Cheylesmore Manor

I don't think there a separate thread for this but found this shot interesting - before it became the Registry Office.

Great shot, Neil - I see it's dated 1926 It's just as I remember it in the early 1960s as I used to cycle through there each day on my paper round, to deliver to one of the old cottages which backed on to the rear of the Quadrant!

Smack opposite on New Union Street there was (is?) a pub, which was called something like the Hare and Squirrel when I lived in Cov, and it bore a road nameplate which read "Cheylesmore". Even as a young kid I thought it odd. "It's nowhere near Cheylesmore!", I maintained, as I had friends who lived in Cheylesmore. In my book it was in the centre of town. I guess boundaries move over the years, something which is no doubt exacerbated by the estate agents' trick of shifting boundaries to make a property appear to be located in an upmarket area, whereas in fact it's in a doss-hole area. The practice is not confined to estate agents. I once had an audition at an agency in London. They had moved during the year, and gave their new address as Kensington. I had a job locating it until I looked at the map. It was actually in Shepherd's Bush, an area I always used to associate with rag-and-bone merchants! A colleague once told me she was stopped by a stranger in a car, and asked directions to a place in Coventry she'd never heard of. She looked at the paperwork, and realised it was Cheylesmore, but it had been pronounced Shay-le-moir

Yes, Hare and Squirrel is correct, Slim. Cheylesmore is the name of the road which runs from St Patricks Road to Friars Road (it used to run to Cow Lane/Union Street and the bottom of Greyfriars Lane) - map

I think most people know Cheylesmore as the street where the "Dole Office" is, although most of it has now moved elsewhere.

The manor was A shaped originally but the left and middle wings were gone by the time anyone captured them on paper. The right wing survived the war but was demolished. There are a lot of images out there of the buildings and some of the best are at Historic England. What remains is the gatehouse, which was the north east end of the complex. Britain From Above also has some good shots of the building, that help locate where the photos are looking at. More photos of Cheylesmore

I can remember walking through the archway of the Manor, past all the cottages still lived in at the time with front gardens (late 1950s very early 1960s). The pathway came out at the end of The Quadrant next to the YMCA. Is it still there by the way?

Manor House Drive has been built more or less in its footprint Have a look using the side-by-side map

Hi Coventry49 , Yes the archway is still there, it leads to Manor House Drive. On the left is Triumph House which is a newish building of modern flats. The YMCA building is still there but it hasn't been the YMCA for a long time, I think it is still belongs to Coventry University.

Thanks MR & OL. It all looks so built up now I doubt I would recognise it.

Great to see this weavers row pre-demolition here recently which popped up on FB. Looking at my maps it appears these ran right along where the gap in New Union Street is now between the estate agents towards the registry office. Shame no-one had the forethought at the time to save them but they appear to have been condemned as slums already by the time these were taken.

Great memories for me - I passed by these buildings each day when I delivered newspapers for Walter Adams of Warwick Row They were also on my regular walking/cycling route to and from town, via Greyfriars Lane

If you look at your post #1 you can see the buildings through the gateway

There are a lot more pictures of Cheylesmore Manor and the cottages in our 'Library Pictures' section.

Ahh I didn't notice that Cliff, thanks - so is the shot in #1 taken looking north east towards Cow Lane etc? Just trying to get my bearings. What was the reason for creating New Union Street, does anyone know - apologies for going slightly off-thread but it's at such a juxtaposition to the way it was around there.