Bombing aftermath

I remember, as a lad of three or four, standing looking at this clock tower standing surrounded by debris. I was amazed how relatively little damage it had suffered. However, I`m sure I read that a young lad had been killed later on, by a falling brick, which prompted the Council to knock it down. The clock mechanism is still in use in the Godiva clock in Broadgate.

Did you ever get or have any memories of inside it Greg?

Rob. Thank you, I'm glad it's still of interest to some Coventry people. Almost all Friday and Saturday we were hearing that a lot of the damaged streets, people had gone to shelters and escaped the surface missiles, with the various organisations set up in the city - a couple of days, we soon had a reasonable picture, if not the exact figures. But you know if someone rams the back of your car, you have a quick shock that quickly turns to anger, and years after if something brings it back - it is the anger that's forefront in your mind. Of course people from Warwick, Nuneaton etc came into the city to see the damage, they were shocked at the devastion, more than the people that lived through it. If it twisted great iron girders, brought huge buildings down, then it was some great catastrophe, we could hardly expect anyone other than a few like ourselves in a shelter to have escaped. Rob, when my dad and some other local men came up our street at dawn, there was such clapping and cheering you wouldn't believe.

Afraid not, Neil. Occasionally, my granddad would take me into town and I remember watching the slabs being jacked up for the Bull Yard car park, being held high to see a steam train going under Warwick Road bridge (by the station) and seeing the market clock. I would have been about four or five at the time.

DBC. What a wonderful find, the official opening of the Rex cinema, soon to be demolished by a direct hit during the great raid on Coventry!

NeilsYard, there was a small wooden door at the base of the tower, opposite the hall. Inside, a wooden ladder led to a platform - on the platform was another ladder that led up to a further platform, on the floor was some sacking and bits and pieces. I would imagine them to be tools of some kind, I think there may have been a couple or so fold up wooden chairs but I'm hazy about that. I think near the market hall there was a sort of shop (could have been in a different street) but it had cages of rabbits, hens, and numerous cages of song birds, but on a well scrubbed kitchen table stood a large golden cage that held a parrot - around 1932 time. I had never seen a real parrot, not many kids had in those days. It was surrounded by about a dozen kids, bigger and older than me, all trying to make it talk. The shopkeeper was keeping an eye on them - after about ten minutes the kids were getting fidgety, the shop owner walked to the cage, went to feed it something then dropped his hand and walked away. The parrot squawked "Bugger off" and the place erupted, the kids walked away giggling and muttering the parrot's words.

Brilliant Kaga - thanks - that's the first description I've read of the insides. It's one of the buildings I'm somewhat fascinated with from Old Cov. It's just out of shot here but another photo filled with sadness, although I was pleased to see that this one shows the line that 'was' Vicar Lane.

Don't think we have had this one before, another from the Sphere on the newspaper archives

Cracking Anne - the only thing that survived around there! (though not for much longer)

Annewiggy, it must be good to look at old newspapers and verify what you once remembered. Autumn 1939 and my boss was thinking of buying a tractor as he was ordered to plough up more land, so he went to MHW in West Orchard, shown around some tractors and given brochures. Around a week later he went back and was told the tractors were now in Hales Street showrooms. Two nights later West Orchard was flattened, but the tractors in Hales Street had only minor damage.

Yes Kaga. I have spent many happy hours on the newspaper archive site when there is the usual rubbish on the TV. Not usually what I remember as a lot of the papers only go up to about 1950 but finding out things I did not know. A lot about family. I found last week that my grandparents were stopped in Lillington on their motorbike and sidecar as my grandmother was driving it and did not have a license. My grandfather said it was the first time she had driven and thought it would be OK on a quiet road. They were both fined 5s. They have put a lot of illustrated newspapers on lately so just typing in "Coventry" and searching for illustrated articles can come up with some surprising pictures which I hope people don't mind me sharing. It is a subscription site but I would recommend anyone interested to subscribe (no I am not on commission)

Mods. May I, just as an amusing piece of gossip post this, please do as you wish with it. Annewiggy, I first read that as Lullington, a pretty little hamlet down here, you can count the houses on one hand, two counts to fame, having the smallest church in England, a diminutive clergyman preached one morning, 12 people congregation, collection one shilling and sixpence. The smallest church, smallest congregation, the smallest parson, the shortest text, and the smallest collection. 2nd fame, Dirk Bogarde spent his childhood in the hamlet, put flowers on the altar every morning.

Hi Kaga, I have just checked and I got it wrong anyway. It was Kenilworth Road, Cubbington. Sorry, senior moment. Lovely little piece of gossip though!

The morning after the raid, most people checked their family, then their neighbours, then sat down and wrote letters, airmails etc, to their loved ones, knowing full well the raid would be broadcast round the world, and kin would worry. NotLocal. Ron Sephton lived at the Elephant and Castle, Tusses Bridge - a little older than the three boys that got killed in the blitz, he went to school with them, knew them well, at the time of the raid Ron was fighting in the jungle of Burma. He never heard about the raid until the Christmas, never saw the city again until early 1946, all those years fighting never got a scratch, the boys at home and . . .