Results found in page titles: 25
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Family ancestry: Steve Orland's Family in photos
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/family/family.php |
Here are five generations of my family caught on camera. How come my great grandmas look younger than me???
You can hover over each picture to see who they are.
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Lichfield: Steve Orland's Lichfield Cathedral Photo Gallery
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/lichfield/lichfield.php |
After getting my Olympus 4040 camera for Christmas 2004, I couldn't wait to try it out. Our first special outing was to Lichfield to see their lovely cathedral.
As we walked from the car park, th...
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Now and Then: Bayley Lane
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bayley_la |
Just outside the Old Cathedral is Bayley Lane. This street has been around since early medieval times and was once next to the castle.
The postcard in the first picture above was from about 1...
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Now and Then: Bishop Street & Hales Street corner
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bishop_hales_st_corner |
The Old Grammar School in this picture is now the only remaining building if we compare it to how this looked back in 1939. Bishop Street was once a busy shopping street where trams trundled up and ...
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Now and Then: Bluecoat School
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bluecoat |
Blue Coat School used to be a girls school and was on this spot for about 100 years until they were evacuated in World War 2.
The school was built upon the north west tower at the west en...
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Now and Then: Broadgate viewed from Hertford Street
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=broadgate_from_hertfd_st |
If we look out of the small alleyway now linking Hertford Street into Broadgate, we can see that Broadgate is a pedestrianised area but back in 1892 it was a thriving shopping street. The picture in...
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Now and Then: Broadgate viewed from Holy Trinity Church
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=broadgate_from_htchurch |
Most visitors to town will be familiar with this view from the garden at the front of Holy Trinity Church looking across the top of old Trinity Street into the newly paved Broadgate. In 2012 the top...
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Now and Then: Bullyard & Hertford Street
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bullyard_hertfd_st |
Down the other end of Hertford Street lies the Bullyard. It's now an open square, but before the war it was a narrow street with the Peeping Tom pub on the corner.
If you were now to tu...
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Now and Then: The Burges and Corporation Street
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=burges_corp_st |
This next photograph was taken in 1927. It shows the bottom of the Burges, and the photographer was standing on the corner of Hales Street and Bishop Street by the Old Grammar School.
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Now and Then: Council House Earl Street
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=councilhouse |
The Council House is not as old as it looks. It was built between 1913 and 1917, rather surprising considering it was during the Great War, and opened on the 11th June 1920 by the Duke of York who l...
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Now and Then: Ford's Hospital and the Cottage
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=fords_cottage |
In the old days before the second world war there was a lovely old house next to Ford's Hospital.
Ford's Hospital got damaged by a bomb in the war but was renovated in 1953. The old house n...
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Now and Then: Hales Street and the Old Fire Station
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hales_st_firestation |
Now we can see what Hales Street used to look like before the war - 1933 in this photo - the year before the Fire Station gained another three bays. The old Hippodrome was still there - about to be ...
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Now and Then: Hales Street Flood of 1900
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hales_st_flood |
Standing in almost exactly the same place as above, we now turn to our left and look towards the Old Grammar School. On the very last day of 1900 there was a terrible flood in Coventry when the Rive...
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Now and Then: Lady Herbert's Garden and Cook Street Gate
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=lh_garden_cookgate |
It's nice to see that some things don't change too much, especially when they are nice things like Lady Herbert's Garden. You can see that Cook Street gate is still behind the garden on ...
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Now and Then: Lychgate Cottages, Trinity Church & the old Campanile
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=lychgate_trinity_campanile |
This was the rather bleak scene at the top of Trinity Street shortly before the Second World War broke out. The old belfry is still in the background, just visible to the left of Holy Trinity Church...
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Now and Then: Martyr's Memorial
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=martyrs_mem |
This monument is known as the Martyrs Memorial and was erected in 1910. We've had some help from Cliff Jones to identify the streets pictured here leading from the memorial. We now know that Quint...
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Now and Then: Priory Row and the old Belfry
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=priory_row_belfry |
Most of Priory Row has not changed much since before the war, but one thing that is now missing is the old campanile, or belfry, which belonged to Holy Trinity Church, and stood just across Priory...
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Now and Then: St. Michael's viewed from Bayley Lane
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=stmichaels_from_bayley_la |
Here is another picture of the tallest medieval tower and spire in the country. Although Salisbury and Norwich cathedrals have taller spires, they are much younger, unlike ours, which ha...
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Now and Then: St. Michael's viewed from New Street
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=stmichaels_from_newst |
Once again, here's another photo of the old cathedral that we're all familiar with. But if you roll your mouse over it you'll see it go back in time again, to the 1930's.
In the old...
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Now and Then: St. Michael's interior
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=stmichaels_inside |
Here's my favourite place in Coventry again - the Old Cathedral in 2005 as it has looked since it was bombed on Thursday 14th November 1940.
Now by rolling your mouse over the pho...
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Now and Then: Trinity Street & Timothy White's
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinityst_timothy_whites |
The shape of Trinity Street hasn't changed much since this old photo was taken, probably in the mid-1950s, but the shape of the transport certainly has! Many Coventry people will remember Timothy Wh...
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Old Coventry: Old Coventry Photo Gallery - Page 1
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/oldcov/oldcov.php?pg=oldcov |
The old cathedral spire. (So nice, I photographed it twice... well, actually, lots of times!)
Looking out of the west entrance of St. Michael's ruins.
The same spire seen over B...
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Old Coventry: Old Coventry Photo Gallery - Page 2
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| https://steve.historiccoventry.co.uk/oldcov/oldcov.php?pg=oldcov2 |
We start page 2 with two spires again and some trees in blossom making Holy Trinity Church look very attractive in both photos.
The photo above is taken in Priory Row,...
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Results found in page content: 0
Results found in page titles: 423
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1605 Living History: Apothecary
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=apothecary |
In 1605, apothecaries, and others who treated illness, followed beliefs which had been held for over a thousand years about what caused illnesses and other complaints.
Anyone making remedies ...
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1605 Living History: Calligraphy
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=calligraphy |
What is Calligraphy?
The word comes from two Greek words, Kallos and Graphe, meaning beautiful writing. Calligraphy's most interesting period is from the Roman period through to the Renai...
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1605 Living History: Dance
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=dance |
Dancing in the 16th and 17th centuries was an elegant form of exercise and an expected social skill for the nobility. Courtiers showed loyalty to the king with elaborate displays of dance, costume...
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1605 Living History: Music
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=music |
Musical Instruments of the 17th Century
The Renaissance is one of the most exciting periods of musical history. In many senses it is where music as we know it today began, and without the...
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1605 Living History: Introduction to the Gunpowder Plot
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=plot-intro |
Many of us celebrate bonfire night with fireworks on November the fifth each year. In the four centuries since the failed Gunpowder Plot occurred, many myths and misconceptions have arisen, and ar...
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1605 Living History: Surgery
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=surgery |
Barber, Doctor, Surgeon and Peruke (wig) maker in the 17th Century
Q: Whom would you see if you felt ill, or for everyday cuts and wounds if you could not afford to pay the hugely expensive cha...
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1605 Living History: Armour & Weaponry
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=weaponry |
By the end of the 16th century, armour and weaponry were advancing. The turn of the new century saw the longbow being used less and less, and ultimately replaced by the musket and other guns as th...
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1605 Living History: Elements of Tudor life
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=workshops |
Click on each category below to find out more about the various elements of life, and how people lived, learned, entertained, fought and even tried to fix themselves in Tudor times!
Apo...
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1605 Living History: The four major Catholic plots
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=four-plots |
Babington, Bye, Gunpowder & Main;
Not many people are aware, but the Gunpowder plot itself was only one of FOUR major plots that had been hatched. For over 26 years, major plots and contriv...
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1605 Living History: Robert Catesby
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=catesby |
Robert Catesby's Coventry connection
Robert Catesby was the ringleader of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, but his connections with Coventry have been forgotten over time, which is especially surprisin...
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1605 Living History: Coombe Abbey & the Coventry connection
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=coombe-cov |
The Gunpowder plot itself was only one of FOUR major plots that had been hatched. Take a look at the Four plots page to find out more about these potentially history-changing schemes...
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1605 Living History: Palace Yard
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/content.php?pg=palace-yd |
In November, 1605, Princess Elizabeth was hurriedly brought for safety within Coventry's walls, her tutor, Lord Harrington of Combe, boding evil from the news of the baulked conspirators' wild rid...
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1605 Living History: 1605 Living History & the Gunpowder Plot
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/1605/main/main.php |
From 2005 until 2011 the 1605 Living History Society presented hands on Tudor period educational workshops, using the lessons of the Gunpowder Plot to help to bring about a better understanding of o...
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History articles: Sixty Years of Cycling - 1897 magazine article
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=60-yrs-cycling1897 |
AS an industry and as a popular sport, cycling cannot be accurately credited with an existence more prolonged than a couple of decades ; yet the historians aver that as far back as 1836 Mr. Kirkpatr...
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History articles: The New Bablake Schools - 1889 article
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=bablake-sch1889 |
The new Bablake Schools, Coundon-road, are now practically completed. The headmaster (Mr. J. I. Bates) has taken up his residence at the school-house, and the educational work of the institution, wh...
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History articles: Public Baths - The Building News, Jan 24th 1896
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=baths1896 |
We give the plans and view of public baths which have been built by the Corporation of Coventry. It will be seen that all the baths (both slipper and swimming) and the whole of the service laundry d...
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History articles: The Brough Superior, by Damien Kimberley
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=brough-superior |
Made in Nottingham, but conceived in Coventry?
Part 1.
A Brough Superior machine of 1927, the first type of the Overhead 680. Note the Coventry "HP" index registration mark.
Now hol...
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History articles: Proposal for St. Michael's Campanile c1890
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=campanile |
The first and last sketches on this page are two detailed drawings by Messrs. Paley & Austin, architects, which appeared in the national magazine, The Builder, on the 20th June 1891. It is app...
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History articles: Coventry's Rich Heritage, by Pete Walters
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=coventry-heritage-p-walters |
Author of best selling book, The Story Of Coventry
As the voices of the Binchois Consort lifted into the high beamed roof of St Mary's Hall, the centuries fell away and we were back in th...
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History articles: The Old Vicarage, Binley, by Anna Eddleston
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=emmaus |
600 years of history, transforming local lives today
Anna Eddleston works for Coventry homelessness charity Emmaus Coventry & Warwickshire. Their accommodation building is a 15th century former...
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History articles: New Drinking Fountain at Coventry - 17 Sep 1859
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=fountain1859 |
In 1859 a building magazine article proudly announced the completion of a new drinking fountain, which had been recently erected in Fleet Street, just outside St. John's church. Of course, nowadays ...
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History articles: The Ira Aldridge Trail, by Simon Shaw
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=ira-aldridge |
Portrait of Ira Aldridge c1865.
Image credit to New York Public Library.
Ira Frederick Aldridge, born on 24 July 1807 in New York City, was a groundbreaking actor who emigrated to the Unit...
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History articles: Phil Silvers Archival Museum, by Paul Maddocks
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=maddocks-p-bilko |
Inside the Phil Silvers Archival Museum.
Who would believe that an American comedian would have a special museum and archive here in Coventry? Yes, Phil Silvers is remembered here in FarGo ...
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History articles: D-Day and Monty's Staff Car, by Paul Maddocks
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=maddocks-p-monty |
D-Day, 6th of June 1944, was the beginning of the Allies' landing, and was the start of the largest invasion fleet which ever set sail in the English Channel. Many people, ships, landing crafts, pla...
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History articles: The Tapestry and its Hidden Secret, by Paul Maddocks
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=maddocks-p-tapestry |
The tapestry is from the bible which says; "In the centre is seated Christ. Round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the seco...
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History articles: WW1 and Wyley of Charterhouse, by Paul Maddocks
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=maddocks-p-wyley |
Father and former Mayor, Colonel Sir William Fitzthomas Wyley.
The First World War, the 'War to end all Wars', is such a big subject, and unimaginable because of its sheer size and scale. G...
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History articles: Miss Bashford, a Teacher's Tale, by Simon Shaw
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=miss-bashford |
While perusing the wonderful memories on this page, you'll be pleased to know that you can listen to some enlightening interviews with Barbara Boyle to accompany the text. To play a clip simply pres...
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History articles: Motor Panels (Coventry) Ltd, by Damien Kimberley
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=motor-panels |
I've always enjoyed tracing the founders of Coventry firms, and in many cases, the more difficult the people are to find then the more satisfying it becomes when you eventually get them. On this occ...
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History articles: Let's talk about Rex, by Damien Kimberley
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=rex |
The Story of Rex and Rex-Acme.
Frederick William Allard (1863-1843), former cycle world champion and founder of Allard cycle manufacturing business at Earlsdon.
The "Rex" story is a real...
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History articles: The First Tudor Feast, by Richard Ball
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=tudor-history-r-ball |
Coventry, August 24th, 1485
Summary
Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch (1485-1509), was crowned at the end of the battle at Bosworth Field on the morning of Monday the 22nd August in 1485.
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History pages: Coventry's Bishops
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/bishops.php |
A full list of Coventry's Bishops, from a list displayed in the New Cathedral. It begins with the Bishops of Mercia way back in Saxon times, and takes us through the various reorganisations when Cov...
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Coventry's Blitz: Coventry's Blitz - Moonlight Sonata
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=blitz |
Coventry's long history has been shaped by many events, some bringing prosperity; others misfortune. Two particular events have, however, had the most dire consequences; the first being the dissolut...
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Coventry's Blitz: Why Coventry?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=why-cov |
Despite the government's reluctance to publicly declare that another war was likely, as early as 1934 preparations were being quietly made in case the unthinkable happened. In the Air Defence ex...
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Coventry's Blitz: Preparation for war
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=preparation |
As previously stated, it was already acknowledged by 1934 that war was a possibility, and that in the event of such, Coventry would be a probable target.
This carefree scene of 1939, show...
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Coventry's Blitz: Defending Coventry
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=defend-cov |
In 1940 the principal form of defence against night attacks comprised anti-aircraft guns and barrage balloons. By the 14th of November Coventry had 56 barrage balloons, which were typically deployed...
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Coventry's Blitz: The raid begins
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=the-raid |
If the precise details of the forthcoming raid eluded the authorities, the people of Coventry knew even less, and were blissfully ignorant of what was about to be unleashed upon them. According to vir...
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Coventry's Blitz: The raid continues
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=the-raid2 |
As the raid progressed, mixtures of high explosives, incendiaries, oil bombs and land-mines came down, and gradually our ancient city centre, the street plan of which had not significantly altered s...
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Coventry's Blitz: The next day - Friday 15th
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=next-day |
At 6:16 am Coventry was sent the 'Raiders Passed' signal. However, due to the damaged electricity supply, the most of the 'All Clear' sirens did not sound, and many people had to be told by pass...
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Coventry's Blitz: The King's visit - Saturday 16th
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=the-king |
The afternoon after the raid, King George VI was informed of Coventry's incredible ordeal, and decided there and then that he should visit the next day - Saturday. The visit was not publicly announc...
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Coventry's Blitz: The aftermath
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=aftermath |
The first mass funeral at the London Road Cemetery, Wednesday 20th Nov.
After all the dramatic events, from which the citizens of Coventry were still reeling, the future rebuilding of the t...
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Coventry's Blitz: Recovery
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=recovery |
One small mercy that people were extremely grateful for at that time, was the official suspending of rationing in Coventry for 17 days. It was the only sensible option at the time because many ratio...
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Coventry's Blitz: What did Coventry lose?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=damage |
All that remained of Christ Church after a 1941 raid.
Although many of our city's buildings could be rebuilt, Coventry is a place with a very full history, and many of the buildings lost to...
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Coventry's Blitz: Some blitz statistics
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=stats |
Air-raid timeline for 14th-15th November 1940 |
Bombing statistics |
Casualties |
Air-raid shelters |
Housing & property damage |
Public transport |
General statistics concerning Coventr...
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Coventry's Blitz: Conspiracies and myths
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=myths |
On this page.... Royal visitor | Buried and forgotten | Gone with the Wind | Not a serenade | Coventrated | The Churchill Conspiracy
All tragic events are surrounded by mythical tales (or "st...
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Coventry's Blitz: Other raids
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=other-raids |
While the November raid was obviously the single most shocking and devastating event in Coventry's war, it was by no means the only air-raid, and much destruction was caused by other attacks - parti...
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Coventry's Blitz: The Mayor's family tale
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=mayor-with-king |
By Andrew Ross, great nephew of Mayor John Moseley
At the time of the Coventry Blitz on 14th November 1940, almost two years before I was born, my Great Uncle, Alderman John Moseley, was Mayor of...
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Coventry's Blitz: P. C. Rollins
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/blitz.php?pg=pc-rollins |
Ian Tew has kindly allowed me to publish pictures and details about P.C. 25 Kenneth Rollins, Ian's wife's grandfather.
P. C. Rollins was killed while on duty on the night of the Blitz and, like...
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Coventry's Blitz: Victims of Coventry's air-raids
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/blitz/victims.php |
A list of those who fell victim to the bombing raids or World War Two in Coventry. My sincere thanks to Peter Garbett for compiling this information using records available at Coventry's Archives at T...
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Broadgate: Broadgate in our Memories
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate1 |
For centuries, Broadgate has been at the very heart of Coventry - and at times, in the hearts of Coventrians, too! Whatever your age, everyone here has a memory of Broadgate.
Many peopl...
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Broadgate: Earliest photographs of Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate2 |
This must be amongst the earliest photographs showing Broadgate, if not Coventry itself.
It was taken around 1860 by Joseph Wingrave (right) - only around a decade or two after the invention ...
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Broadgate: The Ever Changing Face of Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate3 |
Whatever the era, Broadgate has never remained static, - major changes were happening long before the 20th century turmoil. In the 1820s, old houses and shops on the west side of what was then a nar...
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Broadgate: Pre-War Plans for Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate4 |
Amazingly, a scene depicting the garden was envisaged even before the Second World War and all its associated destruction had begun. This artists impression was made in 1939, and shows that the plan...
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Broadgate: More Views of Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate5 |
Walking to the other side of Broadgate and looking back towards the famous pillared bank shows a less desirable modern day view. The view of the once proud bank - the only WW2 survivor from ...
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Broadgate: The National Provincial Bank
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate6 |
Walking forward towards that bank now, we can see that something is missing.... Indeed, we're back in 1928, the year before construction of the National Provincial took place. The Coventry A...
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Broadgate: The Way We Were
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/broadgate/broadgate.php?pg=broadgate7 |
If you need to be cheered up after that, here's a beautiful photo kindly sent to me by Colin Barnes. It's a view taken from St. Michael's spire around 1982 and allows us to remember how lovely a...
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Coventry's Three Cathedrals: Coventry's Three Cathedrals
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/cathedrals.php |
Not many cities can boast more than one cathedral.... fewer still can claim to have had three!
Most people are of the opinion that this is something to be proud of - others might say we were severe...
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Contact me: Contact me about Historic Coventry
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/main/contact.php |
Before contacting me, please bear in mind that Historic Coventry is only my personal hobby, and I am not part of any official organisation with archives, records or family information. For this ...
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Engraved Coventry: Ford's Hospital Courtyard
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=fords-courtyard |
In this ever changing city, a little piece of continuity can make a rather pleasant change. Although by 1896 photography was already well established, it's reassuring that we still had many artists ...
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Engraved Coventry: Guildhall Entrance Gateway
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=guildhall-entrance |
The building of St. Mary's Guildhall was begun in 1342, and the entrance through which we all still pass was among the first parts of the Guildhall to be built. The 1829 engraving below shows admira...
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Engraved Coventry: Priory Mill Dam
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=mill-dam |
To say that this rural scene has altered out of all recognition would be the understatement of the century! Clicking on the image will reveal a scene more familiar to most visitors to Coventry, look...
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Engraved Coventry: Old Grammar School - east side
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=old-grmr-schl-east |
The difference between the old and new is even more startling with this pair of images. Published in 1824, this beautiful engraving of the "Free School" depicts a scene before Hales Street was built...
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Engraved Coventry: Old Grammar School - west side
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=old-grmr-schl-west |
In isolation, I'm certain that a look at this 19th century drawing would not quickly reveal its identity. It's only when we compare it with a modern day photograph from a similar viewpoint, that it ...
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Engraved Coventry: Pool Meadow
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=pool-meadow |
Bearing in mind Coventry's current city centre, full of tarmac, conctrete, buses, the hustle-bustle of modern life.... who would've predicted this picture of serenity in the centre of one of Britain...
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Engraved Coventry: Sherbourne Viaduct near Charterhouse
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=sherbourne-viaduct |
Another beautiful rural scene, this time of the Sherbourne Viaduct. Engraved from a picture by Daniel Wilson in 1839, we can see the River Sherbourne meandering its way beneath the railway bridge. S...
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Engraved Coventry: St. Michael's Tower and Spire
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/engravings/content.php?pg=st-michaels-spire-1861 |
An edition of the Illustrated London News of 1861 made use of this fine engraving of St. Michael's tower and spire to illustrate its article, principally about the church, but also tak...
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History pages: Coventry - Some History
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/history.php |
Quick Links to places on this page....
Coventry's Beginnings |
Origin of the Coventry Name |
Coat of Arms and Motto |
Leofric and Godiva |
The Seat of the Bishop |
Coventry Castle |
A T...
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Coventry maps: Mapping the evolution of Coventry's streets
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/covmaps/allmaps.php |
All the maps on these pages were "hand drawn" on the computer (!) with the Paint Shop Pro image editing programme. I've chosen certain years which best demonstrate Coventry's development.... the rea...
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History pages: Coventry's Mayors & Lord Mayors
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/mayors.php |
Here's a complete list of Coventry's Mayors, from the first one after the Charter of Incorporation in 1345 until the present day. In most cases after the late 15th century, the Mayor's occupation is...
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About me: A quick word from the author
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/main/me.php |
Hello... and welcome to my personal history of Coventry. I'm Rob Orland, and my interest in this city is simply that in 1965 I was born about a mile from the centre of Coventry in Kingston Road,...
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Your memories: Schoolday memories of Pauline Bearcock
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=bearcock-p |
I think I was fortunate to have such a lovely, partly rural, twenty minute walk to school along Coat of Arms Bridge road to Stivichall Primary School. I wonder how many youngsters walk that far now....
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Your memories: Little Park Street & Spon Street, by Mick Billings
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=billings-m |
Mick Billings with his dad.
Early days... Little Park Street
I was born in Little Park Street on 30th October 1943 to Elsie Rose Billings and George Billings at Court 16, House 4, which ...
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Your memories: Memoirs of Stoneleigh Abbey, by Catherine Binns
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=binns-c |
I am grateful to Kathy Hahn, who discovered Mrs. Binns through the St. Joseph's Convent 'Mystery' page on this website, for which Catherine had kindly written offering to help if she could. Kathy ...
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Your memories: Bombers over our Radford Streets, by Jerry Bird
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=bird-j-radford |
The Radford Road Machine Gunning, 1940
On a Sunday morning at about 9:30 a.m., dressed in our Sunday best, my Dad, Brother and I were on our way to the bus stop to go to town to see our Gran at B...
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Your memories: Voyage on the Queen Mary with Cecilia Cargill
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=cargill-c |
Kristen Howard has forwarded to me a collection of wonderful photographs, which form the memories of her mother-in-law, Cecilia Cargill. Kristen writes....
Cecilia Cargill & W...
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Your memories: Schoolboy fun around town with Patrick Casey
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=casey-p |
Patrick Casey and his friends enjoyed seeking out the lighter side of life, and in the 1960s there were plenty of things going on around Coventry's new city centre to keep them amused....
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Your memories: Dunlop Rugby Union Club, by Lorraine Clarke
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=clarke-l |
Lorraine Clark (nee Bentham) has kindly supplied two super photos here, and has added few words to explain how her family have had a very proud and important part to play in the history of the Dun...
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Your memories: Pre-war memories of Norman Cohen
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=cohen-n |
Norman Cohen was born in 1923 in the family home, above his father's carpet and linoleum shop at 51 Bishop Street. Apart from a brief spell from 1926 to 1929, when the family moved with the busine...
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Your memories: The Life of Riley, by Ron Critchlow
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=critchlow-r |
My grandfather came from Huncote in Leicestershire, a quarryman, a strong Baptist and a founder of the quarrymans' trade union. He moved into Nuneaton at an early age, continued in quarrying and bec...
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Your memories: Wartime memories of Wyken, by Alan Edgson
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=edgson-a |
As an absentee "Coventry Kid", (I moved to South Devon in 1970) Coventry still holds most of my memories. I was born at 24 Heath Crescent, Stoke Heath in January 1934, and after a few temporary home...
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Your memories: Boyhood Memories of Peter Ellis
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=ellis-p |
Way back in those far off days of the forties and fifties, summers were always like the one we have just had (2018) and winters were always very cold. At least, that is how people of my advanced yea...
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Your memories: From boyhood to young adult, by Peter Ellis
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=ellis-p2 |
Peter outside his house in Station Street West in his first year of working life.
Having passed my eleven-plus, I went to John Gulson School in Leicester Causeway and walked past the Roxy c...
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Your memories: War and Workplace memories of Mike Fitzpatrick
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=fitzpatrick-m |
My earliest memory was in Sept '39, when sitting on our front step with my dad, and him telling me that mum was coming home with a baby sister 19th September. However, we were now at war with German...
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Your memories: 1940s & 50s remembered, by Ken Giles
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=giles-k |
After reading Derick Parson's memories of his band life Ken Giles was motivated to write to me to say that he was also a member of the Corps of Drums, playing a cavalry trumpet with them around 19...
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Your memories: World War Two memories of James Hill
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=hill-j |
I was born in a small terrace house at 273 Alderman's Green Rd, Coventry at about 12 noon on a very hot day on the 22nd June 1932. My Father was William James Hill Born 17th Dec 1907.
Dad was emplo...
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Your memories: A selection of 1940s and 50s memories, by Rod Joyce
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=joyce-r |
Rod has many and varied memories of Coventry as a youngster, a particularly vivid one being up the Old Cathedral tower to watch the planting of the Flying Angel onto the New Cathedral fleche by an...
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Your memories: Innocence, by John Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=lane-j |
Foleshill, Coventry, 1952
One warm summer day in 1952, the children running, chattering or just mooching around in the walled playground of Edgewick primary school in Coventry were suddenly confr...
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Your memories: A plane crash over Exhall, by John Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=lane-j2 |
Old memories - really old ones - are sometimes unreliable. We often discover that what we remember as a huge building which we often walked past as a child turns out, when we revisit it as an adult,...
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Your memories: Post-War memories of Keith Longmore
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=longmore-k |
Keith Longmore's fascination by the photographs in this memories section prompted his own vivid memories of Coventry in the late 1940s, when he was about four or five years old. In particular, Kei...
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Your memories: Growing up in Willenhall, by Josie Lisowski-Love
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=love-j |
I went to St. Thomas Moore then Corpus Christi then Bishop Ullathorne Girls. We lived in Eskdale Walk in Willenhall then on Tintagel Close, Willenhall Woods. I was born in Kersley hospital and we ...
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Your memories: Coventry Zoo and the Hippo attack, by Paul Maddocks
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=maddocks-p-zoo |
In 1966 I was living in Willenhall, and my first full time job was at the Coventry Zoo at Whitley. I was 16, just leaving Whitley Abbey school. I already had a place at the Coventry College of A...
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Your memories: The thoughts of a younger Coventrian, by Paul Martin
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=martin-p |
Born in the twilight of the 1980s, Paul Martin is a relatively young person who takes a genuine interest in the wonderful heritage of our City of Coventry. Paul laments the fact that, generally, o...
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Your memories: Growing up in Hillfields, by Jan Mayo
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=mayo-j |
I grew up in Coronation Road, Hillfields, one of five children I was the second from eldest. My earliest memory is of being taken into the air raid shelter in Primrose Hill park, by my Mum, I recall...
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Your memories: Viewing the Blitz from Birmingham, by Mavis Monk
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=monk-m |
At the time of Coventry's Blitz, Mavis Monk (nee Onley) lived in Sheldon - just on the Birmingham side of what is now the International Airport. Although some miles away from our city, Mavis lived...
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Your memories: Family memories of Eric Over
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=over-e |
Eric Over was a Coventry kid who moved to Canada in 1963. He was brought up at Rowleys Green Lane where his gran had a small shop and he remembers sitting on the barrel on his granddad's cart wh...
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Your memories: Early working days of Barry Page
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=page-b |
Entrance to the New St. Michael's Coventry Cathedral, June 1965.
Although I wasn't born and bred in Coventry, I lived in the city for six years (1967 to 1973) where I first started working ...
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Your memories: Band life with Derick Parsons
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=parsons-d |
Here is a super photo of a band rehearsal for a concert, taken around 1941/42 at what was then the 'New' Hippodrome, which had only been built about four years earlier. The people on stage comprise ...
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Your memories: Brian Porter, A Coventry Kid
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=porter-b |
Born to Gerald John and Lilian Elsa Anne Porter (who was one of twins with Aunty Ivy), Brian was the youngest of five children. He was born in Carlton Road, Foleshill Coventry, on 21st March 1938. T...
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Your memories: Experiences of the Coventry Blitz, by Joan Powell
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=powell-j |
Looking back on the night of November 14th 1940, the bombing raid on Coventry, I'm thinking how lucky Ron and myself are to be here today. The sirens went before 7pm that evening, Ron was making his w...
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Your memories: War-time memories of Brian Richards
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=richards-b |
Many thanks to Cathy Clapinson for sending in the memories of her parents, Brian and Jean....
Born in 1932, Brian moved to Coventry at the age of five years. Here are are some of his memori...
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Your memories: War-time memories of Jeanne Richards
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=richards-j |
Many thanks to Cathy Clapinson for sending in the memories of her parents, Brian and Jean....
On the 17th July 1954, Jeanne Hyde married Brian Richards. Jeanne was born at Lammas Road, ...
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Your memories: Coventry Remembered, by Andrew Ross
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=ross-a |
I stood awhile in Broadgate today and reflected on the changes that the years have wrought. The post-war redevelopment made Broadgate an island. There were cobble-stoned 'bus stops on the west, nort...
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Your memories: The Coventry outings of Brian Rowstron & family
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=rowstron-b |
Our next instalment comes from Brian Rowstron who has lived in Australia since 1971. A big music fan, he was the founder and President of the 'Official Mike Batt Appreciation Society' (Australia...
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Your memories: Time Gentlemen Please! - Jo Shepherd's Family
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=shepherd-j |
My parents, Bill and May Toseland, were married in 1936, and I am sure they had certain plans for their future because my grandparents, on my father's side, were at that time running the Binley Work...
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Your memories: The life experiences of Mike Spellacy
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=spellacy-m |
For many years Mike Spellacy has wanted to write a biography or diary of his life's memories, and now he has. He's put together a comprehensive chronicle of his lifetime's major happenings - obser...
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Your memories: Humber Works photographs of Peter Thacker
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=thacker-p |
Maurice Freel has kindly sent me a wonderful collection of photographs and plans, which depict the Humber works, one of Coventry's largest car manufacturing companies, within a few years of the cl...
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Your memories: Early Coventry memories of Lizzie Tomlinson
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=tomlinson-l |
Elizabeth Tomlinson's father worked for MacAlpine's construction company, and it was through MacAlpine's that the family moved to Coventry, and later on to Derby. One of fourteen children, Lizzie an...
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Your memories: Post-war decades remembered, by Mike Tyzack
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=tyzack-m |
I moved to Coventry with my parents and sister in 1946 at the age of 3. We lived in Arnold Avenue near the corner of Woodcock Avenue in Styvechale. Half way down Woodcock Avenue was a bomb crater. T...
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Your memories: Mike Tyzack's photo mysteries.... Answers
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=tyzack-m-answers |
7th July 1962. Mike is standing on the west side of Priory Street looking east towards Cox Street. What we are witnessing here is the beginning of the construction of Coventry Swimming Baths. The ...
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Your memories: Fireman Frank Walduck, remembered by Peter Walduck
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=walduck-p |
Peter Walduck lived in Perkins Street, Coventry, in the late 1940s and 50s with his mother and father, Vera and Frank Walduck. His mother used to sing on the stage of many clubs in and around Cove...
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Your memories: Early memories of Coventry, by Muriel Wells
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=wells-m |
In the two years that I attended Wheatley Street School (1942-44), I disembarked from the number 3 'bus in Cox Street. However, I never bothered to find out what the great dark buildings nearby hous...
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Your memories: Family memories of Burt West
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=west-b |
At the end of Mill Street, where Burt's mum was born, was Naul's Mill Park, pictured here in its prime before the First World War.
Born in 1940; the year Coventry changed forever, Burt West...
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Your memories: A Childhood in Stoke, by Graham Whitehead
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=whitehead-g |
I was born in 1938 and grew up in my parents' third home newly built on the former Triumph sports ground, in Wyver Crescent, just where the Crescent bends towards Bromleigh Drive. At the rear the en...
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Doctor Who: The Doctor comes to Coventry!
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/dr-who.php |
On Monday 28th August 2006 The Doctor (David Tennant) and his new assistant (Freema Agyeman) materialised at Ford's Hospital, Greyfriars' Lane in Coventry, to do some filming.
(Movi...
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Photographic mysteries: 1918 Team photo - but which team?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=a-bolton-team-photo |
Angela Bolton is trying to find out which club is in this photograph, which her husband's ancestor played in. On the back of the photo it says "May 1918" and they are all wearing some kind of un...
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Photographic mysteries: Bus Driver, Alfred Heath (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=alfred-heath |
|solved|
This particular mystery photograph is a more personal one. Michael Heath was born on the Foleshill Road in 1958, and although he now resides in Chippenham, he can trace his Coventry root...
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Photographic mysteries: The Linnett family at work, church and play
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=arthur-linnett |
Gail Linnett has sent me some fantastic old photos based around her fathers's and grandfather's life and times. Gail, who has lived all her life in Edinburgh, never met her Grandfather, who died...
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Photographic mysteries: Local BBC Radio photo mystery - Find Cheeky!
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=bbc-find-cheeky |
|solved|
Something a little different this time. This wonderful old picture has come from BBC Coventry & Warwickshire presenter Marian McNamee, and has been titled "Find Cheeky"!
Marian found it i...
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Photographic mysteries: Car Factories (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=car-factories |
|solved|
In the "Your memories" section Maurice Freel sent me a wonderful collection of Humber Works photographs, mostly taken by his brother-in-law, Peter Thacker. Not all the images could be id...
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Photographic mysteries: Church Lads' Brigade
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=church-lads-brigade |
Having given some stirling help with some of the other mysteries, Vic Terry now offers a 'mystery' of his own. Vic has a feeling that the Church Lads' Brigade had allegiance to St. Marks, Stoney...
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Photographic mysteries: Courthouse Green School 1952-53 (Progressing)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=courthouse-green-1952-53 |
This Courthouse Green School class photo was sent to me by Cathy Bennett, and it presents us with two fundamental questions: "Are you in this picture?" and "When was it taken?". Although Cathy a...
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Photographic mysteries: Coventry Assistants' Cricket Club, 1905 Season
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=cov-assts-cc-1905 |
It never fails to intensely annoy me to learn of the many invaluable old photographs that are regularly and needlessly destroyed or disposed of. Most are irreplaceable, and many can give a unique gl...
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Photographic mysteries: Family Studio Portraits
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=family-studio-portraits |
David Barron has sent in these classic studio portraits, in the hope that someone can provide some information that might lead to identification of exactly who the subjects are, and when they we...
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Photographic mysteries: Football Team Photo (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=footy-team |
Here's another lovely old photo from June Gibson, who has kindly allowed this super football team photo to be displayed. It originally belonged to her grandfather, William Kent, ...
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Photographic mysteries: Where are the Godiva Harriers? (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=godiva-harriers |
|solved|
Colin Kirkham has let me use this lovely group photo of the Godiva Harriers for this particular "mystery". And the puzzle we'd like to solve is - where was it taken?
Colin informs me...
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Photographic mysteries: Hare & Hounds, Keresley (Progressing)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=hare-and-hounds |
We have here an absolutely stunning quality photograph taken at the Hare and Hounds in Keresley around 1910. It has been provided by Paul Buttle, who can identify four persons in it, including h...
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Photographic mysteries: Highbury Ladies Physical Culture Club, 1920
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=highbury-ladies |
Bill Dunn is hoping that someone can give some feedback on the two photos below. All he is able to tell us at the moment is that they came with other photos definitely related to Earlsdon, and t...
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Photographic mysteries: Horse-drawn Outing (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=horse-drawn-outing |
|solved|
We begin this section with an outing - in a slightly more relaxed manner than we're used to today! This wonderful photograph was sent to me by Simon Shaw, and belongs to ...
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Photographic mysteries: Leamington Ales (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=leamington-ales |
|solved|
Here's another picture from June's photo collection. A large group posing outside a pub, whose landlord is Frederick J. Gibbs. All we can deduce is that the place sold Leamington Ales an...
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Photographic mysteries: Lena Conway and friends (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=lena-conway |
|solved|
Lesley Conway has sent me two lovely photos, both of which depict her mother on her honeymoon, apparently here in Coventry in 1949. Lesley's mum, Lena Conway, is the dark haired lady...
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Photographic mysteries: Lester and Harris factory Netball Team
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=lester-harris-netball-team |
Mike Burdett has sent me this photo of his mother in a photo of the Lester and Harris factory Netball Team from 60 plus years ago, and it will be great to hear from anyone who can provide an...
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Photographic mysteries: Motorcycling trophies?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=motorcycle-trophy |
Anne Williscroft has sent in some smashing photos of her Step-Granddad - and motorcycle enthusiast - Eric Wilson. In the first photograph below Eric is the one with a moustache holding one of ...
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Photographic mysteries: Ladies from the G.E.C. in the Precinct
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=pat-pollock-gec-workers |
Pat Pollock hopes that some of our regular visitors will be able to work out the year of this next photo. From the state of the Precinct, the fashions and her grandmother's apparent age, Pat est...
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Photographic mysteries: Percy Lewis' Pub (Solved)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=percys-pub |
|solved|
Mary Cheadle has been trying to find information about her great uncle, Percy Lewis, born in 1884. She believes that he was a licensee in Coventry during the ...
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Photographic mysteries: Are these the Rover factory steps?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=rover-works-steps |
Elaine Evans believes that her grandma, Emma Lena Rose, once worked in the canteen at the Rover factory in Coventry, and the overalls worn by these ladies certainly suggest their job. Emma L...
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Photographic mysteries: Did you shop here? (Solved?)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=shop-signs |
Steve Archer has kindly given me a 'photo-mystery' with a difference here. Rather than having some photographs to identify - we have what appear to be the glass signs from a shop. Steve recently...
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Photographic mysteries: Small Workforce Photo
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=small-workforce |
Once again, June Gibson has supplied a great photo - this time of a group of factory workers. June's grandfather, William Kent, onced owned this photograph too, so could it have a connection...
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Photographic mysteries: St. Joseph's Convent (Progressing)
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=st-josephs |
We have a wonderful selection of photographs here from Maureen Donald, whose mother-in-law, Emily Taylor, attended a convent in Coventry as a day student. The connection between them is St. Jose...
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Photographic mysteries: St. Michael's choir c1906
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=st-michaels-choir |
This little piece of Coventry history has been sent in by Elaine Tomlins, whose Dad can be seen in the back row of this choir, third from the right. His name was Lewis Barker and he died in 1972...
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Photographic mysteries: Do you recognise anyone in this photo?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/photo-mysteries/content.php?pg=stansfield-family-friends |
Brian Stansfield has sent in this super portrait showing a group of rather happy looking friends in Spencer Park, some of whom he would like to be able to identify. The photo was taken around 19...
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Now and Then: Arts School, Ford Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=artschool-fordst |
Many will be familiar with this view across the back of Pool Meadow, with Swanswell gate in the background. But as time rolls on, fewer people will remember that Ford Street once continued on from i...
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Now and Then: Bishop Street, looking north
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bishop-st |
Clicking on the classic postcard view of Bishop Street of 1905 will bring to you an up-to-date scene from 2021. Like 'em or loathe 'em, the student accommodation blocks adorning the end of the stree...
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Now and Then: Bishop Street Post Office
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bishop-st-po |
Looking back down Bishop Street in 1957 (below), it's just possible to imagine how the pre-war, undamaged view down a narrow curvy street, drawing your attention toward the two largest spires, p...
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Now and Then: Bishop Street, looking south
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bishop-st-south |
How about this then.... a beautiful view of Bishop Street looking southwards towards our two largest spires some time around the 1930s. Without the modern day clutter, even the clerestory windows ab...
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Now and Then: Blue Coat School & ruins
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bluecoat-ruins |
Taken from close to the same location as the photos of Priory Row, this view will greet you if you turn to your right. Blue Coat School was enlarged and rebuilt in 1856-57 upon a base co...
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Now and Then: Broadgate from Holy Trinity Church
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=broadgate-from-htchurch |
2012 has brought about a few changes to this central area of our town centre. Traffic has now disappeared from the top end of Trinity Street and Broadgate altogether, with the new space in front of ...
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Now and Then: Broadgate from Hertford Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=broadgate-from-htfdst |
In recent years the Cathedral Lanes shopping centre has been one of Coventry's most controversial buildings, central to the well-being (or otherwise) of Broadgate, which has long been the focal poin...
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Now and Then: Burges from Bishop Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=burges-from-bish |
Two years after the photograph of Well Street was taken we can turn the corner into Bishop Street, then look back for a 1932 picture of the Burges containing many elements still recognisable in 2024...
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Now and Then: Burges from Cross Cheaping
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=burges-from-crosscheap |
This 1892 shot looking back from Cross Cheaping down the Burges towards Bishop Street is not quite so recognisable. Most of the shops at this top end of the road on the right hand side were ...
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Now and Then: Burton's in Blitzed Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=burtons-bgate |
It's January 1942 and everyday life for the people of Coventry is not being interrupted quite so often by the raiders from above. The following month King George VI with Queen Mary will visit the ci...
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Now and Then: Butcher Row, Great
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=butcherrow-gt |
Click on this early 1900s postcard view to see how it looks in 2021.
to see the two images separately.
After years of planning for, and objections against, an improved...
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Now and Then: Butcher Row, Little
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=butcherrow-little |
Looking westwards towards the place I stood for the Burges photo, this view is slightly unusual compared to my other "now and then" pairings. I normally have surviving buildings or the l...
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Now and Then: Cheylesmore Manor House
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=ch-manor-house |
if you wish to see the images separately.
This rather ordinary looking 1940s view certainly doesn't give the impression that this was once part of a grand building and th...
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Now and Then: Coat of Arms Bridge
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=coa-bridge |
This peaceful scene is of a bridge built in 1844 and popularly known as the Coat of Arms Bridge. The reason for the name originated four years previously when, in 1840, the London and Bi...
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Now and Then: Cook Street gate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=cookst-gate |
And now here's a triple "now and then" helping of one of our two remaining city gates!
Although the surroundings have changed out of all recognition, at least the gate itself ...
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Now and Then: Council House
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=council-hs |
if you wish to see the images separately.
Despite its old Tudor styling, the Council House is not as old as it appears. Construction started the year before the first wor...
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Now and Then: Cox Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=cox-st |
How many folk would now be able to place this wonderful scene as being in Cox Street in 1910? It is actually looking northwards towards Ford Street and I personally would much rather see this view t...
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Now and Then: Far Gosford Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=far-gos-st |
Six years further on from the photo of the Humber Works, and Far Gosford Street looks very different in 1912. The first building on the right can still be recognised as the recently vacated Humber M...
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Now and Then: Fire Station, Hales Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=fire-station |
Although no longer a working fire station, the attractive structure built in 1902 is fortunately quite unchanged since it ceased its working life in 1976 to be superseded by the Radford Road station...
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Now and Then: Fleet Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=fleetst |
Once again, here's a another glimpse of Edwardian Coventry - this time taken from Spon Street looking into Fleet Street. I would guess that most of the people in the photograph didn't "just happen" ...
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Now and Then: Ford's Hospital
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=fords-hosp |
if you wish to see the images separately.
Here's another chance to see Ford's Hospital from another angle. I have a little more about the history of Ford's in the Tour sect...
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Now and Then: Golden Cross & Pepper Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=gold-cross |
Comparing these two street scenes is another painful reminder of a long distant past that needn't have been swept away so brutally.
Click the image above to fade forward in time...
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Now and Then: Greyfriars Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=greyfr-la |
Until the building of Hertford Street in 1812-13, this lane was the main entrance into the city from the south west. All visitors of importance, including armies, would have travelled up this narrow...
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Now and Then: The Grove
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=grove |
The first of this pleasant pair of photographs was taken from a postcard used in 1921 - the same year that the ground beyond, formerly Stivichall Common, was used to build the War Memorial Park at t...
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Now and Then: Guildhall & 22 Bayley Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=guildhall-22bayley |
A short walk up Bayley Lane brings you to a small garden at the spire end of St. Michael's ruins.
Looking across at St. Mary's Guildhall and 22 Bayley Lane looks appreciably no differen...
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Now and Then: Hales Street to Corporation Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hales-corp |
Dominated by the Opera House, there is very little we would recognise here in 2021. The Old Grammar School is just visible beyond the Opera House in this postcard view posted in 1916, but where once...
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Now and Then: Hales Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hales-st |
Very little of this next scene now remains as you stand under the new Whittle Arch and look up Hales Street towards Corporation Street. It has seen many changes throughout the 20th century; two Hipp...
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Now and Then: Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=herbert |
The seeds for Coventry's first central museum were sown in the 1930s by the "father of Coventry's archaeology", John Bailey Shelton. A decade of extremely prolific rebuilding in the centre of Covent...
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Now and Then: Hertford Street from Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hertfd-from-bgate |
It's not easily visible here in this wonderfully busy street scene of 1927, but Peeping Tom used to watch out from the top corner window in the King's Head Hotel on the right. The statue used as Pee...
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Now and Then: Hertford Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hertfd-st |
Again we see an old photograph of a Coventry street which is not at all recognisable to present day visitors. Here in 1914 Hertford Street was a busy shopping street carrying traffic - although gene...
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Now and Then: High Street aerial view
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=highst-aerial |
The view from the St. Michael's spire is always rewarding, and an almost infinite number of scenes present themselves as you look around. One thing that strikes me when comparing these two scenes, i...
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Now and Then: High Street from Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=highst-from-bgate |
Here's another view from around the turn of the 20th century, when High Street was a bustling shopping street. Ambling down the road the horse and cart will one day be replaced by the modern tin box...
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Now and Then: High Street from Earl Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=highst-from-earl |
If we'd turned around from the scene of the Council House photo, and gone back to 1913, this sight would have greeted us. Although virtually all these buildings in High Street are now gone, there st...
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Now and Then: Hill Street, Bablake & Bond's
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hillst-bablake |
It's always reassuring to see that not everything changes! By clicking on the photograph, you will see that Bond's Hospital and Bablake School on the right look much the same today as they did in 19...
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Now and Then: Hippodrome, New
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hippo-new |
Although by the time this photograph was taken in the late 1980s the theatre had been converted to a bingo hall, the attractiveness of the 'Art Deco' design was still plainly evident - in fact it lo...
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Now and Then: Hippodrome, Old
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=hippo-old |
Coventry's first "Hippodrome" was an old corrugated structure which had stood at Pool Meadow since 1884. The increasing demand for a better theatre brought about the building of this one in ...
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Now and Then: Humber Motor Works
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=humber-wks |
Moving briefly out of the town centre, here's a quick puzzle for you.... Does anybody recognise the Humber Motor Works? Not only this, but despite the fire shown on the right on 24th Dec...
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Now and Then: Ironmonger Row
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=ironmonger-row |
Well, as I mentioned for the West Orchard page, Ironmonger Row is now the road leading towards the West Orchard shopping mall, but here is where it used to be....
if you wi...
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Now and Then: Jordan Well & Earl Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=jrdn-well-earl-st |
Here's a view that will be quite familiar, not only to the majority of Coventry dwellers, but many students too. Just out of shot on the left is what used to be the frontage to a cinema, previously ...
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Now and Then: Jordan Well & Gosford Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=jrdn-well-gos-st |
Staying in Jordan Well, we can now look back in the "out of town" direction towards Gosford Street, which begins at the junction where Cox Street goes off to the left and Whitefriars Street to t...
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Now and Then: Kenilworth Road
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=ken-rd |
Isn't this a wonderful scene as you drive into the city? It is of course, the Kenilworth Road, known in times gone by as "Long Avenue" and pictured here in 1929.
Cli...
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Now and Then: Leamington Road
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=leam-rd |
Clicking on the picture to compare the views of Leamington Road as it looks in 2009 and nearly a century earlier reveals a pleasingly moderate amount of change. The small grassy mound ahead to the l...
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Now and Then: Much Park Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=much-pk-st |
Once the through road to the "Great Park", one of Coventry's most ancient and appropriately named streets is Much Park Street, seen here in 1912 and 2003. The views above are looking in a ...
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Now and Then: Naul's Mill Park
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=nauls-mill |
The original pool here was a mill pool serving a mill which operated for centuries until ceasing use in 1889.
In 1909 the area was turned into a recreational park, including a bands...
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Now and Then: Old Rope Walk
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=old-rope-wk |
In general, most of the comparisons between the "now" and the "then" images have been rather one sided in terms of what views we would prefer to see. It is a rare thing that we find a modern day Cov...
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Now and Then: Opera House, Hales Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=opera-house |
Click the image above to fade forward in time over a century.
if you wish to see the images separately.
Opening on the 29th of March 1889 with A Midsummer Night's Dre...
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Now and Then: Palace Yard
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=palace-yd |
The "Palace Yard" photographed around 1910.
The narrow entrance to the yard in the centre of the picture leads through to Earl Street, directly opposite where the eastern end of the Council H...
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Now and Then: Pool Meadow from Priory Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=poolmeadow |
This wonderful scene from 1911 is certainly one that's unlikely to be seen again. It shows thousands of school children gathering in Pool Meadow on the 23rd June 1911, to celebrate the Coronation of...
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Now and Then: Precinct & Old Coventry aerial view
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=precinct-aerial |
As you may have already noticed, hovering the mouse cursor over the photograph below will substitute a view of 1930 Coventry with a modern day photo of the precinct area taken from the same ...
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Now and Then: Precinct, upper
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=precinct-upper |
Not so far back in time now - just to 1955 as depicted by this postcard proudly showing off Coventry's newly completed Upper Precinct. It wasn't to everyone's taste though. I must admit to not being...
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Now and Then: Precinct, west view
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=precinct-west |
As we walk back through to the precinct again, this view can be gained by taking the ramp opposite Lady Godiva's bronze statue up to the under utilised second level of the precinct. A pleasant pavin...
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Now and Then: Priory Row
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=priory-row |
I consider this area surrounding Trinity Church and stretching around to St. Michael's and Bayley Lane by far the nicest and least spoiled sector of our city centre. The Lychgate cottages pictured h...
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Now and Then: Priory Street, lower end
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=priory-st-lower |
The University is responsible for most of the view in this 2003 scene looking down Priory Street, near to Fairfax Street.
if you wish to see the images separately.
My th...
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Now and Then: Priory Street, upper end
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=priory-st-upper |
Right in front of the ruins of the Old Cathedral is Priory Street, shown here in 2024 - a scene that will look familiar to anyone who has visited our cathedrals or Coventry University on the right.
...
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Now and Then: Queen Victoria Road flood of 1900
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=queenvicrd-flood |
When the disastrous flood of 31st December 1900 occurred, Spon Street wasn't the only place to suffer. Property owners in nearby Queen Victoria Road were also subjected to misery, as can be seen in ...
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Now and Then: Railway Station, Eaton Road
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=railway-station-eaton |
Back in the early 1900s, Coventry Railway Station was a much more basic affair than today. The station was opened in 1838, and Eaton Road, named after the Lord of Cheylesmore who owned the land, was...
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Now and Then: Railway Station - the platform
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=railway-station-platform |
Like most areas of Coventry during the Second World War, the train station didn't escape its fair share of destruction. However, within days of the air raids, work was underway to get people and goo...
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Now and Then: Smithford Way
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=smithford-way |
There's been a lot less physical change between this next pair of photos, and yet a totally different feel is obtained, mainly from the addition of the glass canopy.
People older ...
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Now and Then: St. Michael's spire from Pepper Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=spire-pepper-la |
And here is the tower and spire of St. Michael's in 1932. Click on the photograph to see what it looks like in 2003.
In total contrast to the previous images of St. Michael's, relat...
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Now and Then: Spon End arches
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=spon-arches |
We can now take a visit to the west side of town, about five minutes walk from the centre, up the Allesley Old Road to one of Coventry's oldest sub-districts. Any Coventrian will instantly recognise...
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Now and Then: Spon Street flood of 1900
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=sponst-flood |
Spon Street is still full of character and well worth a visit for its wealth of medieval buildings. Many structures from other places - mainly Much Park Street - were moved here in the 1970s and 80s...
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Now and Then: St. John's Church, Fleet Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=st-johns |
This church hasn't changed significantly, of course, for centuries, but it's seen many an alteration to the surrounding landscape during the 20th century.
The nearest building directly to the pho...
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Now and Then: St. Michael's Avenue
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=st-mikes-ave |
Although some of the trees had to be felled to make space for the porch adjoining the New to the Old Cathedral, this is still an attractive view thanks to the thoughtfulness of the inspired architec...
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Now and Then: St. Michael's ruins
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=st-mikes-ruins |
As we're in the area, I couldn't resist revisiting our favourite old buildling again for a triple photo helping! It's sobering to think that in the hands of a less sympathetic architect, all this co...
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Now and Then: Stoke Green & Pool
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=stoke-green |
The pool
Moving a little farther out of town, to Stoke, we find a feature that is long gone, but still has pleasant surroundings. The photo shows an old pool next to the Binley Road - one which h...
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Now and Then: Swanswell Gate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=swanswell-gate |
if you wish to see the images separately.
Around the time this photograph was taken in 1910, the upper floor of the old Priory gate, as it had also been known, was a dwel...
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Now and Then: Swanswell Pool
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=swanswell-pool |
A quick comparison of these two images shows relatively little change over a century. In the first photo, taken around 1900, the original Coventry and Warwickshire hospital, built 1864/65, can be se...
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Now and Then: Swimming Baths, Priory Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=swimbaths-priory-st |
Looking rather stranded here in 2010, the Gala Bingo hall stands in what's left of Priory Street next to the Pool Meadow Bus Station. A click on the photo will fade back to the early 20th century......
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Now and Then: Trinity Church aerial view
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinity-ch |
Moving back into the centre of the town, we return to the excellent photographic aerial platform, the tower of St. Michael's, for another view of Holy Trinity church (see the Historic Tour page for ...
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Now and Then: Trinity Street from Hales Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinity-hales-st |
Rather than the usual "old Coventry" being swept away, it's only 20th century Coventry that's disappeared between this pair of scenes. Built in 1937, the near end of Trinity Street has been bulldoze...
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Now and Then: Trinity Lane & the Free Library
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinity-la-library |
We're now in Trinity Lane looking towards Lychgate cottages. The larger half-timbered building on the left is a relatively modern construction, begun in 1938, that replaces an old corner...
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Now and Then: Trinity Lane from Priory Row
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinity-la-priory-row |
As a photographic image, this beautiful postcard view of Trinity Lane in the early 1900s is an extremely rare sight indeed.
Both the original photographer and myself had our backs to the Lychgate...
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Now and Then: Trinity Street aerial view
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinityst-aerial |
Once again, this 1938 aerial view gives us so many aspects of Coventry's past to look at from an elevated position. The main feature on display is the newly built Trinity Street, including a shy Owe...
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Now and Then: Trinity Street from Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=trinityst-from-bgate |
Remarkably, despite the devastation only a very short while earlier, and in the very near vicinity, nearly all of the buildings in this photograph survived the ravages of the Second World War intact...
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Now and Then: War Memorial Park
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=war-mem-park |
In honour of the fallen during World War One, plans were made for the laying out of a Memorial park in 1919 on the land which covered much of Stivichall Common. The park was officially opened on the...
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Now and Then: Warwick Row, Hertford St & Warwick Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=warw-row-hertfd-warw-la |
A classic view from around 1920 of Hertford Street and Warwick Lane. On the left is the Bull Yard, on the corner of which is the famous Peeping Tom pub - with its famous statue peeping from the top ...
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Now and Then: Warwick Road
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=warwick-rd |
Here is a pair of views of Warwick Road taken not too far apart. The first picture was taken from the Grove, which today means having your back to the War Memorial Park entrance. Before clicking on ...
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Now and Then: Well Street from Hales Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=well-st |
Before you click on the image to reveal the 2003 version, can anyone place this scene? The Old Grammar School is recognisable on the right, which means that the Burges must be on our left and Bishop...
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Now and Then: West Orchard
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=west-orch |
Without the title here, there are absolutely no landmarks to help the modern day folk identify the scene on the left. A close up of the original photo tells us that the pub on the corner...
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Now and Then: Wheatley Street Schools
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=wheatleyst-sch |
Opened in 1893, Wheatley Street School was large and handsomely built, and although some people thought this was extravagant, the school became something of a showpiece and educated 1,228 pupils fro...
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The Old Cathedral of St. Michael's: The Ruins Today
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/oldcathedral.php?pg=ruins-now |
Here are a few photographs taken around the old cathedral which is now in ruins since the infamous nine-hour Blitz of 1940.
For many centuries the structure had looked much the same as in the...
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The Old Cathedral of St. Michael's: The Tower, Spire & Bells
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/oldcathedral.php?pg=spire |
A view of the old cathedral's Spire which still stands proudly above the pleasant west entrance to the cathedral pictured below. You may notice that the small spire, known as a 'fleche', of the ...
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The Old Cathedral of St. Michael's: The 'Misaligned' Pillars
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/oldcathedral.php?pg=bent-arcade |
A feature of the church layout that isn't immediately obvious, is the apparent misalignment of the southern arcade - now, of course, only represented by the row of short stumps which remain. Not...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1918: Coat of Arms Bridge
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1918-coabridge |
Some postcards don't need to say much to get a point across. The sender of this one was obviously impressed with Coventry, and decided to share their thoughts, and a picture, with a friend or relati...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1933: Postcard to a monk
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1933-monk |
This postcard is certainly not typical of the usual "having a great time, weather good" sort of message - perhaps the most distinguishing feature being the person it's being sent to.... someone in a...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1939: Postcard to Evacuees
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1939-evacuees |
Popping back a few years to when the war had only been going on for a few weeks, this card displays a pleasant, and for the time, essential, sense of humour.
Postcard text: Lest you...
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A Postcard from Coventry: WWI: Nice at Coventry this Easter
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1940-gosfd-gn |
It's nice to know that Elsie was having a 'nice time' in Coventry that Easter! Although there's no date or stamp present on the card, there is a small clue that hints at a particular time period.......
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1953: New Hippodrome
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1953-hippodrome |
Two years before it was renamed The Coventry Theatre, the Hippodrome managed to impress many visitors to the 'Showplace of the Midlands', including the writer of this 1953 postcard, who had obviousl...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1955: Work in a Coventry car factory?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1955-car_factory |
Postcards can also give away useful bits of period information that fill in the gaps between seeing an old photo and hearing yet another story about "the old days". In this example from 1955, we pic...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1965: The New Cathedral - thumbs down!
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1965-new-cath1 |
You can't please all of the people all of the time! Coventry's New Cathedral courted a lot of controversy around the time it was first built, back in the early 1960s. It seems that the people who sa...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1966: The New Cathedral - glorious!
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1966-new-cath2 |
To bring a little balance to our postal reviews, here's a postcard from someone who is far more enthusiastic about the then recently built New Coventry Cathedral.
Postcard text: Y...
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A Postcard from Coventry: 1966: Impressed by the New Cathedral
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postcards/postcard.php?pg=1966-old-cath |
Here's another postcard from Ben to another of his relatives in Windsor. Although the postcard he selected this time depicted the Old Cathedral as it looked in the 1930s, he once again picked out it...
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Post-war redevelopment: Post-war redevelopment: Introduction
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=postwar |
Even before the Second World War broke out, the architectural department at Coventry Council were drawing up ways of rebuilding the outdated medieval city. Such a department would previously have be...
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Post-war redevelopment: A Model Town!
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=model |
At the 1945 exhibition held at the Drill Hall in Queen Victoria Road, a model was unveiled showing one of the proposed reconstruction plans for Coventry's city centre. At first glance, this ...
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Post-war redevelopment: The Civic Centre
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=civic |
Now we're looking north-east at the same model from the region of Warwick Road, and here we see the council's plans for a Civic Centre to be laid out between the intersection of the proposed...
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Post-war redevelopment: The Precinct
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=precinct |
As this pleasant image testifies, the architects plans for a new pedestrian precinct were quite mature well before the Second World War came to a close. Of course, as we have come to expect in recen...
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Post-war redevelopment: Broadgate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=bgate |
As one of the first reconstruction projects to be completed after the war, Broadgate was undoubtedly the centrepiece of Coventry's Phoenix-like rise from the ashes. From a narrow street which ha...
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Post-war redevelopment: Pool Meadow to the Priory
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=poolmeadow |
The first two conclusions I can draw from this artist's impression looking across the Pool Meadow area are; either the town planners were dreamy idealists.... or they were attempting to pull the woo...
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Post-war redevelopment: Redevelopment Plan & Ring Road scheme
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=develop |
Hovering your mouse cursor over the old cathedral (marked "1") will magnify that part of the map. The pink part is the existing ruined shell of St. Michael's and the blue represents the design submi...
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Post-war redevelopment: Baginton Airport
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=airport |
In 2004 the subject of airport expansion was a hot topic. However, this is nothing new: - In 1945 the plans were for an even more substantial airport. The council planned for three runways; ...
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Post-war redevelopment: Other Proposals
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/postwar/postwar.php?pg=other |
This is a view of the planned Retail Market Hall. Quite simple in its design, yet attractive also....
....so what went wrong? The present day market serves Coventry well and is gen...
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A 1941 Post-war plan, by Coventry Council: The legacies of wartime
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/postwar-plan.php?pg=postwar3 |
Open space is the keynote of the plan. Apart from the hygienic advantages which spacial planning gives, by admitting air and sun, the vistas and skylines afforded by such treatment are worth m...
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A 1941 Post-war plan, by Coventry Council: Laissez faire
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/postwar-plan.php?pg=postwar5 |
Elevational treatment, as we have pointed out, will be secondary to the plan. It will depend on the availability of materials and constructional methods and legislation regarding heights of ...
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A 1941 Post-war plan, by Coventry Council: Preliminary sketches
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/postwar-plan.php?pg=postwar6 |
.... OR THIS
Sketch perspectives drawn by members of Mr. Gibson's staff shewing possible treatment. At the moment it is the plan that is of primary importance, the details can f...
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A 1941 Post-war plan, by Coventry Council: Viewpoints
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/postwar-plan.php?pg=postwar7 |
VISTAS AND ...
KEY TO VIEW POINTS
Some of the views which the new plan would make possible are illustrated on these two pages. References are given on the accompanying plan.
...
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A 1941 Post-war plan, by Coventry Council: Spacious planning
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/postwar-plan.php?pg=postwar8 |
VIEWPOINT No. 8
Above, St. Michael's Church Yard, flanked on the left by the new Civic Buildings and on the right by the Museum and Chapter House.
VIEWPOINT No. 7
...
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The Priory Cathedral of St. Mary's: The Tower & Spires
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/stmarys.php?pg=nw-tower-spires |
On the right is a view of Lichfield's north-west tower. One fundamental design difference between the two cathedrals is that the towers of Lichfield are built almost in line with the outer wall ...
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The Priory Cathedral of St. Mary's: The Building of the Cathedral
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/stmarys.php?pg=building-stmarys |
The exact date that building commenced is unknown, although it was certainly underway by around 1115 to 1140; the period to which some of the early Romanesque architecture has been dated. Fortunatel...
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The Priory Cathedral of St. Mary's: The TV Time-Team dig
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/stmarys.php?pg=timeteam |
In 1999 and 2001, the Channel 4 Television programme - Time Team, fronted by Tony Robinson (better known by many as "Baldrick" in the TV comedy, Blackadder) came to Coventry to do an historic archae...
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The Priory Cathedral of St. Mary's: What did they find there?
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/cathedrals/stmarys.php?pg=stmarys-finds |
The large scale excavation of the priory site presented historians with the first realistic opportunity of modern times to learn about Coventry's beginnings in the Saxon era. The legend of St. Osbur...
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History pages: Coventry's Historical Timeline
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/timeline.php |
To put our local history into some sort of perspective, here's a timeline showing many of the significant events in Coventry's history. England's reigning monarchs plus a few relevant national event...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Angels on the Guildhall ceiling
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=guildhall-ceiling |
The carved angels also suffered their share of damage in the fire, but despite the devastation much remains original. On closer inspection, the angel pictured bottom left can be seen to ha...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Old Grammar School, Hales Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=old-grammar-sch |
If you begin your visit to Coventry at Pool Meadow Bus Station, then walking westwards along Hales Street past Swanswell Gate towards Corporation Street, the first ancient building that you will...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Spon Street - left hand side
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=spon-st-left |
Return to the Historic Tour Page
The historic buildings of Old Spon Street - moving in order up the left hand side of the street - then back down the right.
Left hand side....
...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Spon Street - right hand side
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=spon-st-right |
Return to the Historic Tour Page
Right hand side....
The north side of Spon Street looking eastwards towards the town centre.
St. John's Church tower can be viewed in the ...
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Historic tour of Coventry: St. John's Church, Fleet Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=st-johns |
Standing proudly between Fleet Street and Hill Street is the church of St. John, also known in times past as Bablake church. Above and to the right are two views of the church; from acro...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Spon Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=spon-st |
Just around the corner from Hill Street is Spon Street where there is still a high concentration of Tudor aged buildings. Many of them are not original to the street and have been rebuilt there afte...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Christ Church, New Union Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=christchurch |
Here are two views of Christ Church, which stands between New Union Street (originally Union Street) and Warwick Lane. Both photos are from a similar standpoint but separated by over one hundred yea...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Cheylesmore Manor House
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=cheylesmore-manor |
A little farther up New Union Street you can access Cheylesmore Manor House through an alleyway opposite the Greyfriars Lane junction. Known nowadays by most Coventrians as the "Register Office"...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Ford's Hopital, Greyfriars Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=fords |
From the Manor House, you can cross New Union Street into Greyfriars Lane and on the right you will arrive at Ford's Hospital.
This hospital or "almshouse" provided sheltered accommodation for elde...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Pepper Lane & Bayley Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=pepper-la |
Here is another view that is largely unchanged in around two hundred years. You are looking from Pepper Lane into Bayley Lane. On the left is the old County Hall at the end of Pepper Lane. When ...
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Historic tour of Coventry: St. Mary's Guildhall, Bayley Lane
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=guildhall |
On the right of this picture, the half-timbered building jutting out is 22 Bayley Lane. To the left is the ruins of St. Michael's cathedral.
The view of the Guildhall from the outsi...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Council House, Earl Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=council-hs |
Although not an ancient building, the early 20th century Tudor design Council House is still worthy of inclusion on a walk around Coventry.
Taken around 1970 by my friend Brian Ro...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Coventry Cross
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=coventry-cross |
.cov_cross_overlay { background:url(bgate-aerial-modern.jpg) no-repeat; opacity:0; transition:opacity 1s ease-in; }
.cov_cross_overlay:hover, .cov_cross_overlay:active { background:url(bgate-aerial...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Holy Trinity Church
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=trinity-ch |
This first view of Holy Trinity Church was taken by our son, Steven, when he was only 8 years old. We are looking from Broadgate, with the Cathedral Lanes shopping centre just visible to the rig...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Lychgate Cottages & Priory Row
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=lychgate |
Adjacent to the entrance to Trinity church can be found these three 15th century cottages. Originally one building named "Lychgate House" they have long since been split into three separate dwel...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Whitefriars' Gate & Much Park Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=whitefriars-much-pk-st |
Whitefriars Gate
Tuilt in 1352, this was the gateway to Whitefriars monastery which was 300 yards to the east. After restoration in recent decades, the building became a toy museum in 1973 an...
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Historic tour of Coventry: Whitefriars' Monastery
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/tour/content.php?pg=whitefriars-monastery |
It was from the Oriel window in the photograph on the left that Queen Elizabeth I addressed the people of Coventry in 1565. The words of her speech were unfortunately never fully recorded but it...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Coventry's City Wall: Introduction
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=wall-history |
In January 1329 King Edward III granted permission to the Prior and 'goodmen' of Coventry to collect taxes, specifically to fund the building of a protective "Town Wall". By that time, Coventry had ...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: The 12 Gates of our Town Wall
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=gates |
Beginning at the first of our two still standing gates and moving clockwise, the twelve gates of Coventry's city wall were:
Cook Street Gate (sometimes referred to as Tower Gate) - built ...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Cook Street (Tower) Gate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=cookst-gate |
The plaque affixed to the gate informs us that it was built around 1385, and presented to the city by Col. W. F. Wyley in 1913 prior to its first restoration five years later.
Looking upwards...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Lady Herbert's Garden & City Wall
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=lh-garden |
Between Swanswell and Cook Street gates exists the best preserved surviving section of Coventry's old city wall. Either side of this lies Lady Herbert's Garden which was laid out by Sir Alfred H...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Swanswell (Priory) Gate
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=swanswell-gate |
Of the original twelve city gates, only two remain - Cook Street Gate and Swanswell Gate, also known in times gone by as Priory gate; pictured left in an 1840 engraving. A large portion of wall ...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: The Wall at Pool Meadow
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=poolmeadow |
Find it on the map....
The original line of the wall between Swanswell and Mill Lane gates was rather different to the finished product seen laid out in John Speed's map of 1610.
The i...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: The Prior vs the Mayor
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=prior |
The complaints of Prior Deram (concerning the City Wall)
Also the seid Prior & his predecessours ben hurted in diverse places by settyng of the town wall uppon their grounde ; by the which her ...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Gosford Gate to Gulson Road
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=gulsonrd-gosfordgate |
Gosford Gate
After viewing the wall stretching from near Cox Street, there is nothing remaining to be seen as we turn southwards and move towards National Tyres at the join of Gosford and Far...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Well Street to Lamb Street
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=lambst-hillst |
Well Street Gate
Well Street Gate by Coventry artist, David Hale. (This image must not be copied or reproduced in any way without permission from the artist.)
From Hill Street we can wal...
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Coventry's City Wall & Gates: Bishop Gate and back to the start
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| https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/wall/wall.php?pg=bishop-gate |
As you approach the top of Bishop Street from the Ring Road footpath you'll arrive at the Canal Basin bridge (right), near where Bishop Gate would have stood in the roadway directly in front of...
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History articles: Empress Building, Binley Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=empress |
Looking like a modern post-war development, Empress Building appeared far ahead of its time when it was announced in the Midland Daily Telegraph in July 1933:
BINLEY ROAD IMPROVEMENT
I...
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History articles: Hope's Harbour to Harefield to Stoke Park School
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=hopes-harbour |
Long before this lovely old house in Bray's Lane became the first location for Stoke Park School, it was the home of Otto Striedinger, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Factories, born in Bavaria a...
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History articles: I Almost Found Jesus - a Poem by John Walker
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=j-walker-poem |
Set in Crescent Avenue and Bourne Road when John was 16, and almost every word is true (except for the stable - he made that up!)
I Almost Found Jesus
One Christmas Eve, when just a kid,
I ...
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History articles: Early years of Stoke Park School
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/articles/content.php?pg=stoke-park-school |
Stoke Park School had its beginnings in a lovely old house in Bray's Lane, built in 1879 for the Inspector of Factories, Otto Striedinger. It was called Hope's Harbour, a name synonymous with the ar...
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Contact me: Contact me about Historic Stoke, Coventry
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/main/contact.php |
Before contacting me, please bear in mind that Historic Stoke, Coventry is only my personal hobby, and I am not part of any official organisation with archives, records or family information. Fo...
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History pages: Stoke - Some History
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/history.php |
Quick Links to places on this page....
Beginnings -
Stoke church -
Associated names -
The combat that never was! -
Footnotes
This is by no means a complete history ...
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:
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk//?pg=main |
The Stoke district of Coventry was the place in which I grew up, moving here as a toddler in 1967.
Hopfully you will find something of interest among the old and new photographs, drawings, history ...
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Your memories: Workplace memories of Mike Fitzpatrick
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=fitzpatrick-m |
When my dad was demobbed he managed to get us a small home in Lodge Rd, off Bulls Head lane in Stoke. I was now attending Stoke Secondary school. I missed out on the eleven plus exam, as it was then...
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Your memories: Stoke GEC - John Walker's first 'real job'
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=walker-j-gec |
I got my first "paid employment" when I met track manager Phil Storey at the Ten-Pin Bowling, fibbed about my age (14, but on the tall side), and got a job on the track at Brandon on Saturday nights...
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Your memories: A Childhood in Stoke, by Graham Whitehead
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/memories/content.php?pg=whitehead-g |
I was born in 1938 and grew up in my parents' third home newly built on the former Triumph sports ground, in Wyver Crescent, just where the Crescent bends towards Bromleigh Drive. At the rear the en...
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: Stoke Local History Group
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk//?pg=newsletters |
Monthly Newsletters
Stoke Local History Group was founded by John Marshall in the summer of 2018, following the local community's restoration of the Joseph Levi Clock at Stoke Green two years ear...
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Now and Then: Ball Hill looking east, c1970
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=ball-hill-east |
Not quite so far back in time for this shot taken of Ball Hill around 1970. Remarkably little has changed, building-wise, but I do have more of a soft spot for the older cars, which had far more ch...
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Now and Then: Ball Hill from the top
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=ball-hill-top |
Here we are standing on the brow of Ball Hill, known widely until around the Second World War as Stoke Knob. Looking in the direction of the town centre we see just half a dozen shops, with most of ...
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Now and Then: Ball Hill looking towards town
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=ball-hill-town |
Staying on Ball Hill we move just fifty or so yards closer to town, revealing a subtly different view. One item missing in this photo from around 1912 is the railway bridge, built two years later to...
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Now and Then: Biggin Hall Hotel, Binley Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=biggin |
It's reassuring to know that not everything has disappeared under the bulldozer, and so we can see here that most of the houses along this stretch of Binley Road survived the war and many council ch...
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Now and Then: Bowling Green at Gosford Park
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=bowling-gosford |
Still a green and pleasant view in 2022, but the sport is a little more active! Where once was a bowling green at Gosford Park we now have a basketball court - but we share the same view towards the...
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Now and Then: Church End and Rose & Crown, Walsgrave Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=church-end-rc |
A shot we're all familiar with in 2022 - a local pub, and a church hidden behind houses, set back from the usual urban thoroughfare - makes it so easy to forget that Stoke was once a village. Howeve...
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Now and Then: Church Lane
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=church-la |
It's a different world! Beautiful photos like this help to remind us that our Coventry district of Stoke was once a village in its own right, and not part of a major city.
As we loo...
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Now and Then: Clay Lane
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=clay-la |
How idyllic Stoke used to look! A century ago a lane really looked how we imagine it should. But, could we survive nowadays without our cars and modern comforts? And where would we live if our stree...
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Now and Then: Empress Building, Binley Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=empress |
First opened in 1934, the Empress Building - named in honour of Queen Victoria - is still popular decades later.
if you wish to see the images separately.
A click ...
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Now and Then: Kingsway parade near Stoke Library
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=kingsway |
Looking down Kingsway here, reassuringly we can see virtually no change at all from one century to the next. Stoke Library is thankfully unaltered, too. But what is this parade? We see a soldier on ...
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Now and Then: Stoke Library
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=library |
Wealthy benefactor, Andrew Carnegie, paid for three libraries to be built shortly before World War One. Stoke, Earlsdon and Foleshill libraries all had their foundation stones laid in 1912, and all ...
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Now and Then: Paddling Pool at Stoke Green
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=paddling-stoke-green |
This 1933 photo of the then new Paddling Pool at Stoke Green will, no doubt, bring back happy memories for many locals - and some not so local, as my own wife recalls walking with her family from Wi...
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Now and Then: The Rectory, Binley Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=rectory |
Few would consider the bland, square flats on the left a pretty sight, which makes this comparison all the more difficult to endure!
Click the image to fade back in time to around...
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Now and Then: St. Joseph's Convent, Walsgrave Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=st-josephs |
St. Joseph's Convent School was founded by the Sisters of Mercy as a girls' day and boarding school in 1862, overlooking Gosford Green. Suffering several air-raids during WW2, the buildings were des...
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Now and Then: St. Margaret's Church & Schools, Walsgrave Road
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=st-margarets |
The foundation stone for St. Margaret's Church was laid on the 29th January 1910, and the building opened in 1911. For the two years prior to that, services were held nearby at the Coronet Works, wh...
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Now and Then: Walsgrave Road by Gosford Green
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| https://stoke.historiccoventry.co.uk/nowandthen/content.php?pg=walsgrave-gosford |
It's easy to forget nowadays, that as we look eastwards from the corner of Far Gosford Street and Binley Road, Gosford Green no longer comes very close to us. With the widening of Binley Road and th...
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