Southam’s Four Remaining Public Houses

CARDALL'S CORNER - July 2017 By Linda Doyle

In the late 18th / early 19th Century it is estimated that Southam had 15 pubs operating at the same time. Today, Southam has just four remaining public houses, but each of those four pubs boasts a historical background as long as the arm that raises your pint of beer! During the 17th Century there were [...]

2020-05-23T19:40:23+01:00July 11th, 2017|Cardall's Corner, Places|1 Comment

Southam Fairs

CARDALL'S CORNER - June 2017 By Alan Griffin

Many English fairs have their origins in Medieval times during the reign of King Henry III. The Benedictine monks of Coventry Priory were granted a market charter for their Southam manor in 1227. They subsequently received grants for fairs on St Peter and St Paul’s Day (June 28), St George’s Day (April 23) and on the Feast of St Leger (October 2). [...]

2020-05-23T19:41:04+01:00June 8th, 2017|Cardall's Corner|0 Comments

Southam’s Public Houses

CARDALL's CORNER - May 2017 By Linda Doyle

Southam has always been known for its wealth of public houses, which for years numbered as many as fifteen at any one time, and once catered for a population of one public house per 60 inhabitants of the town! However, it makes a little more sense when you realise that from early mediaeval times, Southam has [...]

2021-09-16T22:36:16+01:00May 30th, 2017|Cardall's Corner|4 Comments

Food and Flowers for Free

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 [...]

2020-05-23T19:42:13+01:00April 10th, 2017|Cardall's Corner, Memories|0 Comments

The Many Fires of Southam

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 [...]

2020-05-23T19:42:51+01:00March 6th, 2017|Cardall's Corner, Memories, Places|1 Comment

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred

CARDALL’S CORNER - February 2017 By Jenny Frith

Until recently, I thought Pip Squeak and Wilfred were (only) cartoon characters from the 1920/30s. They were on a comic strip in the Daily Mirror newspapers children’s column from 1919 right up until 1956 and, in the early days, also in the Sunday Pictorial. Pip was a dog, Squeak a penguin and Wilfred a rabbit. [...]

2018-06-07T23:41:06+01:00February 4th, 2017|Cardall's Corner, WW1|0 Comments

The Bells of St James

CARDALL’S CORNER - January 2017 By Robert Sherriff

The following article by one of our members who is also a bellringer, gives us an insight into the workings of the bell tower of St James Church and the history of the bells themselves.

There are eight bells in St James Church bell tower and they sit in a double deck steel “H” frame, donated by [...]

2017-02-05T13:58:28+00:00January 11th, 2017|Cardall's Corner, Places|0 Comments

The Winter of 1947

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. [...]

2020-06-03T17:35:32+01:00December 16th, 2016|Cardall's Corner, Memories|2 Comments

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. [...]

2020-06-03T17:35:01+01:00November 18th, 2016|Cardall's Corner, Memories, People, WW1|0 Comments

A Chorister Looks Back

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. [...]

2020-06-03T17:34:28+01:00October 18th, 2016|Cardall's Corner, Memories, People|0 Comments

Southam Banking

CARDALL’S CORNER - September 2016 By Linda Doyle

For many years until March 2016, Southam had two banks: Lloyds and HSBC (formerly the Midland), both situated in the town centre. Today, only Lloyds remains, and at the time of writing, the former HSBC building is up for sale.

Banking in Southam is known to go back to 1835, when in September of that year the Leamington [...]

2020-06-03T17:33:49+01:00September 18th, 2016|Cardall's Corner, Places|5 Comments
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