Cardall's Corner - April 2019 - by Linda Doyle
You don’t have to be a farmer to know that the better bred the cow, the better the profit. Enclosure allowed for the segregation of small herds, enabling farmers to undertake breeding selection. At the turn of the 19th century, landowners and farmers were beginning to take advantage of Southam’s central position on the drover’s …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Cardall's Corner - December 2018 - by Jill Prime
‘The Great Storm of 1703’ was of unusual, tremendous ferocity, probably passing in intensity all the storms ever known in Great Britain. It was the most terrifying and catastrophic storm ever recorded here. During the night of 26th-27th November 1703, widespread devastation was caused to many parts of the Midlands, East Anglia …
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 ...
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 …
Cardall's Corner - September 2018 - by Val Brodie
People in Britain, across Europe and around the world are commemorating the tragedy that was WWI. As Armistice Day approaches in November, at Southam Heritage Collection we are continuing to develop the Centenary Archive, a permanent record for future generations of ...
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 …
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 ...
Cardall's Corner - June 2018 - By Linda Doyle
Today, Southam’s Primary School stands where once stood Southam’s solemn and imposing Victorian workhouse (see photograph from 1910). It was a domineering place built in 1837 on Welsh Road West, then called Workhouse Road. The enclosure of land at Southam in 1761 brought to a head the need to provide for the poor …
Cardall's Corner - May 2018 - By Linda Doyle
Over the years Southam town centre has had many changes, but one of the more dramatic was when the old Southam Rectory (see picture) was pulled down in the 1960s to make way for a new library, police station and magistrate’s court. ...
