Books on Coventry

Some of the drawings have been chopped, sadly, but some interesting online reading here from The history of Coventry, being a concise account of the ancient institutions, customs, & public buildings, of the city, and a complete epitome of modern changes; together with an appendix, including a copious and interesting chronology of local occurrences ... dated 1852! Not sure I've seen these before -

One large and fruitful source of images for me has been a collection of kids' sketches from the 1860s. One particularly annoying group of the same building all mention the Poddy Croft. There was nothing in the Poddy Croft. I finally worked out the building was actually the bottom of Greyfriars's Green, next to the Poddy. Tucked into Neil's picture above is another representation of the same building. Despite how the house was drawn, the map suggests that the gable on section was flush with the part of the building next to it. The funny little building with the chimney, in line with the garden wall was a wash house.

Ah, I have a very beaten-up copy of that Benjamin Poole book, and I did actually scan its lovely pictures and put them in "Rob's pics", along with dozens from his huge 1870 tome and one from his little 1847 first effort. However, I failed to label them adequately, so a search would not have come up with these two images above - sorry about that! To rectify this, I've just spent an hour or so labelling all the images from Poole's books so they can be found.... https://www.historiccoventryforum.co.uk/robs_pics/search.php?q=Poole+1852 Obviously replacing 1852 with either 1847 or 1870 will quickly find all the other images from those books - mostly drawn by Fred Taunton, but not all.

I have just found my father's copy of Wakelin's Street Guide of the City of Coventry that he kept in the inside pocket of his jacket. The Herbert has a 1940 edition but this one has no date to it. It does have Westmoreland Road and Bodmin Road that I'm not sure were there in 1940. I will bring it along to the brekkie.

Hi all, thank you so much for your support of my book. I am a Coventry University student currently on a placement year and the blitz has always interested me. You will be pleased to know all mistakes have been corrected by an editor and it has been republished. I funded the project and first print via a Just Giving page and raised £200. Since then I have sold over 50 copies and local bookshops are interested in stocking it! Thank you again for all of your support and kind words. Also thank you to Rob for his help and for adding the pictures I found during my research onto this website!

There is something hinky going on. Certain books are ridiculously expensive and it might be 'our' fault. By that I mean that the 2nd hand book sellers hike prices of anything people show an interest in. 'Coventry' seems to be hotly tipped, simply because some of us have been keen to get our hands on certain books. Gone are the days when you could pick up a decent book for pennies plus postage. Ok, some of the antiquarian books have always been expensive but others have been cheap. Some still are. I just bought 2 very chunky, modern, medieval architecture hardback books including postage for less than £7 in total. At the same time, my bête noire - the Coventry Patmore books - are silly high prices of sometimes over £100. Can there really be a wave of eager poetry readers for those titles or are they bumped up because of the word 'Coventry'? The only exception to my strong dislike of the Coventry Patmore series is Religio Poetae, which reads as Religious Potato in my mind. Every time. Dyslexia rules KO!

Hehe, like it! Who's to say that spuds can't be devout?!? As for your first part though - I've also suspected that for some time now. When I began collecting postcards and things to illustrate the fledgling website in the early 2000s, I rarely paid more than a couple of quid for a card. But within a few years the prices just kept ramping up, and between a tenner and twenty pounds is probably the average now. I often did wonder if popularising Coventry's history online was causing the perceived value of related items to be vastly inflated. There are many sellers on eBay who just "try it on" though, I think. The number of times I see the Walsgrave monument / church corner postcard come up, described as "super rare" and asking over £20 - when in fact it's only one of several for sale at any one time!

And what about those sellers who give incorrect information? Irritated by one seller I contacted him pointing out that what he was claiming in his information was total rubbish and the view (of some runner depicted was actually taken some 15 miles away in a completely different town and a different race.) He did have the courtesy to reply, thanking me and telling me he was only interested in the money... and a couple of years later the postcard is still advertised with no changes. The irony is, it would be snapped up by a collector /athletic historian if the correct details were given!

I feel slightly sorry for the person in France trying to sell a framed picture of Ford's hospital that's not particularly early and was printed back to front. I did tell one person that their view of Bayley Lane was about 100 years younger than they thought it was and fair's, fair they changed the description. Curiously, postcards are much more expensive than older etchings, even rare or unique ones. Like Rob you eventually get a feel for what is genuinely rare but if nobody buys them they're not worth what people are asking. Though, some come with stamps that increase the value and the potential market. Stamps are also an assurance that the card is genuine. The ones to beware of are the Library collection that are still sold today. To get a better deal and an older version, the packets of cards are a smarter choice. The ones that get my goat are the (mostly Australian) sellers flogging new images ripped off from old postcards and even Britain From Above and other museums. They even put writing across to pretend some exclusivity. I suspect that Amazon is part of the problem of silly prices. It uses a formular to auto inflate prices. Those sellers then pass the prices onto their Ebay shops. Other sellers then think that's what the things are worth. I mostly don't buy books from Amazon anymore because no matter how tightly I define what I'm looking for they present stuff they want to push instead. There was a book on Coventry archaeology I particularly wanted but the seller wouldn't come down below £40... a few weeks later I picked up a pristine copy from a pile of them at the Herbert archive for £2. I am really happy that unwanted books are now getting bought and enjoyed, instead of ending up in landfill, but sellers need to be careful they don't kill the market with greed.

Over the years Roy collected Military and aviation books. After I left work I created a web site to try and sell them. There is a lot and I went through every one and catalogued them so we could find them. I used to use Abebooks to check prices, some were coffee table books worth nothing and others a lot more. Some of the sellers had books sometimes up to 100 times the value really ridiculous prices, we think very often the prices weren't to sell but just to show a good stock price at the end of the year.

A good starter in Coventry archaeology here on Ebay - Coventry The Hidden History by Iain Soden. Note that it's not free postage, but the total is still a good price. Grab it while you can.

That's an excellent price for a very interesting and comprehensive book - I hope someone on here will be able to take advantage of that price while it's available.

Not quite books, but I've noticed that a lot of additional Coventry newspapers have been added to the archives recently along with Coventry Illustrated - which so far is tantalisingly few in number but a source of some interesting additions to my collection.

Hello Choirboy, I have a slightly earlier (?) edition of the Wakelin - see scan, it's priced at 4d and I reckon it's just pre-war as it includes Drinkwater Arcade and Vicar lane, Smithford Street (both destroyed in November 1940 Blitz). It lists Bodmin Road but not Westmoreland Road. On the map Bodmin Road exists but is not named and Westmorland Road is yet to be built. In the unnamed Bodmin Road is named Caludon House, presumably demolished to make way for the present housing. I estimate the map to be dated c 1947/1948, there are a lot of adverts for smal shops and businesses, one mentioning television so clearly not pre-war. Do you have a particular interest in the Westmorland Road/Bodmin Road area? Mods note: This conversation has continued in the Hostels and Guildhouses topic.

I just bought the Iain Soden book which has superb colour plates within. How neat that a Coventrian is also a trained archaeologist!