The Day War Broke Out
Cardall's Corner - September 2019 - Rowan Parker
On August Bank Holiday in 1939 our family were sitting on the beach at Bognor Regis enjoying the sea, sand and sunshine. Suddenly the quiet ...
Oral History
Cardal's Corner - June 2019 - Helen Morris
In 2007, shortly after joining the Friends of the Cardall Collection, I volunteered to work on collecting oral history – that is, recording spoken historical memories. It is one of the best ways ...
Speed Records
Cardall's Corner - March 2019 - Bernard Cadogan
Speeding vehicles on our roads is a problem that we are all aware of, and most of us will know of someone who has been ‘caught speeding’. With two of the country’s leading car manufacturers, Jaguar and Aston Martin Lagonda, having facilities within seven miles …
Joseph Arch
Cardall's Corner - February 2019 - Pam McConnell
In February 1872 a meeting of farm labourers was held at Wellesbourne, Warwickshire. The meeting had been called to address the problems of the rural working poor. About 30 people were expected, but over 2,000 turned up, and this meeting led to the foundation of the National Agricultural Labourers Union …
Southam Fire Brigade
Cardall's Corner - January 2019 - by Linda Doyle
An old adage describes fire as being a good servant but a bad master: fire provides basic needs for life, but can also destroy in an instant. Today the risk of fire is less than it was when houses had open fires and thatched roofs - sparks could cause disastrous …
WW1 Commemorations
Cardall's Corner - November 2018 - by Val Brodie
As a hundred years passes since the ending of the desperate war of 1914-1918, details continue to emerge in Southam of the men who died, who served and of what was done to assist the wounded here on the home front. This photograph was recently donated to Southam Heritage Collection. Southam people raised money ...
A New Home in Southam
Cardall's Corner - October 2018 - by Pam McConnell
Whilst pondering the impact of the new housing estates that are springing up all around Southam I am reminded of my own family’s move to Southam in October 1960. I was six years old and we moved from an isolated tied farm cottage on the Fosse near Harbury, to a new …
Wills, Probate and Edward Tomes
Cardall's Corner - August 2018 - by Linda Doyle
Old Wills and probate make incredibly interesting reading when researching families and local places. Admittedly they will only be found for those of means, but for the more lowly of us, if we know who an ancestor worked for, then they are sometimes named in their employer’s Will as a beneficiary. The …
Farming, Cement, Wine & Hats
Cardall's Corner - July 2018 - By Linda Doyle
William Griffin (1791 -1861) was one of a large family of Griffins who lived near Southam and was a tenant farmer of mixed arable land and pasture at Stockton Fields. His family had been farmers in Fenny Compton before 1660 and had moved via Farnborough and Avon Dassett to Stockton in the early 19th century and there they stayed ...
Henry Lilley Smith
Cardall's Corner - April 2018 - By Pam McConnell
The 13th April this year marks the 200th anniversary of a meeting held at the Craven Arms Inn that established Southam’s Eye and Ear Infirmary in Warwick Road. In the days before the NHS, all medical treatment had to be paid for, and this Infirmary in Southam was the first of its ...
WW1 Southam’s Canadian Connection
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. ...
Southam’s Sacrifices on The Somme
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. [...]