Doe Bank Lane

Check any sidestreet in an older area of Coventry. I personally witnessed Hawkins Road in Earlsdon being tarmaced over in the 1950s so the connecting roads (Collingwood Road, Ludlow Road, etc) must have been too. In Doe Bank Lane in Spon End the cobbles can still be seen on either side of the road as the tarmac was never extended to cover the gutters. I suspect that's true for many other side streets as well. When the junction of Hales Street and White Street was last dug up both the cobbles and prewar tramlines were found completely intact underneath. Post copied from topic Archaeology - any planned for the city? by Midland Red, 6th Dec 2013 1:12 pm

It's true, though I never knew it myself! Somewhere to mark on the 'to do' list

You will have to make a photo album of all the "ghost streets" from the hidden past!! It would be interesting to see what is still knocking around these days!

Good idea Spirit - I cannot actually believe I've never heard of Doe Bank Lane before Dutchman's post - and I drive past there through Spon End most days. This again goes back to being a 70's child and having not kind of perception of what was one of Coventry's main arteries running into town. I suppose as it's not a through road there was never any need to go down there.

I didn't know where it was till I had a look at your link, then I realised I've stayed at the house on the right with the driveway that leads off the lane. I have been down there so many times and come to think of it seen such "patterning" on the side of roads around Coventry and never realised they were older roads underneath!

I am not a main roads expert but would it have been left for drainage because of the tarmac ?

That was the former waterworks' manager's house! I think it was sold on condition it be restored to its original condition but that appears to have been a 'work in progress' for many years now? I only noticed it myself very recently!

What a lovely looking house that could be.

Up until the 1970s it was indeed a through road, an extension of the Spon Causeway which branched off from Spon Street. The Causeway and the land in front of it have since been appropriated by the council for school use. Note too there is a public right-of-way called Chapel Lane which runs right through the present day school to Waveley Road and has been illegally fenced off!

I do occasionally go down Windsor Street to cut through towards Bablake for my eldest and always try to imagine the 'main' thoroughfare into town along Spon Street. The wife and kids are fed up of me telling them that was once the main entrance into town coming in from the west. I'm also still staggered in how many courts there were and that not one really survived intact.

I am familiar with Doe Bank due to my weather obsession, a former rain gauge was sited at the Doe Bank Power Station until at least 1991 (when the Met Office stopped publishing complete British rainfall data). Not sure if the power station is still there? It was less than a mile from the fantastic Bablake Weather Station. At times there were up to 6 or 7 rain gauges within the city going back to the nineteenth century, and including mine at Walsgrave 1981 to 1991.

There are no industrial buildings left in Doe Bank Lane.

Thank you for that Info Dutchman - do you recall the Power Station?

Afraid not Tony. As far as I know it was a water pumping station. Initially powered by steam it was replaced by a smaller electrical pump house in the 1930s and its landmark twin chimneys demolished.

Are there any images out there of the waterworks?