Little Palace Yard

There is a file listed in Coventry Archives dated 1929 relating to the gift to the corporation of an old stone arbour from the garden, once known as Little Palce Yard by Mr T Henderson Bushill, a proposal for its removal, restauration & re-erection elsewhere. Might be worth looking at.

It's only the other animals I think were moved earlier because the wall two of them sat on was removed between 1906 and 1913. It could explain why they weren't with the arbour in the park. There are two quite good pictures of the front at Historic England. There are images of most of the sides, spread across the different sources but only the sketches and paintings do the place some justice. I'm sometimes surprised when I see a coloured version of the black and white photos as to how colourful the city was. The grey tones make you think the original was grey but the render could have been cream (to emulate best sandstone) or any light colour. The inner courtyard had stone balls on the pediment around the roof level. The woodwork seems to have been green.

Can this thread get any better! Uncle Ray's front door!!! Coincidentally someones just added a better image (with detail!) of the Arbour in-situ on FB - Anne can you pass me a direct link to those images on Historic England when you get a chance please.

Try this Neil Link to Little Park Street

I wonder if someone got the idea of building an arbour back home from going on a Grand Tour? All four animals - Bear, Tiger, Rhino and Elephant are 'Big Game' perhaps. You're right Anne I think the paintwork in the Yard was dark green and the walls a cream colour. I wonder whether the mounting block was saved during the demolition, surely someone realised it was historically important and not too big to rescue.

'Grand Tour' - I was thinking the same or it could be from someone's stint in India. The animals all appear to be the Asian/Indian versions. The lion may be older as it has a heraldic look about it but that may have been just a copy of an older style. The elephant has the smaller ears and curved back of the Indian elephant. The Rhino is more heavily/curiously armoured than its African relatives. Tigers are not native to Africa. The bear is hard to place but the Africa's lone bear species, the Atlas bear in North Africa was very rare from the Roman era onwards and died out completely mid 1800s.

Looking through the owners of Whitefriars, and my previous comments, before Mr Smith from Aspley Guise it was owned by Samuel Hill of Shenstone Park. He lived 1691-1758. He went to Cambridge and then "sent abroad" to visit the most polite courts in Europe. He retired from public life in 1722 which was when he bought Whitefriars. He could be a contender?

"Ye men of Coventry what fools ye be!" Tony S, I had always believed Queen Eliz Ist spoke those words from the oriel window of Whitefriars as it is known she spoke from the window to the assembled throng.

Neil wrote in post 132 "specially love to find small bits of what was now - hidden away hiding its past." There are seven photos of Little Palace Yard in Library Pictures. Here are two photos c.1953:

Not quite Prof - Palace Yard was different - it was opposite St Mary Street on Earl Street.

Yes Neil I do realise but could not find a spot for Palace Yard.

I have just realised that Rob has this one in the Library Pics that actually shows the entrance to LPY in its final years - that's the entrance/archway into the Court behind the car on the right The chimney on the very right-hand edge is Middlemores. As I posted earlier in this thread - as a comparison you can see the same view out / and the same roof that had been angled at this point in time here with dad's cousin Trevor sitting in his bathchair

There is a watercolour of the complete front in Sydney Bunney's book and two pictures with the front still intact at Historic England.

Some amazing footage has been found here by Cliff Berwick on FB. We all know about the tethering blocks in the park for barrage balloons but I've never seen any footage of them - until now! What is interesting is they do not appear to be flying where the blocks are today - which suggests there were others or the blocks where moved. Another amazing thing I have just noticed - apologies for the screen grab - however as per the Little Palace Yard thread, this is only the second image (ok this is a film frame!) that I have seen of the LPY stone arbour still standing. You can see it here from that film in the background - bottom right. I will have to check my records but this suggests the film is pre-blitz,1940. Post copied from topic War Memorial Park on 13th Jun 2019 11:33 am