ADAM WOOD
TRUE CRIME HISTORIAN
WALKING TOURS
Adam offers walking tours of historic locations across the country, both in-person and virtually.
See below for regular tours.
Please get in touch if you wish to make a group booking.
In partnership with the wonderful Leamington History Group.
Join local me for a walk on the dark side of the streets, with true crime tales from Leamington's grim history on almost every corner. Two different tours are on offer:
BLOODY LEAMINGTON: THE POSH PART
Hear of the wife of a renowned Leamington doctor who was poisoned by their servant, why a local man just returned from military service burned his mother to death, and what happened when Scotland Yard detectives visited Leamington to question a man who had confessed to the brutal murder of a soldier in what was a nationwide tragedy. And that’s not to mention the baby farm discovered on Park Street, where desperate young women took their infants to avoid local disgrace... This walk is one and a half miles long, and starts outside the Fox & Vivian pub at 32 Clarendon Avenue. It lasts 90 minutes, and ends outside the Royal Pump Rooms. Cost is £10 per person.
BLOODIER LEAMINGTON: THE OLD TOWN
In this tour of the seedier side of town, we visit the spot where a Victorian Policeman was violently attacked in the course of his duty, and the pub which hosted the inquest into the tragic suicide of a young girl in service who had been caught stealing from her employer. We’ll hear of the tragic end to an unwanted pregnancy, and the story of the boy who was assaulted by a lion tamer on Clemens Street. You’ll also walk the street along which a mother crawled to her death after being beaten by her drunken daughter. The tour is one mile long, and starts and ends at the Temperance café and wine bar on Bath Street (CV31 3AF). It lasts 90 minutes. Cost is £10 per person.
Click here for next tour dates.
A walk on the dark side of the streets, with true crime tales from Coventry's grim history on almost every corner. Hear how the caretaker of a prestigious city centre office slit the throat of his sister in law - with whom he had enjoyed an illicit affair, fathering her young child - when she began a romance with another man, and the story of the vengeful printer who took exception to his former business partner's success so swore revenge: by shooting him at the High Street premises.
That's not to mention the tale of a woman who desperately attempted to conceal the birth of her newborn daughter before her unknowing husband returned home from a four-year prison sentence, or the churchwarden who took furious exception to the insistence of a member of the choir at Holy Trinity to bow at the name 'Jesus' during hymns, so locked him in the vestry until he promised not to do so.
The walk is one mile long, with just a few steps, and starts and ends at the Godiva statue in Coventry's Broadgate (CV1 1NE). It lasts 90 minutes. Cost is £10 per person.
Click here for next tour dates.
A guided tour of the historic Chapelfields district, purpose-built for Coventry’s watchmaking community in the 1840s. As we follow in their footsteps we will visit over thirty locations associated with the watchmakers who lived, worked and died in these streets, and hear their own personal stories as well as those of the businesses and traders who settled in Chapelfields.
The walk is an information-packed one mile long, starting and ending at Hearsall Baptist Church, on the corner of Queensland Avenue and Fife Road, and lasts approximately two hours. We start and end at Hearsall Baptist Church, on the corner of Queensland Avenue and Fife Road, opposite Hearsall Common (CV5 8FE). Cost is £10 per person.
Click here for next tour dates.
Join me for live virtual tours and talks on true crime cases from history.
In addition to locations of historical interest, we’ll also be visiting museums, viewing private crime and detection collections, and conducting the occasional interview with people notable in the field of historic crime.
All virtual tours are streamed via Facebook Live. Click here to find my page, which has regular posts on historic true crime cases, then like or follow me to see my forthcoming events.
There's no charge to watch a tour, which are instead tip-supported - so if you enjoy our walk through Britain's dark history, please feel free to leave a tip!