IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Stoneleigh Road, KENILWORTH, CV8 2GB

With the Cottage Inn on the right. The road through here has been closed for several months to allow for extra drainage to be installed as part of local flood relief measures.

Suburban pub offering accommodation, at the corner of Stoneleigh Road and Stoneleigh Avenue. Internally, a single L-shaped bar for eating and drinking, with separate dining area at the back. Cask ales on offer at my visit: Courage Directors, Thwaites Lancaster Bomber, Wells Eagle & Bombardier. For some customer comments, see http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/33/33619/Cottage_Inn/Kenilworth http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186398-d1533121-Reviews-The_Cottage_Inn-Kenilworth_Warwickshire_England.html

Victorian corner pub on Stoneleigh Road, at the corner of Park Road. Internally, two entrances labelled "bar" and "lounge", now one space, but on different levels; games machines, TV, pool, darts. Cask ales on offer at my visit: Marston Bitter, Wychwood Hobgoblin. For some customer comments, see http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/33/33618/Wyandotte_Inn/Kenilworth Apparently named after a Native American tribe, though why transferred to Kenilworth is unclear: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyandotte,_Michigan To explain this anomaly, see http://victorian.reuna.co.uk/index.php/the-engine-the-wyandotte-and-four-boddingtons

The row of houses in the middle of the photo is the road known as Lower Ladyes Hills. Tainters Hill converted water tower can be seen in the distance.

This pub on the corner of Stoneleigh Road and Park Road is notable for its unusual name. According to a notice in the pub (which should be taken with a pinch of salt) some members of the Wyandotte tribe, having been driven out of their native land in Ohio, moved to England and settled in Kenilworth in the 19th century. The landlord of the pub was so impressed by this that he decided to rename it in their honour, in return for which each landlord becomes an honorary chief. However, John Brightley tells a more plausible story here: Image Whatever the truth, this is a pleasant place in the back streets of the town and well worth seeking out.

Houses in Lower Ladyes Hills can be seen in the background.

At the junction of Albion Street, Stoneleigh Road, Park Hill and Park Road. On the death of Edward Boddington, sometime between 1854 and 1861, his son John took over the Engine Inn. On 13th September 1867, John Boddington bought land from Samuel Burbery, and built for himself a new public house. One of John Boddington's sons, John Clarke Boddington (born 1838) emigrated to the United States in 1864. Once there, he worked at railway workshops before finding work at the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In 1867, just as his father was building his new pub in Kenilworth, John Clarke settled in Wyandotte County and it was his new home that gave his father the name for his new inn. JC Boddington later became Assistant Master Mechanic for what had become the Union Pacific Railroad. He was at one time a councillor in Old Wyandotte City and was described as a 'pioneer resident' in 1902. He died in 1922 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Kansas. Story from 'Victorian Kenilworth and its People' by Robin Leach.

Anglican parish church at the corner of Stoneleigh Road and Park Hill: http://www.stnicholaskenilworth.org.uk/

In the later phase of the pandemic, pubs that had had to close invested in creating outdoor space so that they could safely serve socially-distanced patrons.

The sheds of the Odibourne Allotments, Kenilworth, are the subject of their own book, 'Odibourne Sheds: rural retreats in a Kenilworth allotment', by Peter James, published by the Bothy Press in 2020.