Local History Group

The February leap year meeting of the Group welcomed  Henry Marriott, the great grandson of the Thornley-Kelsey Brewery at Radford Semele founder,  H E Thornley. He farmed around Radford in the late 1800s. He also brewed ale on the farm premises for his workers – a common practice at the time. However, Henry’s great grandfather proved to be a talented brewer and decided to develop this side of the business.

In 1911 the specialist brewery buildings were built on Thornley farm land by the road leading into Leamington, where there was also potential access to the nearby canal and railway. It was also the site of a natural spring that would be perfect for brewing (so it was thought!). The first batch of beer brewed turned out to be awful and the water was considered too hard. A deep borehole still did not find a suitable supply, so all future beer was brewed with water brought by lorry from Leamington’s Campion Hills.

The Brewery thrived and its pubs were established all over Warwickshire. Its beers were good enough to win numerous prizes and it was considered sufficiently competent to also brew Guinness and M&B beers, under licence.

Unfortunately the days of the samller brewer were numbered in the post-war period and the Radford Brewery closed in January 1969.

The site has undergone several changes of use since the unfortunate demolition of the artfully designed buildings.There have been a number of subsequent occupiers of the site and today it is the home of Ricardo which is at the forefront of automotive and defence vehicle technology.

The next Group meeting is on Monday 21 March (a week earlier than normal) at 7.30pm in the village hall, when a talk on Victorian Marton will be given by Group members. All welcome, entrance fee £3 includes a glass of wine.

This month the Group had a talk introduced by John Westrope and given by Chris Clack on “The Harry Ferguson Story”. This generated at lot of interest from within and outside the village. More about this talk below.

The next Group meeting is on Monday February 29th at 7.30pm in the village hall, when a talk on Thornhill Brewery will be given by Henry Marriott. All welcome, entrance fee £3 includes a glass of wine.

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This month the Group had a talk by Anne Langley (pictured) on Warwickshire Alms Houses. More about this talk in this article.

The next Group meeting is on Monday November 23rd 7.30pm in the village hall. The theme for the evening is “World War 2 memories of Marton villagers”. As well as individuals’ memories there will be photos and news articles from that period.

All welcome, entrance fee £3 includes a glass of wine.

The full programme can be seen on this page.

Anne Langley has researched into Alms Houses in Warwickshire and has a book about to be published on the subject. The following are some brief notes of the talk she gave to the Group in October 2015.

There is no universally recognised definition of what an “Alms House” is but Anne decided on the following definition for her research: they are created by an endowment, are purpose-built, and are for elderly people who are often given a pension as well as the accommodation. On this basis Anne has identified 34 Alms Houses in Warwickshire, the closest to Marton being the one at Leamington Hastings (pictured on the left of the image on the left).

Very early (Middle Ages) Alms Houses were often called “Hospitals”, although not all such institutions would have fitted the criteria of an Alms House as inhabitants may have been selected on the basis of ill health or poverty, rather than just age. (The Leamington Hastings Alms House appears to have been known as a “Hospital” at the time of the 1804 enclosure map for Marton. This shows fields owned by “Hospital” and “Allotment Leamington hospital”.)

Many Alms Houses were founded by “self-made” business men, who made their fortune in London and then returned to their home town and bequeathed the funds to set up an Alms House. There was great religious significance to this act, as it was believed that such generosity would help them reach paradise following their death. Some of these founders were childless and had so had no direct descendants to pass their wealth onto.

There were strict rules that occupants of Alms Houses had to comply with which might include attendance at church and general good conduct (no drunkenness). In some the rules were such that a widow would be evicted soon after the death of her husband. Special clothes, such as gowns, were frequently supplied to residents, perhaps to be worn on special occasions such as church.

Residents sometimes had family members living with them such as children or grandchildren. Given the pension they received the resident may well have been the main breadwinner of the family. Some residents had a carer living with them. Residents that could no longer look after themselves and had not made arrangements for someone else to look after them would have been moved out, perhaps to a workhouse, or to an asylum if they had mental problems.

More information about Alms Houses can be found by internet searches. For example, Anne has written a short article about Leamington Hastings Alms House for “Our Warwickshire” see this link.

This month’s meeting consisted of a guided walk around Warwick, ably led, as usual, by Mike Johnson (pictured on the right of the group photo). There are no more Group meetings until the new season starts at the end of October.

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This month the Group had its AGM followed by a talk by Biddy Allen (photo, left) on the old Marton Co-Op store. Biddy (and Roy) were the first people to move into what was once the “Old Co-op”. The talk was very well received and a summary is at this link.

This month the Group had a talk by Joe Paget (pictured with a photo of his great grandfather William Hands) about the history of the Hands family who were Marton blacksmiths. The talk generated a great deal of interest and a very brief summary of the presentation is at this link.

The next Group meeting is the AGM and is on Monday April 27th 7.30pm in the village hall. This will be followed by a talk by Biddy Allen on the old Marton Co-Op store. Entrance to the AGM, including a glass of wine, is free.