Massey Ferguson

Hi does anyone know when the Masseys tower block is being demolished. So far I've heard the 8th and 10th July. It would be interesting to watch this happen.

Hi Pat, I understand that the demolition will take place on 2nd July. As you can see from the photograph the tower has been pretty well stripped out.

Hi Pat & Chaingang, Maybe we need to check, as I have the date down as Sunday 8th July - though not sure what time.

Sorry my mistake! I should have said 8th July

Yep 8th according to the BBC

Hi thank you very much for that. I'll try to get there. Good job you told me thanks

Hi chaingang and Neils yard. Thanks for last bit of information. I'll go by what you said the BBC say then. Think it may be a dusty day

Here it is this morning

Yes it's looking pretty sorry for itself now. Another piece of history to go

Have to say I was amazed at the house sales when you had the tower in your back garden! If anyone knows the time when it's going to go down, let us know here - one for the video camera.

I think the condition of the building played a massive part in no-one wanting it, and I also think it was deliberately allowed to deteriorate as much as possible to put people off so they could pull it down, but that's just personal speculation. Had it been in better nick it could have been useful as a community building, with stuff like shops, a library, other services like a doctors etc, a gym and other recreational facilities provided whilst allowing the developer to use as much of the land for housing as possible. I've heard that they may have to provide a primary school due to the size of the development and it could possibly have also been put partly to use for that. It also makes me slightly sceptical about the Friargate development. Although those buildings would be brand new and nowhere near as tall as Massey's, if no-one wanted it I really don't see how they can realistically expect to fill around a dozen office blocks as part of that development even with its proximity to the train station.

Before the office block was there we demolished a long single storey building with a flat concrete roof, I never did know what it was used for, any ideas anyone?

Wasn't there a long building at the rear that still had camouflage on it where they tested Aircraft engines during WWII? Think that had a flat roof like a shelter.

Possibly Catshed, there was nothing left inside to give a clue, I remember it was heavy duty and hard to bring down, the bricks stayed together in big lumps, I seem to remember something about a telephone exchange, but maybe not, it has been a long time ago and the old memory fails me at times. Thanks for your response.

My memory's the same I didn't work there but we used to work for them at Lawford Heath Airfield nr Rugby, the tractors came to us complete and we stripped them for export 'CKD' (complete knock down) or 'PKD' (partial) but sometimes we had to go up there to rectify stencilling on cases or take slave parts back so had a quick glimpse of the site. I rode past the site about a month ago on my old Triumph, it was the first time I'd been past since they had pulled it down, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry so I just shook my head in disbelief and rode on. I'm only an outsider to Coventry as I came here in 1985 from Daventry, and in that short time I've seen the large industries going at the click of a finger, it must be quite upsetting being an older Coventrian that's worked at these places to see their demise.