Coventry Digital

If anything needs identifying ASAP, I'll be online tomorrow, to do what I can to help. Fingers crossed it all goes well and you find something extra special. Like Silver Street for Neil

A great morning was had on Saturday. Not only a chance to get back in to the Archive's but the Sun was shining and MotoFest was on as well so town was buzzing. I'm afraid most of the morning was spent learning how to use the camera and Mac to capture the images but was great to finally be able to say I've handled some Wingrave plates. We only managed to get through one small'ish box to start with. It was all fairly standard fare tbh Helen but there is a pile of boxes awaiting us! We are collating a spreadsheet of what's desired the most in terms of images we really want and Ben is going to setup and share along with dates we can reconvene to really progress this work. Paramjit the Archive manager is helping us to fish out what we really want. I'm available most Saturday mornings to go in for a couple of hours. Will keep you all posted on the next one!

Glad you had fun. I will be patient, honest I will

Dear all I'm currently uploading the Wingrave plates in glorious high resolution. My thanks to the team. Damien Kimberley has other photographic collections he's keen to digitise, which he's happy to chat about. Very pleased to be able to zoom in on some details, including one of Bull Ring from Butcher Row, down to the old Ironmonger Row at the bottom. Thanks especially to Wingrave, I could zoom in on no9 Ironmonger Row, which displayed the partial-sign '...on museum' belonging to 'James Hegan'. A bit of investigation from Damien and me found that James Hegan was at the Unicorn near the OGS in 1872 and that David Smith that same year opened the Golden Lion Museum on Ironmonger Row, with birds and animals from around the word, presumably stuffed in glass cases.. It seems that sometimes afterwards, Hegan moved to take over the museum. This got us thinking about private cultural heritage in Coventry. The Coliseum on Whitefriar's Street was a little more pleasure palace than museum. Damien mentioned a chap with a museum of his grand tour, sited on Earl Street on the location of the Council house. This is a bit like Paget Wade at Snowshill for me. Finally, we move into the C20th with Shelton's museum at 66 Little Park Street. Any more info, gratefully received. I also took a look at the BoH documents. Helen, it will be done on my book scanner given the size and binding. Need to plan that though and I'm off for a well deserved break for a few weeks. As for the Saturdays, Damien is happy to supply the earliest photographic negative collections he can find if we are happy to continue with that.

Zoom in to the bottom of the road...

Based on the 1874 directory the pub/museum was classed as number 9 Bull Ring. It's possible that the museum was a way to get people into the pub. Neither owner is described as having a museum in the directory. The part photo of the Unicorn doesn't mention a museum. However in 1868 David Smith was at the Vampire at 48 Jordan Well, which in 1855 (doubtful date, probably should be 1865) was known as the Vampire Museum Inn. From this forum and Anne (Annewiggy): In December 1863 David Smith respectfully informed his friends that he has moved from Little Park Street to the Vampire Tavern where he will continue to be a preserver of animals, reptiles and insects. So the museum creator sounds like David Smith. I'll attempt to trace him further.

In 1883 David Smith was a taxidermist in Jordan Well. He made an exhibition of stuffed birds etc at a bazaar at the Paradise Primitive Methodist Chapel.

Anne, you're brilliant. I wonder if any of his work made it into the Herbert collection?

In a Chapel too Anne. I hope he stopped at birds etc !!!

Rob, Steve and I whooped frequently when bits like that appeared during scanning. We had a real teaser on Saturday with a shot of St Michael's over and along Pepper Lane that would've captured the end of Derby Lane however the view was obscured as the negative was damaged from the Newspaper it appeared to have been wrapped in - which we then observed was a Victorian newspaper going by the font marked on the glass.

There are a few pictures out there of the part demolished prison wall looking from the north. I too would like to get a better look at that area. The actual corner of Derby Lane is very elusive. One of the Pepper Lane rooftop shots was in better nick than the other. Some of the pictures are very interesting though. Previous prints of the views cut off the worst of the damage, so missed a few details. To quote the young Mr Grace 'you've all done very well!'

I believe that this one is back to front? It is a good example of the original cobbled streets.

It wasn't us! This is the one with the Paper damage on and that Derby Lane corner - Zoom in lower left you can see the old font.

One thing that is missing from public access is a detailed photographic record of the surviving historic buildings. Especially Bablake School, White Friars and Fords but also more modern buildings like the Council House. Sometimes duplicates of the same part of a building are made over and over but less photogenic/accessible places are never captured. Some modern photographic surveys of the cellars that still survive would also be of interest?