Foleshill Gas Works

I found this on the same newspaper page as the 'The Flood' details and couldn't give it a miss. Thursday 11th December 1902

I can't read the clipping as I am on a phone, just go along the canal way at the rear, there is a sub station where all the plants, weeds within are dead, it's on a volcano, if that's what it's saying prior when the gas was there the workmen were not allowed to eat their snap on that ground, when plans came up for the Arena I attended a meeting as we locals were assured of the safety to us about the toxic earth they would be removing by lorries, which my brother in law was one of the lorry drivers, who informed me prior to the meeting of the toxic ground. When they blew up the gas chamber a few days later it created an earthquake/tremor here, which caused my daughter to fall out of bed, as the area where it stood, Ricoh now, has a fine line which leads to the main plates hence the earthquake.

My great grandfather was killed in an accident at the gas works in 1923. Do you think there might be a newspaper article archived somewhere that might mention it? Coincidentally, the wife of his grandson won the privilege (?) of blowing the gas works up - I had left Coventry by then so I'm a bit sketchy on the details!

Hello Primrose My first peek & poke has not even come up with a gasworks accident in 1923. Before anything else, let's see if any of our historians can come up with an event.

Hi. My dad worked at the Gas Works and was always covered with coal dust after a shift. I can remember he always cleaned his eyes with Vaseline when he got home, but what I remember most is getting the coke, always a queue, and we got ours for my auntie in Exhall. Dirty job.

Foxcote, what a gem of a find, explains things. Yes, my grandad worked there in the twenties. I think kids of our generation from far and near collected coke on old prams etc, but never knew the history of the site, now we know a little more. Thanks, Kaga.

Living in Bedlam Lane, we could see the clock for the time, hear the hooter for 5 o'clock, and during the war the sirens sounded for an air raid, and again for the all clear.

I don't know if it's true or just an urban myth, but we were always under the impression that the Germans did not bomb the gasometers at the Foleshill gasworks because they would use them as a landmark, then follow the canal to the city centre to drop their bombs there. Does anyone know if there is any truth in this story ?

You could be right, but there were a few houses in Astley Avenue who may disagree with that. Mind you when your a six year old sitting in an Anderson shelter they used to sound pretty close.

arthur p is correct about the German bombers. Mr Samuel Tipson lost his wife & 4 children when a bomb hit 30 Astley Avenue on 14 November 1940. They were all buried in a communal grave in London Road Cemetery. My brother who is 72 (born 1942) remembers playing on the ruins a long time after the war. An aerial photo on Britain from above clearly shows the bomb damage & missing houses in 1946. We lived in Arbury Avenue (I was born at 104 Arbury Ave & now live in Astley Ave) and I remember playing in the Gasworks when I was a kid. We would go round to back of Evelyn Avenue and climb the fence and jump onto the coke heaps. We climbed back in the top corner behind Evelyn Avenue. My mum used to go mad because the coke dust went straight through my clothes and when took my clothes off, I was black with dust. We always stayed away from the "Blue Stuff" that coated parts of the gasworks. There were grids about 4 foot x 3 foot made of wooden slats held together with metal bars & spacers forming a lattice. Years after the gasworks closed lots of these grids with their iridescent green-blue coating were still lying around but no-one would touch them. The colour looked "wrong" and everyone believed they were poisonous. There was a strange smell about them too. But it wasn't as bad as the smell from the Bonemill when the wind was in our direction. Another childhood memory is the Salvation Army Band that regularly played at the top of Astley Ave on a Sunday morning. Mr & Mrs Dennington lived at No 21 and were Salvation Army people. It was very enjoyable but I can imagine the response from residents nowadays. Photograph courtesy of English Heritage.

Hi derrickarthur. Like you, as kids we would play on the gas works premises, I remember we could gain access to the gas works through the fence in Peggy's park. Once in there, we found a great heap of sulphur like powder which we had great fun playing in. God knows what it was!