Broadgate

Helen, you're so right, My grandfather lost two sons and two daughters to TB, it was absolutely rife, early twentieth century, my family were riddled with it, including me, but everyone put it down to milk in those days. I like your version of damp better. I posted on Butcher Row somewhere about the smells and pollution of the area. Some shops smelled real rancid, but great sides of meat were out in the open, some were covered slightly with a thin layer of muslin but it never covered the whole carcass. Few shopkeepers washed their hands between handling things, pat their brylcreemed hair, then handle cheese etc. ''Ugh''

Just come across this view - not sure of a date (possibly 1970?) Rather nice, isn't it!

What is the building valiantly hanging on centre left as Owen's rises? Would that have been West Orchard or Market Place?

It fronted onto West Orchard. It's described as a basket factory in the insurance maps.

Hi all, recently found this picture in my late brother's photos, no idea when it was taken, but judging by the colour it may be 1970's or it could be my brother's lousy camera.

I am not surprised it shows up on insurance maps! Firetrap was a word often used. I never knew that there was any mention of it anywhere. It was not producing much by the time the picture was taken. The basket making industry was very much on the decline. It had been a restricted occupation in wartime, and baskets could only be made for war purposes. Also the agreements concerning the trades having to use locally made baskets had lapsed. I can just about remember three old chaps doing repairs for market baskets and also parts work for the Birmingham picnic basket trade. Plastic was starting to take over. One of my uncles opened a factory in Kent using plastic injection moulding machines liberated from Italy. Supplies of willow were haphazard. 1947 was a bad weather year for the few growers that were struggling on, unlike the prewar years when all aspects of the trade were blooming, especially the sidecar trade. The building itself was not built specifically but had been a market admin building. Family stories state that it was against this building that a cart was placed for the speech of Thomas Mann. Does this mean that it was the building next door to the pubs shown in the old photographs? Was it the original early Market House?

Thanks DiggerDave, that's interesting information. It is the building next to the Dolphin pub. I'm not sure if the building was old or not. Some had brick skins added, though my gut tells me this was newish. The area was knocked about because a whole row of buildings was demolished from that point to Cross Cheaping to widen West Orchard. That process left the Talbot Inn on the corner instead of one building into Cross Cheaping. In the 1750 map the market building shows an upper floor to the roof on pillars arrangement shown in later sketches and photos. That was probably the market house.

Helen. Photo on 421post has to be 1950/2 time. Could it not have been the pub, I forget the name of the pub, but it was there when they were building Owens. Helen, I enjoy and admire your knowledge of the old Coventry, puts me to shame, for I walked round the old buildings for so many years and knew nothing of any of them. But no one ever mentions the rats - is there a taboo or distaste to talk of them? With rivers below, deep cellars, and so much old wood Coventry was infested with them. I know for certain Butcher Row was and it was widely spoken of swarms of them when the bombing was on. One rumour was they ran down the whole of Trinity Street from gutter to gutter and from Broadgate to the Fire Station. Quite believable if you knew the buildings of the thirties and before. As much as I loved the old buildings I would never have wanted to live in them and I suppose it dulled the glamour of them for me.

Rats are an important fact of life. I'll certainly have to think of adding a few to my final model. Like you, the romance of the old buildings is tempered by the reality of living in them. Even the 1940s house I live in has long term deficiencies I'd prefer to do away with. The solidity of bricks and mortar is an illusion based on the relative slowness that they fall apart. Kaga, your histories are very valuable. You recount things that are almost as lost as the lives of the people who built the original Coventry. You lived through such difficult but extraordinary times. Until someone needs to know those facts, few will understand how important they are. I need to spend more time reading all the memories listed by older members of the site because I don't know in advance what will spark an idea. My knowledge is based entirely on other people's contributions, with the exception of a few connections I've made looking at all the data together. My personal experiences of the city are very small, I'm ashamed to admit. I still haven't personally visited half the sites I now know intimately. My excuse is that there is only so much I can read/see and remember. I'm currently re-reading the archaeology accounts that are now making sense. The first time I read them, not a word or detail stuck in my head. The building could well have been a pub by the time it was photographed. It looks like it got a fake cladding of timber to make it look old. I know of several other genuine timber buildings that had brick skins and then fake cladding. So it's impossible to say if any of it was original. Who knows, someone might pop up and write 'I used to work there, it was a scrubby old Victorian brick building' or 'if you went into the loft you could see the ancient, smoke aged timbers.' I don't say it enough to the lovely people on this site but thanks. Don't underestimate your contributions!

Helen. Thank you. But that was the time Coventry had a dream to fill, we were on the edge of something new, we had got rid of the black days of the forties. I think everyone felt excited, and the time of the 'beautiful girl' that added spice to the city. I must have walked through that picture three or four times a day. (I'm off topic again).

Could the pub have been 'The Old Talbot'? Info from the Real Ale Rambles site.

Well spotted Heathite, Ye Olde Talbot Inn seems about right. The building was about the closest to the old pub to survive. It would have helped restore some continuity to re-open such a popular pub near to the market and Broadgate. It explains the mock Tudor look too as the original Talbot Inn was such a fine example of the real thing.

Thank you Helen but credit goes to Kaga. I read his input and just put some pieces together, using directories, old-maps and the Real Ale Rambles web site. I am often surprised at just how useful that site is for research. It has oodles of information that can be useful for social and family history. I have it 'favourited' as it is so good. Heathite.

Is this the one with the white van with mostly black roof to the left of it?