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Chronicle of the 20th Century
Key Events in Nuneaton
and district in the last one hundred years
compiled by Peter Lee

1920-1929

1920
Nuneaton Operatic & Dramatic Society founded.

A temporary well for pumping water opened at the Whitestone due to water shortages. 30,000 gallons per day for two years.

Work started on the new Courtaulds factory in Nuneaton.

12th October - the Lindley Hall estate listed to be sold by auction.

14th November - War memorial unveiled in Riversley Park.

1921 
Midland Red Bus depot opened.

4th August - Hartshill war memorial unveiled.

1922
Mini flu epidemic in Nuneaton killed three people including Peter Platt (1883-1922) from Nuneaton Town player (late licensee of the White Swan public house)

Rugby Autocar started to distribute Ford and Fordson tractor products.

Weddington Hall was purchased by Percy Howe for conversion into flats and to construct houses in the estate grounds.

A stained glass window was installed in St. Pauls Church Stockingford at a cost of £500. It formed a memorial to the 201 people of the area who died in the First World War.

January 8th - Nuneaton Colliery Employees War Memorial unveiled by Brigadier General Sir John Barnsley V.D. D.L. T.D. a director of Stanley Bros. Ltd. who owned the mine.

24th May - Nuneaton New Colliery closed, site turned into Stanley Bros. Ltd. No.7 brickyard.

1923
The London Midland & Scottish Railway was formed and two local railways in Nuneaton, the London & North Western Railway and the Midland Railway became constituent parts of the new company.

1924
Weddington Castle converted into flats.

The River Anker flooded.

Joe Lloyd started his bus company (J.Lloyd & Sons) from premises at 17 George Eliot Street. (formed into a limited company in 1941)

A water scheme brought into use from a reservoir on Tuttle Hill at a cost of £83,700. Ultimate daily yield expected to reach 1,250,000 gallons. Up until this time Nuneaton and district had suffered several water shortages.

16th January - the first two telephone kiosks in Nuneaton erected.

3rd March - Alderman Robert W. Swinnerton MBE JP was given freedom of the Borough.

30th April - Harry Leigh Townsend (1842-1924) of Caldecote Hall found drowned in River Anker.

August 30th.-  Cock & Bear bridge bus fire, seven burnt to death:
Walter Smith, 46 Haunchwood Road, Nuneaton. (saved his wife and son but lost his own life)
Miss Mary Smith, his 5 year old daughter.
Joseph Rogers, Quarry Yard, Stockingford.
Mrs Winifred Handley, 25 Whitehouse Crescent, Stockingford.
Herbert Rollason, 64 Cross Street, Stockingford gave his life trying to save others.
Miss Louisa Emily Booth,
Miss Marjorie Hammersley of Foleshill.

November 27th - Caldecote Hall estate auctioned.

1925
February - New unemployment office opened in Nuneaton in Leicester Road.

7th July - Haunchwood (Nowells) colliery closed, (leases went back to 1729 but coal has been worked on this site since the 1350's). The shafts were retained and fitted with steam powered submersible pumps which kept the nearby Haunchwood Tunnel pit free of water.

1926
The alter and panelling was altered as part of the restoration scheme of St. Nicholas Parish Church. Nuneaton.

A severe earth tremor effected Nuneaton.

Lindley Hall demolished.

Airship passed over Nuneaton possibly on a photographic mission.

June - The Hon. E.H.Pierrepoint J.P. (1856-1926) who lived for many years at Higham Grange died in fall from a bicycle.

1927 
Manor Park School started.

Queen Mary visited Arbury Hall and Astley Castle.

50th anniversary of the Nuneaton Observer.

1928
Manor Park School opened. Built by G.E.& W.Wincott Ltd.

10th March - Aldermans, J.Bates OBE; J.Randle JP, and W.T.Smith JP CA were made freemen of the Borough.

16th March - Stockingford Colliery (Drybread) closed, (originally opened 1872 but mineral leases are dated back to the 1850s.) Site later taken over by the Premier Stone Company which moved from Morewood, Hartshill.

17th-19th April - Sale of the furniture and effects at Camp Hill Hall.

20th April - The factory of Pool Lorimer & Tabberer, on the corner of Abbey Street and Meadow Street gutted by fire.

22nd May - Haunchwood Brick & Tile works locomotive shed badly damaged by fire. Locomotives stored inside were damaged.

July - October - Weddington Castle demolished.

10th December - The New Palace Cinema opened. Mr. Pitcher of Bradford was the architect.

1929 
The R101 airship seen over Nuneaton.

The Grand Cinema Chapel End opened.

Ranby's the Chemist opened on the corner of Abbey Street/High Street.

8th March - The new Nags Head pub opened in Queens Road, the previous one had been in Coventry Street. An Elizabethan style building built by Geo. Hodges, Builders of Burton on Trent. The previous Nags Head pub in Coventry Street was built in 1895 on the site of the more ancient public house by that name. The site was given free of charge to the town by Salt & Co. for road widening.