Jordan Well

Does anyone here remember the temporary shops on the south side of Jordan Well? There are no clear photos of the area but piecing together from scraps of information they were as follows. No 44: Strictly speaking on the forecourt of the Dun Cow Inn, Maton's fruit & veg store. Set well back from the road this was apparently difficult to capture on camera. I misremembered this as being further towards the end of Jordan Well. No 44a: Dewhurst the butcher, formerly the site of "Smarts" fresh meat caravan. I don't remember this at all despite walking past it nearly every day and butchers shops were very difficult to forget! No 45-46: Smiths furniture warehouse. I think my housekeeper was their biggest customer and I still have a housefull of their second hand furniture dating back to the 1920s despite having got rid of much of it over the years! No 47: Alpha Restaurant, formerly the site of The Blouse Box. No 48 was the flooded basement of a bombed-out building used as filling-up point for fire engines. It eventually became the site of the Lady Godiva pub and was renumbered as No 44. There was also a Johnson's ice-cream van parked in the vicinity at one time but I'm not sure of its exact location.

My wife & I remember the Alpha Restaurant. We were saving for our wedding & house deposits at the time 1967ish which put a strain on our very limited cash flow. The Alpha accepted LV vouchers at any time of the day or evening. I used to receive them for out of office duties. That helped a lot at the time.

I remember the big sign in the window to that effect now that you mention it! "LV accepted here" if I remember correctly with the LV part inside a big rosette.

I have never heard of Freeth Street, was there one?

Yes, it was directly opposite the Gaumont running northwards from Jordan Well with another leg running westwards from Cox Street. To the casual observer it was just a gap between the shops in Jordan Well as seen in this view: .

Thank you Dutchman and what a lovely clear photo. I have linked this painting to see what you think. The Off Licence, Freeth Street Freeth is a word not familiar to me, wonder who that was?

Also Dutchman, I thought Freeth St wasn't around after 1945 and the painting has been dated to circa 1957, did he have old sketches to work from?

That would be the section running westwards from Cox Street. That area was devastated during the Blitz. I'm surprised the off-license survived. I've seen a vague reference to a Joseph Freeth in the National Archives but not much else. The street dates from 1830.

British History online, there's a reference to a 'Joseph Freeth', Malthouse, Smithford Street, 1782. Could that be a link I wonder.

Also found reference of Montgomery Motorcycles, 1911, Freeth Street.

Dutchman, if you look at The Freeth Street Painting, would you expect at that angle to see the two spires in view in 1950's or has the artist had two many 'pints of Mild in the Maudslay' which was his tipple.

It's possible Foxcote. Odd thing is I lived quite close to Freeth Street for the last four years of its existence and was totally oblivious to its presence!

Very likely. He would probably have been dead by 1830 and so had a street named after him.

In pursuit of any images of Freeth Street, I have been looking today for any other businesses that may have been located in the street. I did find a 'Smith & Molesworth' of Freeth Street Mills, Coventry, 1882, they were 'Elastic Web and Cycle manufacturers' and they produced the 'Alert' motorcycle, referred to in Grace's guide. I wondered whether any of the enthusiasts of such machinery had a link to factory photos etc.

My father had a Montgomery motor cycle during the war - KV3429 - at least he said it was a Montgomery - I never believed him, it did go, but seemed to need a lot of persuading with rags shoved up the carb on cold days and running and bumping.Is there any way of checking the registration number against a given make? I do vaguely remember Freeth St. existed after the war