Little Palace Yard

Neil, I have sent you a copy of the article direct, hope it is big enough. Should have gone to Specsavers!!

Can I just clarify something here Neil. The photograph was taken underneath the inner archway. There were two archways, one direct from Little Park Street into LPY and then a second one part way down containing the front door to Win and Ray's house. Looking at the photograph you can see part of the stables on the left through the archway. At the end of the Yard were the gates to the garden and the temporary Bushills building (after the November 1940 Blitz). They used the stables to store big rolls of paper. Incidentally folks, I don't look like Win!

Another little bit of information. From Taunton's History of Coventry. The house of White Friars or Hales Place remained in the Hales family until Christopher Hales died without issue. His brother procured an act of parliament for the sale of the property to pay his brothers debts. John, Duke of Montague, then became the purchaser and in 1722 conveyed the premises to Samuel Hill Esq. of Shenstone Park, Staffordshire from whom it afterwards passed into the posssession of Mr Smith, a clergyman of Aspley, Bedfordshire. He sold it in 1801 to the directors of the poor who made it into the workhouse. This is the Mr Smith who I mentioned a few posts ago having put the Stone Arbour in the garden of LPY.

Brilliant again Anne Thanks - and to you too Rosemary - yes I see what you mean now from further within the Yard. Just to repost this one then to illustrate - this would be the same 'Archway' -

The building seen beyond the gate was newish and originally you'd have been able to see all the way to the arbour. The garden must have been quite impressive in its prime.

I hadn't realised it would have been in line from there Helen. As Rosemary says the 'new' building would've been Bushills temporary premises - the building seems to have appeared sometime between 1914 and 1938 over the garden looking at the Old-Maps site. Do you think this was the Arbour from their 1888 map then? - Court 20 being LPY.

The gateway is slightly off the line but yes, if you were looking up the left side of the passageway I recon you'd have been able to see it give or take the garden plants/bushes/trees. I'm also fairly sure that it is the arbour on the map. It appears and then vanishes a few times as the maps go forward and the plots around fill up with factories. The board of Health map shows more trees and that the garden to the south was joined by an opening (probably where the rhino came from). Whether the two had started out under the same owner I don't know, or maybe the neighbours were friendly? In both gardens there were ornamental box hedges and what we'd probably call knot gardens. Even then some of the trees were missing, breaking up the design.

Thanks Helen. I had an idea from the library images it was backed by what was on Much Park Street. To the side of the Charlesworth Motor Body Works. I'd still love to see some more photos of those gardens with it in situ. I think I can finally say the hunt for its original location is finally solved The irony is though that looking at the NLS side by side comparison maps - the exact spot we've identified appears to be in the north-east corner of where today's Magistrates Courts are - right by Meschede Way, where I spent a few years working during the late 80's!

Here are where I think the animals were. There was a path through the wall under the R for rhino and I think that the original path would have been straight rather than curving round the beds to the west. The wall was made of brick with stone swags. The brick was probably rendered originally. The swags were a weak point especially on the south wall and the bricks above the swags seem to have fallen off (see picture of elephant in library). When they built the factory to the south they probably demolished the dividing wall and left the north wall to continue crumbling.

Fabbo yet again Helen - for the record adding the library rlephant and rhino pics here As these were 'captured' so to speak I'm hoping there's a full garden image somewhere!

Zoom into this view of the LPY at Britain From Above And I think you can just about see the swag where the tiger was.

Absolutely, great minds Helen - I was just looking at that very image on BFA myself! What does the term swag actually mean with reference to stonework decoration?

And there it was gone!! Incidently in another newspaper article in 1930 it says it was also known as "General Knowledge Yard "

It's not a technical term as far as I know, just a bent bit of stone like a swag in a curtain but it sounds better. See the curved stone bits either side of the elephant. It's not the top of the wall, as more bricks are missing. The elephant is on the coping stone level. Rough copy of the garden layout in 1850

Anne, given the history of the LPY, it's depressing that they demolished it so recently. I could be wrong but I think it was the Palace Yard that was the Knowledge Yard. I think there was a library there or a school briefly? Two Park Streets, two Palace Yards. The Park Gate was at the end of Cheylesmore. New Gate was on Much Park Street but was the oldest gate. New Street was nothing of the sort. Two roads named after the Earl. One of them was Earl's Mill Lane topped by the Earl's Mill gate but sometimes known as the Bastille Gate. The Bastille was also called the Prior's Prison. A second Mill Lane, not to be confused with Miller's Alley. Two Butcher Rows. The Priory Lane became New Buildings and Priory Street emerged out of nowhere. Priory Lane splits in two with one fork going to the priory and the other to the Priory Gate which is also called the Swanswell Gate. Ironmonger Row was Tittle Row and seemed to have a different name every time a new map was made. Nobody ever remembers where the High Street, Earl Street, Jordan Well, Gosford Street and Far Gosford Street start and stop. 3 cathedrals, one of which most people have never heard of. Coventry was very confusing!