Cardall's Corner - March 2018 - By Val Brodie
The story of the Bull family of Daventry Street is a complex, courageous and tragic one. Sadly in 1903 Ada Bull, died and her husband George, a baker, was left with four youngsters to bring up: Ida (15), Nellie (13), George (10) and John (8). George senior took the bold step of moving the whole family to Canada. ...
CARDALL's CORNER - August 2017 by Alan Griffin
Walking the turnpike road towards Fenny Compton on a hot August morning in 1848, James Read pondered some remarks addressed to him months earlier following a case at Southam Magistrates’ Court. The phrase ‘Somebody should pay dear for this’ had stuck in his memory. Read was the Southam Division sergeant in the Knightlow Hundred Police Force and in [...]
CARDALL'S CORNER - April 2017 By Linda Doyle
Produce from the Warwickshire countryside has been gathered for centuries both as a supplement to for the diet and to sell. For poor people, free food from the verges and hedgerows was essential, and it came in the form of elderberries, blackberries, crab apples, damsons and much more. Farmers deliberately planted the Warwickshire Drooper plum [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - March 2017 By Linda Doyle
The original town centre of Southam has changed for many reasons over the years, but the most abrupt and sweeping changes have been caused by fires. Although not on such a scale as the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694, the reason a fire started and spread in Southam was no different, and the result [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - December 2016 By Rowan Parker
In January 1947, along with his 18th birthday cards, Rowan Parker received his National Service call-up papers. It snowed on and off from Christmas, but in March the snow fell in earnest, and this is Rowan’s account of a trip home from Leamington in that famously snowy Winter of 1947, nearly 70 years ago. [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - November 2016 By Val Brodie
After a hundred years, people across Europe are remembering the horrors of the Battle of the Somme. Amidst the tributes to the tens of thousands who lost their lives in those terrible months 1st July – 18th November 1916, it falls to all of us to remember the twelve men of Southam, then a very small town, who gave their lives. [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - October 2016 By Alan Griffin
It has to be said that for lads like me growing up in Southam in the post-war years, there were few diversions. One long-established institution that was still thriving in the 1940’s and 50’s was the Parish Church Choir which in common with most church choirs of that era was an all-male body. [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - July 2016 By Val Brodie
The Journal of Annie Eliza Bull - July 1874
In Annie Bull’s day, the journey time from Marton to Rhyl was six hours. Travelling with friends in a group including children, her train trip (change at Rugby, Crewe and Chester) was an adventure for a young single woman, in her early twenties. She wrote a journal each day and a copy [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - June 2016 By Helen Morris
People through the ages have been interested in the limestone found around Southam. The material, known as Blue Lias, was laid down during the Jurassic age 180 million years ago, and was first of interest as a source of lime used by farmers. In recent times it has been used for making cement, and locals may remember [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - May 2016 By Robert Sherriff
This month Robert continues his reminiscence journey from Warwick Road up to Market Hill.
Once over the brook bridge below Abbey Green, Warwick Road becomes Warwick Street as far as Market Hill. Almost opposite the jitty to Oxford Street was a small shop, “M Sherriff-Pork Butcher”, this being my Aunt Mag who made and sold the [...]
CARDALL’S CORNER - April 2016 by Robert Sherriff
Having lived in 3 houses on Warwick Road I thought I would comment a little on my favourite route into town.
Drifting downhill from Ufton one crosses the River Itchen thereby entering the Parish of Southam. A few yards further on the right hand side is the site of the Woodbine Inn which gave the name Woodbine Hill to [...]
