Quirky facts about Coventry

Then I can only start at the beginning for me. During the fifties, I regularly caught a Red House coach to race meetings, The coaches were owned by Tommy Venn, he also owned racehorses and the talk on the coach for a few days was that someone was gambling heavily on the horses he owned. Tommy was furious because the Race Stewards were getting interested and his trainer was threatening to take the horses out of training to keep his licence. Then that robbery happened, and the coach talk was about he had robbed the bank, paid off some of the debt, walked in to the police to take him off the streets and being carved up, it was easy to believe the story in those days for these things really did happen. I believe it still, only if I hear what happened to the guy and a different story will it alter for me. The name of the bank and the location may be wrong but it was not important to the story.

There are several newspaper articles about Leonard Arthur Warren who walked into the police station and was found guilty of the robbery. His defence was he was blackmailed but he was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years. It says he was a garage proprietor in Walsgrave Road but lived on a smallholding in Princethorpe. In 1961 he was charged with several charges to do with stolen cars and harbouring car thieves. On one occasion he did not appear in court and was later arrested in Ireland. He was given a 12 year sentence. While he was in prison he was also called on a bankruptcy charge.

Annewiggy. That description and character fits my story to a T. But for someone to rob a bank, take the money and hide it, then drive into town to the police station in half an hour, as the police thought, for they went to search his house I believe - the mind boggles.

in 1406 John Botoner the mayor 'caused the streets of Coventry to be paved'. This wasn't a reference to early footpaths but the roads themselves were cobbled with river pebbles. The Americans still call road surfaces pavements, using the old terminology. This isn't the only example where the US stuck with an older English word, while we moved on.

I just spent a day finding out more than I ever wanted to know about Coventry's politics from the early 1700s. It was very, very dirty and was drawn into two camps that were divided by religion. The Tories were Anglican (Holy Trinity, St Michael's, etc) and the Whigs were 'non conformists' or Presbyterian/Unitarian who built the Great Meeting House on Smithford Street in 1701. The Whigs often had control of the Corporation, which also came with control over many of the city's charities and the money they raised. Only a portion of Freemen were allowed to vote and they were threatened, bribed and even physically persuaded with pikes to not vote for the wrong side. The guilds were politically affiliated and the Whigs were dominated by the cloth trades. The Corporation also set the Sheriffs who were supposed to manage the election honesty. You could, but probably won't read about it here. I should add that nationally, the party division might have been more connected to support of the King v the sole power of Parliament but in Coventry it looks like religion was the stronger influence.