Spon Street

What do you expect in the outback!!! Being serious for a minute, one issue that is common now is that watch sellers have no-one who can repair them, so they send them back to the makers, as you say, for silly money. Rolex, though, have been insisting lately that shops aren't allowed to sell them unless they have a Rolex-trained watchmaker on the premises. There are still plenty of people here (including me! ) who can repair them, but lately ETA group appears to be trying to price their parts so high that people send them back, and ETA makes the profit, instead of the repairer. And toanswer your previous post - H Samuel isn't what I would refer to as a high quality watch shop (never, was, really) - not in the same class as Flinn's were, for instance. Gilbert's, h'mm. They are a multiple, aren't they? I was wondering if I should sound the "topic drift" alarm, BTW......

The other high class jeweller's shop that I was trying to remember was Thorn's - and we're they in Warwick Row, too?

Does any one know what shop is now 193 Spon Street as my Aunty in Australia used to own it selling wool it was called Audrey Davies. Her Grandfather used to be a blacksmith in town, who sold fine wares lots of people bought from him, also her father used to work for Rotherhams where he gained an apprenticeship giving him the freedom of the city, he then went on to make his own ice cream selling it on Hearsall Common, then Mr D Di came along trying to take over so he managed to throw him off Hearsall as he was a freeman of the city. Last night she over the phone told me the reason Coventry was given the car manufacturing was because it was said if you put a screwdriver into a Coventry childs hand it would know what to do with it, hence they had the brain for it where others didn't.

There's never been a no.193 Morgana (the numbering system ends at 190) but "A. Davies & Co." wool & drapery is recorded as trading at no.160 in 1955. The shop is now Susan Graley's wedding gown hire and is allegedly haunted by a woman wearing black & white with her hair in a bun! It's the shop behind the cyclist here:

A slightly clearer view:

Thank you so much Dutchman you'rean angel, she did say it was now haunted, so it couldn't have been when she had the shop - thats it A is for Audrey my mums brothers wife, who worked at the Jag as a designer for Jag cars, until he moved to Australia with his children and wife who is Audrey, who owned this shop, she is now I think in her 80s, I shall be sending this link to her for her to read and see what great knowledge you have also the lovely photos. By the way did you know on the waste ground by Spon Street by the little stream it use to be where the lepers were.

That makes sense Morgana. Between 1984 and 1985 all four shops in the row were restored to their original Tudor condition and that is when the ghost stories started. No 160 now has an upstairs gallery and that is where the ghost is said to appear. Oddly, there are no reports of ghosts in the other three units which are almost identical.

Thank you for that information Dutchman.

A slight correction, I've just visited the premises and what was no.160 is now the right hand side of Mark Andrews menswear not Susan Graley's bridalwear which by my reckoning is at nos.161 & 162. It's by no means unusual for a shopkeeper to not know his correct postal address!

And if he's seeing ghosts one could perhaps deduce at least one reason why not.

After more than 135 years as a newsagent's, Goddard's shop is now the Narghila Sheesha Restaurant.

no Sally she didn't, my aunty owned the shop as Dutchman said in 1955, but I shall tell her you asked, she will be pleased to think some one thought she was Mayoress of Coventry.

Thank you Dutchman, all I know is what my Aunty has told me, also she mentioned next door was a Mrs Scott who had the sweet shop whom she shared the alley way for the toilets with, close by was Rotherhams club where her grandfather ran the club in the 1st world war for a time, as someone rushed in so excited the war had finished they kicked his bucket of water over to which he was using to clean the floor. She also mentions a large pub/club cream or white painted, close by that served the loveliest crispy faggot batches she has ever had.

It was pulled-down by the council in the 1980s for no good reason and replaced by a timber-framed building from Much Park Street. That would be the Old Windmill (or Ma Brown's as it was known locally). Rotherham's Club is immediately to the left of it in this picture:

Thank you so much Dutchman you're an angel once again such a shame to pull such a wonderful building down