Rambling, Coventry area

My understanding is that the burning banks were caused by fires in abandoned mine workings which were not very deep in the northeast of the city. They were certainly smouldering throughout the 1950`s and gave off an acrid smell.

Hi. My daughter-in-law's parents live in Craven Ave. Some years ago I walked with them through Brandon Woods, over the railway bridge and emerged close to the drive of the entrance to the reserve. Are you up for a walk once the nice weather arrives? My memory is very sketchy on this area & such a walk would be a delight.

For those who like a walk, ramble or gentle meander have a look at 'walkit'. I've been playing with it this morning and will definitely make use of it. This site gives routes, timings, number of steps and even the calories burnt off during your walk. You can get it as an app for your phone as well. walkit.com

Good find, Elaine - although it shouldn't be confused with Coventry Walks

Hi to you both, Hi all. I do use the Coventry walks site often, as well, the maps are very good. Of all the weeks for me to pick to have work done at home with the fine weather, so I am stopped in my tracks from roaming as I would love to be doing right now. Terry, hard at work. Old units & stuff removed, new tele & stuff coming on Thursday.

Hi all Bearing in mind issues of personal security, if any member has an idea for a relaxing walk, that is Coventry related, please let me know. I have my bus-pass & providing I rest my feet frequently, I walk for miles. I avoid miserable weather, but the odd shower just means that I go further on the bus.

Around 1950 I used to walk with my gang down from North Street through Torcross Avenue (houses had just started to be built there) past the church and over the large rubbish tip behind it. There used to be a large lake with swans on I remember. One day we arrived to find that workmen had cut a trench to drain the lake into the river and we promptly filled in the trench to stop the drainage. Following day we found the workmen had removed our stones and bricks so we replaced them. This went on for a few days but in the end the workmen won. We also used to walk along the river there until we came to an old disused railway bridge which we used to take over to the Henley Road. There was a large area of black coal dust and know locally as "The Black Pad". This is where the coals were still alight and smoke coming up. Another jaunt was to ride or walk to Binley slag heap and play in the pools around the coalmine making rafts out of the discarded pit props and swimming in the summer months. Just another Coventry kid's memories

Hello & welcome David Jephcott, You remember the smoking hills, David. Bril!

I'm getting a tad confused here. Nothing new in that. The" Smoking Hills", would this be what we called The Clod Banks? Not far from Henley Rd but to one side of Deedmoor Rd. I really cannot think of any other feature in that area that area could have been described as hills. Les

The Burning Banks, or the Clod Banks. Now the site of the Alderman's Green Industrial Estate. The banks were used as ballast during the build of the M6, although there are still signs, unfortunately not now burning, between the estate and the entrance to the marina off Alderman's Green Rd next to the Slough.

Hi all The smoking hills was a topic here. I remember several in various locations where there had been colliery workings. Wherever spoil had been used to support a railway & sidings the spoil contained coal dust which combusts. This feature was a killer when underground as it either burnt, or partially burnt, which produced monoxide, or it decomposed into methane. Where ever you see the white ash, as in my photo, that is evidence that the combustion is still taking place.

There used to be many walks in the Bell Green/Aldermans Green area, most of them now gone. Does anyone remember the Old Slough and Lady Lane that wasn't a lane at all. Strange place about 20ft wide and about 100 yards long, a sort of wide trench with 4ft high bank both sides clearly constructed a hundred years ago or more as there were mature trees growing on the banks. The Old Slough was at the bottom of Lady Lane. It was clearly once a substantial pool but when I was a boy it was badly silted with little water left. Plenty of irises and bull rushes still growing though. The Old Slough was located about 500 yards across the fields walking away from the pointy end of Wyken Slough. Les

I think you have just answered a very big question for me. I have been back to the Slough many times over the last few years, looking for what you have just described. The last only a few months ago. I think I owe my life to those bull rushes. Playing in that area I was just about to walk over the silted up water (the silt was covered in moss) when my mate, using a bull rush as a spear, threw it and it disappeared into the silt just in front of me. That, even at my age, I realised was a lucky escape. I have never found the place since.

I don't really know what it's like now but there was once a pleasant walk between Parrotts Grove and Bedworth. Just checked on Google Earth and it looks a tad rough now. Last time I went that way was in my car and the going was a bit bumpy to say the least and that was about eight years ago. The walk starts at the mock Tudor house that looks like a gatehouse a couple of hundred yards on the left past the old Elephant and Castle pub on Aldermans Green Rd and ends in Bedworth. Les

Yes scrutiny, probably the same place, there is nowhere else around there quite like it... At the other side from those bull rushes it was very dangerous.. Although there was moss just as you say there was also grass growing on the silt and the only way to tell what was unsafe ground was by the colour of the grass, it was greener on the silt... I don't think any council would allow such a place to exist now... Les