Holyhead Road

Thank you Anne, Have you an opinion on the date of the photo?

The only thing I can tell it is pre-1956 because of Four Pounds Avenue. Can't work if it is pre- or post-war. Does not seem much evidence of bomb damage. The area on the opposite corner of Moseley Avenue and Holyhead Road forms a triangle with Lammas Road. There is a church, a carehome and the sheltered flats there now. On the picture there appears to be some sort of hut type buildings on there but in the shots on 'Britain from above' there is nothing on that triangle and in the newspaper there is talk of putting some sort of sports facility on there pre-war. The huts look like something that may have been put up in the war. As for the Alvis sign on the bridge, that does appear in pre- and post-war shots, so looks like it was taken down during the war. There does not appear to be anything on the front of the Alvis either. The chains have been removed from the Holyhead pub bollards. I just don't know how to put this evidence together. We also need one of the car experts to date the cars. Over to you.

It doesn't fit the 1954 map because according to the maps there was a roundabout by then and it doesn't fit the 1937 map either because some of the Alvis sheds hadn't been built and Four Pounds Avenue hadn't been created. That doesn't help to narrow it down, sorry.

Holyhead Road United Reformed Church, which isn't there in the photo, was built in 1953.

It was in the 50's when I lived in Batsford Road and I am sure Four Pounds Ave. was not a proper road at that time and Chain Gardens led through to the railway Arches.

I agree Dreamtime, we lived in Prince of Wales Road in the fifties and Four Pounds Ave was unadopted and came out to the Allesley Old Road almost opposite Kingsland Avenue as I remember it.

Four Pounds Avenue was planned to be built in the 1930's. War put a stop to that and it wasn't built until 1956. The island would have been put there at the same time, now traffic lights.

I suspect the car in the foreground is a "Ford model Y", also known as a "Ford Eight" which was in production from 1932-1937. The front bumper seems to be missing!

We lived in Stepping Stones Road, behind Lake View Road, in 1962 onwards for a few years and Four Pounds Avenue was in situ then.

Philip. There is a 'Britain from Above' 1934 image showing allotments on that side of the railway bridge. A 1936 one shows the factory built there so must have been moved extended to that side between those dates. The BFA show nothing at all on the corner opposite the Holyhead.

Thank you Anne. Brill. I've no local knowledge of that area of Coventry until my childhood association with Paybody hospital & clinic. It was the shape & design of the telegraph transmission that pointed to a pre-war date to the photo.

Still not sure if it is pre-war, Philip. What is the Telegraph Transmission please? I had just managed to get a pre-1952 from an article in the CET which says they are going to change the gas lighting, which I believe it is in the picture, to electric!

Hi Anne, Trunk route telegraph, I believe, went through a period of being re-routed via the railways. Large towns & city approaches, went underground. As you say, it may be post war. I believe the first electric lighting was mercury arc (the blue/green) lighting, 1950 technology. PS. I love your devotion to a subject or topic Anne. Brill.

Anne, I think the 'hut' type of building you mentioned in your previous post may have been what was used to take the overflow of Moseley Ave School. Almost opposite the Alvis factory. We called it Beaumont Primary at the time and I attended there when I was 6-7. There were two classes there with a paraffin fire for heating. There used to be a long trail of us having to walk up to Moseley school for our lunch every day and back. I trust we are still on about the 'good old days'.

That sounds very promising. Does it look like the building in the picture on post 27. I remember now a friend of my brother's mentioned them on a post on the Radford Facebook page. He was one of the pupils who went to Moseley Avenue School and Beaumont Crescent because Radford School had been bombed. That would then put the picture between 1946 and 1952 (old street lamps). Thank you, Dreamtime.