Barnby's toyshop

Hi Philip, I was living down in Radford at the time when I used to visit Barnby's, so it would be anytime from about 1977 onwards and up to around 1983 when I saw the train layout in there!!! Any idea at all (roughly!) when the shop actually closed down???

Purely out of curiosity does anyone know about the history of the store/ownership? If I have missed a post that explains it please forgive me.

Hello Dean, Thank you for your question, which I cannot give a direct or precise answer too. I only have the experience gained from when my mother had businesses in Coventry & my own finance related experience. Who owns who is as vague an issue now as it has always been. My mum had her own shops, but also had inroads into other businesses as well. That is a common feature of commerce whether retail shops or major industry. In Coventry, businesses have come & gone, & in different eras, there have been players more prominent than others, but which now no longer exist. In the fifties & early sixties, a retail giant of Coventry was Hogarth, who incidentally acquired my mum's shops. They also acquired the toy section of Barnby's. Barnby's art section became the "Midland Educational" with one of the Barnby's managers still in situ. Even with current businesses where the names roll off our tongues, who actually owns the business or who have tied shares in that business is anyone's guess, without an audit. It would be nice if someone can answer your query, who may have been part of the Barnby's ownership at the time. Next time you walk into your local chemist's, who knows who might have a few bob invested in a tied share. That is how fluid this issue of business ownership is.

Thanks Philip, Ah! Midland Educational, another name I now recall which used to be near the birdcage at the top of the arcade.

Remind me please was Barnby's in Trinity Street?

Unlikely. It was right on the bend in Corporation Street before the war and for a few years afterwards, then Smithford Way.

Prof, You're not thinking of Midland Ed are you? I know they had a shop in the arcade near the Birdcage, but I have a feeling they had a shop in Trinity Street at one time too. I could well be mistaken though.

You could be right that Barnby's toy shop became Midland Educational in Trinity St. I think I can just remember one near the birdcage, but I finally left Coventry in 1961.

Hi Prof, yes Midland Educational was near the birdcage, and Barnby's was next to what was the Locarno. I spent a happy time in each

Have recently found this ad in an old local paper and wondered if anyone knows who occupies this address now?

I believe that it's HMV. The banisters and stairs remain the same as they were when Barnbys were there.

There's an ongoing quest from many to find an outside picture of Barnbys - amazingly it seems to have skipped most camera lenses. I loved it in there! Didn't realise the stairs were the same ones Vernon!

I had a look from outside today. Is anything else the same?

A bit more evidence.

I seem to recall it being almost opposite the gas showrooms, I think we bought all our balsa wood aeroplanes from there, they came in full kit, different sizes, I think the largest had a three foot wing span, the glue and emblems, also spare pieces of balsa wood, rubber hooked to the propellors, you could buy separately. There was a tube of glue-like substance you painted the plane with to make the skin taut, forgotten the name but it reeked the place out. A fascinating shop for kids. Greg, we walked from AG Road to Barnacle to fly them, opposite the big garden centre that is now. By the way, at the same time my uncle with a partner bought the field opposite, started a couple of huge greenhouses there, that is now the said garden centre.