Lady Herbert's Almshouses and Garden

Hi pixrobin, I have very happy memories of the gardens too, it was a lovely place to walk, I especially liked the rockery and stream down to the pond. My mother and I would sometimes get chips from Fishy Moore's and eat them on one of the benches there after shopping, happy days.

As 'Chauntry' has been mentioned on this thread (though mods move elsewhere if there is a better one) - I've been allowed to share this superb photo from Patricia Webb - it shows her husband's great great grandfather's shop in Chauntry Terrace, which was at the southern end of Chauntry Place - taken in 1889. The Terrace was more or less under today's Whittle Arches opposite the Fire Station. Not seen a photo of the row before. Anyone know the origins of 'Chauntry'? Unusual name.

A 'chauntry' or 'chantry' [Old English, French] is an endowment for the singing or saying of mass for the souls of the founders or of persons named by them, or A chapel or the like so endowed. Could be a reference to the Priory?

I wonder if the narrow street on the left of the photo is St Agnes Lane?

Nice photo Neil. It shows how a green grocers would have looked in that era. Prof, I'm fairly sure that the street at the left is Chauntry Place. Just to the right of the photographer was the Swanswell Gate. You can just see the shop to the left of this library picture of the gate.

Do you think this could be it? There are Webb's Grocers in the directories but not at that address, maybe their stay was short at that address?

Yes Heathite - that is the spot.

Thanks Heathite, Helen F and Neil, seeing the map makes it all clear, and what an interesting area prior to the Lady Herbert's Garden, which I also loved as a child.

If anyone has the opportunity, I recommend they book with the History Centre/Archives to see the photographs the builders took while they were clearing the area and then building. There are dozens of them, most a great record of what was there originally and the splendour of the garden.

I'd love to see them Helen - are they not available online?

Alas not... yet. Hopefully they will be added to the Archive pictures and that they'll be available online by 2021. I've got rough photos of some of them but I only concentrated on stuff for my research and there were many more of the later features.

Just stumbled on this one on Historic England - lo and behold it's Webb's shop and shows the lane on the left confirmed as Chauntry Place as per the sign. Dated 1895.

Thank you Neil really unusual photo.

I had a copy of this but couldn't remember where I got it. Thanks Neil. A very early and sweet view of the Swanswell Gate. The little dinky road that runs towards the gate is the original route before Hales Street was built. It curved round passed Chauntry Terrace to meet up with an equally small track running from St Agnes Lane. Together they then crossed over the Shebourne, along the mill dam and into New Buildings. St Agnes Lane end was also a narrow track, constrained I believe by a small stream coming from St Agnes Well and the Radford Brook. The area to the right with Hales Street was probably built up, because I suspect everything to the right of the gate through Pool Meadow was low and marshy and may have been part of the lake that probably snaked through Coventry at one point. The flooding episodes in the city were a reminder of what was originally there. The city wall comes in from the left, behind the little cottage and then carried on from the front edge of the gatehouse, kicking out round Pool Meadow. The wall originally carried on from the other corner of the gate, heading for the river. The wooden pilings for another gate were discovered in the mud by the river, proving the accounts of the wall being redirected at the behest of the Priory to include their fishing pools. It was estimated that the poor souls who built the abandoned gate would have had to work chest deep in water and mud. They left behind shoes, tools and horseshoes, where the mud had sucked stuff right off the owners. You can imagine how they felt when someone said 'sorry, but we've got to move it over there'. They even had to reclaim the stones.

Florence (Lady) Herbert