This image of 50 – 62 High Street was provided to KHAS from the collection of the late Reg Palmer.
The ‘then’ image is undated, but presumably taken some time in the nineties or noughties. The ‘now’ image was taken in the autumn of 2018. Little has changed between the two images, save for a few doors and windows being replaced and a few shrubs and trees coming or going.
Nearest the camera is the two storey, red brick number 50 High Street, named Newey Cottage. This property was Grade II listed together with numbers 46 and 48 (just out of shot, right) as a group in April 1968. The listing reads “C18. Nos 46 and 48 3 storeys; No 50 2 storeys. 5 windows. Red brick. Tiled roofs, corbelled brick cornices. Casement windows. Bands at 1st and 2nd floor levels. 2 cut bracketed doorhoods. Nos 30 to 62 (even) form a group.”. It’s not immediately obvious which Newey this refers to. The entry in A Portrait of Kenilworth in Street-Names by Robin D Leach & Geoff Hilton (Third Edition, Rookfield Publications, 2015) for the road name Newey Drive says that a Newey family has been in Kenilworth since 1630, but that this did not include the late estate agent Johnathan Newey. They do point out that Charles Newey was a bellringer at St Nicholas’ church for 60 years until the 1930s, though.
Next door to the left is numbers 52 and 54 High Street, which were also Grade II listed in April 1968. Of a similar age, their listing reads as “Late C18 roughcast to earlier sandstone. 2 storeys. 5 3-light casements to 1st floor. Both houses have 2 flat bow windows below. 2 similar moulded wood doorcases with open pediments on cut curved brackets. Modern covered way to centre. Moulded wood eaves; old tiles; brick stacks. Nos 30 to 62 (even) form a group.”
Next door to the left of them is the timber framed numbers 65 – 62 High Street. Also Grade II listed in April 1968, their listing tells us “Late C16 timber frame and painted brick with sandstone plinth. Single storey plus attic. Early C19 casements and ledged doors with simple weather-hoods on cut brackets. 3 dormers breaking above eaves; old tiles. 2 modern canted bay windows. Nos 30 to 62 (even) form a group.”
Beyond them is the brick wall that surrounds the garden of The Stone House.