ONE OF OUR EARLY ARTICLES As 19th Century Leamington metamorphosed from village into prestigious spa town, and eminent medical men advised exercise in addition to taking the waters, many sports associations sprang up here. Leamington could boast a Real Tennis Club, the first venue for Lawn Tennis (on the site of the present Manor Court … Read more
Part One of Two (Click Here to see Part Two) Hunting country The large tracts of permanent pasture to the west and south of the new town of Leamington, formerly given over to sheep and cattle grazing since medieval times, was prime fox hunting country. Writing in 1841 the distinguished travel writer Dr Augustus Granville … Read more
Part Two of Two (Click Here to see Part One) A Challenge One of the best steeplechasers of the age was a horse named Vivian who just happened to be owned by a Leamington resident Captain Thomas Lamb. Lamb had served with the Bengal Native Infantry in India but had many business interest locally when … Read more
A trawl through back copies of the Leamington Courier in search of archive material relating to Leamington Cricket Club turned up an intriguing announcement by Mr W A Bezant in the editions of June 1890, – the forthcoming “Engagement, for one day only, of The Original English Lady Cricketers”, when two complete teams, Reds v. … Read more
It is fifty years since Westlea Wanderers got together, – a group of lads playing football for fun on the local rec, who gradually became a force to be reckoned with. They started their campaign for recognition in the Leamington Sunday League Youth Section and went on to win a series of prestigious trophies all … 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
The twins Ernest (1861 – 1899) and William Renshaw (1861 – 1904) were the tennis players of their age. They were born at Brandon Lodge, Brandon Parade, Leamington, and baptised at Saint Mary’s Church. When the twins were only a few months old, the family moved to Cheltenham, where eventually they built their own tennis … 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
In common with all the other spa towns that existed in the first decades of the nineteenth century, visitors came to Leamington only during the summer months. The so-called ‘season’ lasted from April through to September. The reason for this is simply that most of the buildings at that period had no means of heating … Read more
Born in Warwick in August 1871, small in stature (5ft 4½ in) and slender in build (9st 3lb), Henri Lawton nonetheless became a renowned gymnastic, boxing and fencing instructor, the author of 2 small books on exercise and fitness, and in 1895, World Champion Indian club swinger. To claim the title, which had almost always gone to an American before this, Henri … Read more
On a Spring day in 1970 Malcolm Sayer suffered a fatal heart attack on the main street of his adopted home town Leamington Spa, he was 53 years of age. In the years since his death, his achievements as a designer have been celebrated locally by the erection of a Blue Plaque on his … Read more
Contact the Secretary, Margaret Rushton: secretary@leamingtonhistory.co.uk
August 12, 2026
August 8, 2026