and everyone now surely knows all there is to know about its beginnings. I am writing of life, seen through the eyes of a child during the 1950s in the side streets, away from the town centre, in the streets where ordinary people lived ordinary … Read more
Memories of a long-vanished trade A trawl through Leamington Street Directories of the past shows an interesting pattern in the growth and later demise of the family bakery. In 1832, there were only seven shops in the whole of the town, – two butchers, two fish shops and three mercers. Leamington families – or if … Read more
