Articles with the tag: Victorian


Elizabeth Anne Galton, 1808 – 1906

Elizabeth Anne Galton, 1808 – 1906

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...
Beech Lawn, Home of Dr Jephson

Beech Lawn, Home of Dr Jephson

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...
Confederate nest in Leamington Spa

Confederate nest in Leamington Spa

The photograph to the right, taken in Leamington in 1865, is of former crewmen of the Confederate naval ship, the Shenandoah. What circumstances brought these sailors to Leamington at a time when fellow Americans were celebrating the ending of the Civil War? Four...
Sidney Flavel & Co, 1851 Medal

Sidney Flavel & Co, 1851 Medal

In 1851 at the Great Exhibition Sidney Flavel of Leamington was awarded a medal for his Kitchener cooking range. There is much confusion over this medal, modern descriptions claim it was one of seventeen ‘gold’ medals awarded. However, contemporary...
Sam Lockhart, Elephant Trainer Extraordinaire

Sam Lockhart, Elephant Trainer Extraordinaire

 The world’s foremost elephant trainer began his working life as a circus acrobat and when he died was described by the Leamington Courier newspaper as a ‘retired giant of the entertainment industry’. The dapper little man with the magnificent white moustache was one...