Coventry builders

Here is a photo taken of T.W. Liggins builder, don't know who is standing in the doorway nor where the photo could be taken from. If you look at the picture carefully, in the window of the shop you may notice what I think is St John's Church, the shape is uncanny and you can see the turrets on the top. To the left of the building there is a gap (could this be demolition or bomb damage)

I think it's much earlier than that? A "Thomas William Liggins" (builder) married Catherine Newbold on 8th August 1882 at Holy Trinity Church and from the way the person in the photo is dressed, the picture could well have been taken on that same day! From the slope of the ground I would say it was the east side of Hill Street, somewhere near the Newdigate Arms on the corner of Bond Street although documents of the time give his home address in 1891 as being in Queen Victoria Road.

How interesting, could give me some new leads, thanks for helping me out

Trade Directory for 1912-13 has T W Liggins & Co, Builders, at 102 Queen Victoria Road Agree it doesn't stack up with the photo and the sloping ground

The interest in this is great!! Does anybody think that the reflection in the window could be that of St John's Church?

If the picture was taken in Hill Street, yes.

How could he be in two places at once? Intriguing mysteries again!

That picture couldn't have been taken in Queen Victoria Road as the ground there was completely flat. Nor could it have been taken in nearby Holyhead Road as the ground there slopes the opposite way. There is no reason why Liggins couldn't have moved from Hill Street to Queen Victoria Road after that picture was taken.

I wondered for a while if the reflection in the shop window could have been the tower of Queen's Road Baptist Church, but the slope is wrong.

Just a note to say that Mr Alf Youell passed away on Monday, age 98 He is listed on "Famous Coventrians" A really nice man and a great character

Was he anything to do with Youells the builders?

Just checked him out... the name rang a bell because Youells were a well known builder around Coventry and he built loads of properties in and around the town..He lived to a ripe old age....

Among many other developments, he built some houses at Aldermans Green and Warwick Green Bulkington.

Hi all Yes, he built many of the houses when the Armscott Rd & Blackberry Fields area of Wyken was being developed.(1950-60) You might like to read this too. Broadstreet Rugby Club Quote: Over the next few years the club extended, but it became obvious that the facilities at Henley Road were no longer large enough to cope with the number of teams that we regularly playing, and in 1970 the club entered into an agreement with Alf Youell of Youell Investments, to sell only the pitches at Henley Road, and to move to a new ground and clubhouse at Brandon Road. The new ground was opened in 1973 by Bob Weighhill, Secretary of the Rugby Football Union, and it was named the Ivor Preece Field, in honour of Ivor Preece, England and British Lions, who was also the club's President at the time. The club retained the Henley Road clubhouse still run it as a social club with over three hundred members. Once again, the club outgrew the facilities at the Brandon Road ground, and have now moved to the other side of the Coventry Eastern Bypass, to the new Ivor Preece Field. Alf Youell was also heavily involved in this move, along with Persimmon Homes, the purchasers of our previous ground. The new ground was opened by the great Rugby World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson (rugby union), captain of England national rugby union team, The British and Irish Lions, and Leicester Tigers. The new clubhouse has facilities, a 250-seater stand, car parking, five senior pitches, (two floodlit), mini and junior pitches, and forty-six acres of ground. The Ivor Preece field is used for representative rugby with the semi finals of the Daily Mail schools rugby played at both age groups here. England Deaf Rugby use the rugby facilities for training sessions and international matches.

Press report from New Zealand LINK and a previous article regarding this fine man LINK