Collymore Cottages

These are a couple of pics taken by my Grandad around the 1930's. They're just titled "Cottages, Collyhurst" I guess they've disappeared by now.

The only reference I can find to Collyhurst Cottage on the newspaper archive is in Harpurhey, Greater Manchester. Looking on google it could well have had houses like that. Did your grandad have any connection with Manchester Davey ?

Fell down I expect?

Collyhurst is a fairly large area in Manchester (I lived there briefly) so it could easily be there. There is a also Collyhurst Residential Care Home in Bedworth but I don't know where its name comes from.

Hi, he never went near Manchester. He lived in Longford and we believe the photos were taken in Bedworth. Maybe Collyhurst was a small hamlet somewhere ? Here's another pic from the same batch. Does this give any more info ? The brickwork is identical to cottages near me in Woodway Lane, Coventry. I've never seen it in Manchester where I work. I think it's Flemish Bond.

There is an area of Bedworth called Collycroft. That looks like a colliery slag heap in the distance, maybe Tuttle Hill in Nuneaton? Did he work in a coal mine?

Problem solved! When I read the writing (with my glasses on) it's Collymore!

Your post made me go and examine the pics again. It's Collymore. Sorry to start a wild goose chase!! Granddad was an amateur photographer and worked at the Power Station.

The distinctive brickwork on the cottage is called 'diaper pattern' which according to various books about Bedworth is achieved by using different coloured bricks. There are still examples of it around Bedworth. My vote for the location would be Collycroft - somewhere like Leicester Rd or Nuneaton Rd. The whole of this area is affected by mining subsidence so leaning old houses were relatively common. The colliery could be anywhere around Bedworth but my guess would be the old Exhall Colliery (now covered by Bayton Rd) which was the closest pit to where the photographer worked at the power station.

The picture above is Newdigate Colliery. By the look of the slag heap it was taken before 1930. Where the tree is marks the spot where the baths were built. The building in the foreground was the wages office.

The brickwork is interesting, as it's made of bricks going in alternate directions, which is a very strong bond. I wonder if it favoured in areas of unstable ground? Just a speculation. The effect is also very pretty and there are a few cottages with this pattern around north east Cov. Maybe further afield?