Southam School: the Early Days
Southam School: the Early Days - Richard Clarke - Oct 2025
The need for a secondary school in Southam was acknowledged at least as early as 1936, when Headmaster Mr GW Linley announced to a school assembly that ...
200 Years of Railway History Bypass Southam
200 Years of Railway History Bypass Southam - Roland Raffell - Sept 2025
On November 14, 1863, the Leamington Spa and Warwickshire Standard reported that the Daventry Railway Company had petitioned Parliament for a railway line commencing in Daventry and terminating ...
A Quart of Ale
A Pint of Ale - Roland Raffell - March 2025
‘For a Quart of Ale is a Dish for a King.’ (Shakespeare, The Winter’s Tale IV: ii). For centuries, drinking ale has always been a ...
Growing Up in Long Itchington – Edna Beck
Growing Up in Long Itchington - Edna Beck - Feb 2025
My youngest sister, Amy, was born in the thatched cottage on the Green where Mum and Dad lived for fifty-two years. I remember ...
Pre-war and WW2 Memories – Edna Beck
Pre-war and WW2 Memories - Edna Beck - Richard Clarke - January 2025
I was born in my Gran's back bedroom in Church Street, Marton, the second daughter of Louis and Violet Stevens. The Stevens family were residents of ...
Seth Bond, Local Hero
Seth Bond, Local Hero - Bernard Cadogan - Sept 2024
“Into the valley of Death, Rode the six hundred” are perhaps two of the most memorable and famous lines in British poetry. The poem, “The Charge of the Light ...
Old Road Names
Old Road Names - Linda Doyle - Aug 2024
As one researches through old Southam records, certain road and place names are easy to understand as they are quite logical. It is easy to follow ...
Southam’s Charter and Beating the Bounds
Southam's Charter and Beating the Bounds - Dr Roland Raffell - May 2024
Southam town’s Charter, established in 998 AD, provided a clearly defined map of its borders with its neighbours: Long Itchington, Stockton, Napton, Ladbroke, Radbourne, Harbury ...
A Rambling Story
A Rambling Story - Richard Clarke - Apr 2024
On 12 November 1985 the premises now occupied by Everest Fitness in Southam High Street hosted a group dedicated to a gentler form of healthy exercise. The first Annual ...
Vagrancy and Birth Settlement
Vagrancy and Birth Settlement - Dr Roland Raffell - March 2024
In October 1782 a constable from Birmingham apprehended an itinerant, Richard Fairfax, who had, ‘…been lying in the open air…unable to give a good account of himself…’ On ...
Southam Friendly Society
Southam Friendly Society - Dr Roland Raffell - Feb 2024
It is estimated that in 1795 Southam had some 750 inhabitants, including farmers, tradesmen, publicans for its 13 ale houses and shopkeepers, together with landowners and ...
Southam on Fire
Southam on Fire - Dr Roland Raffell - Jan 2024
‘…it pleased Almighty God to lay a heavy affliction upon him by a sudden and fearful fire…his house burnt to the ground.’ Thus the local Justices of the Peace described ...