War Memorial Park

I can't ever remember seeing a bandstand in the Memorial Park though that's 'only' going back to the 70's. I was a regular visitor then as my aunt and cousins lived in Green Lane (North). Whereabouts was it?

The only reference I can find of a bandstand in the park is a temporary one erected in the summer of 1923 and removed at the end of 1924. Many of the smaller parks in Coventry had bandstands, however.

That's potentially great news, nice one for spotting it. Personally I like the last of the four illustrated options - a nice traditional bandstand with stone columns, which I feel would suit our Memorial Park best. Modern structures have their place, but I think our 1920s park would look better keeping to its tradition.

Totally agree with you Rob, very in keeping.

Ah well.... My memory must be wrong... perhaps one of the other parks....

I tell you what I do remember. On carnival day, there used to be bands playing on stage setups. Very similar to a band stand.

This map may answer the bandstand query?

Is it dated, Robthu?

No, Cliff, it was something I found looking for something else as you do and I love a map so chucked it in the map file, sorry. Derek.

I think that is part of an ordnance survey map or similar, 1938.

There is a map on Oldmaps online which looks the same, dated 1926. The bandstand is clearly marked on there, looks square. Looks to be where the visitors centre is now. There is a later one dated 1944 with it still marked. Surprisingly there is nothing on any aerial shots, but there is an article in the a 1947 Coventry Evening Telegraph about bands playing in the bandstand.

Hi Derek, I love maps too. The intriguing mystery of where something is hidden. The fiddleyards on our railway are much the same. I had a board game once, an adaption of snakes & ladders, but it was in the form of a map, where we had to be first to find "Red Jakes Treasure". It was full of intrigue, with jungles & witchdoctors. I love your posts. Thank you.

Not sure if this helps - from Google Earth 1945.

I think you may find that it is the formal entrance to Coventry's first athletic's track or more accurately Coventry's first cinder banked cycle track which was used for athletic events on tolerance. The Midland Cycle and Athletic Company had four meetings annually here. It was partially abandoned when the Butts track was built. By skipping over the back fence, punters didn't have to pay (the path which went from Westminster/Grosvenor Road, over the railway, along the top of Spencer Park, along Dalton Road, right along the ginnel). Incidentally, the bowling green in Morningside is the site of the track - when it was abandoned it became a council nursery. After a few years someone discovered that there was a codicil attached to the deeds of the cycle track limiting the field to sporting activity. I wonder if this was when the bowling green was laid? The police had to attend every other meeting or so because of fighting caused by the bookies not being too free to part with the punters' winnings. Crowds of a couple of thousand used to attend each meeting which attracted cyclists of the quality of 50 mile world record holder Richard Howells. (cf the Stevens woven picture of him, the track in the top left hand corner is a depiction of the original track which can be appreciated more fully in Stevens FIRST version of "The Last Lap" with the safety bicycle - the 1904 version shows the Butts with the Ordinary bicycle. And by a chance in a million, the local papers reported that the crowd walking down Warwick Road after the last cycle meeting of the season (1879) witnessed the end of Coventry Godiva Harriers' very first fixture, supposedly chased by an irate farmer because the runners had trampled his crops. This tale is almost certainly apocryphal as many new harrier clubs around the country quote this story of the farmer with his pitchfork chasing the pack of athletes (cf Rob Grillo's book "Crusty Farmers with Pitchforks")... what crops would the athletes have trampled in October anyway?