: Ancestral Locations :

Inns and Taverns of Leamington Spa

The Stoneleigh Arms

Leamington Spa has always had a good selection of pubs with a variety of breweries involved in the trade in the town. Old established names such as Phipps, Ansells, Phillips and Marriotts, Mitchells and Butlers, Ind Coope, Hunt Edmunds, Flowers, Watneys, Atkinsons and the two local firms of Thornley and Kelsey at Radford Semele and Lucas in Lillington Avenue have all had a presence in the town at some time. Mergers and takeovers led to some changes in the 1950s and 1960s as the conglomerates of Allied Breweries, Bass Charrington, Watneys and Whitbread Flowers came into being. However, in the 1960s there remained a nominal choice of Ansells, Bass, Worthington, M & B, TK, Marstons, Watneys, Whitbread and Flowers spread throughout the town. With the takeover of TK by Davenports, a new name was added to the variety of beer available. The later infiltration of Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries was to add the Banks's name to some of the local pubs.

The old pattern of pubs tied to breweries was changing in the 1980s as new chains developed and the separation of pubs and breweries began. The photographs shown here were mainly taken in 1987 by Bill Bigley, at a time that the changes in the Leamington pub scene were starting to take effect and, sadly, some of the old pub names were being altered. Leamington could boast a range of interesting and evocative pub names to accompany the variety of beers on sale. Names such as the Chair and Rocket, the Jet and Whittle (since disastrously renamed before returning as the Jet) and the Fox and Vivian are part of the uniqueness of Leamington. Some of the pubs featured have since been renamed and the changes continue to this day but only serve to sever links with the heritage of the area. The pubs of Leamington played an important part in the social history and development of the town. Can you claim to have had a drink in each one? This photograph collection numbers over 50. That would be some pub crawl.