What brought us to Coventry, and what took us away?

The address I have relates to this shop

Like so many people responding to this topic, my father's family arrived from Wales because there was no work there in the 1920s. I was given a very Welsh name and my grandmother was really keen for us to be able to pronounce Welsh words and count in Welsh. I was always very proud of my Coventry heritage, though. I am an old boy of KHVIII and a Freeman of the City. 10 years ago I was asked to take up a role (as a church minister) in Wales (as it happens, it is near to Llandeilo, mentioned by some of the other respondents). The fact that I have a strong Welsh name and can pronounce Welsh words has gone down very well with the locals, but I still yearn for the city that I grew up in - as long as I can go back to the 1950s and 60s

Though I am an ex-pat now I was born in Coventry because my maternal grandfather left Grantham in 1905 where he was a toolmaker at Rushton's to find better employment in Coventry. He did at the Royal Ordnance Works, producing the heavy naval guns, then went back to marry my grandmother and brought her to Coventry. So you can say I have Lincolnshire blood in my veins. However on the paternal side I have traced my ancestry back to pre 1600 at Middleton, near Tamworth. My great-great-great grandfather was the youngest son of a farming family in Baxterley and so he had to look for employment which he found as farm manager in Cannocks Lane, Canley owned by a gentleman farmer in Leamington. The double fronted farmhouse still stands, though a modern close of houses have been built beside it. He retired and died in Corley but from then on the family moved into Coventry and stayed there, later generations working in the motor industry. I am sad at what has happened to central Coventry though there are gems to be found. The one thing I would like is to have been able to go inside St Michael's prior to its destruction. My gt-grandparents married there and many baptisms of other family branches took place either there or in Trinity. The only way to get a real sense of St Michael's is to go into Trinity and try to imagine it on a larger scale with the wonderful apse end that is now gaunt and open in the Cathedral next door. Nostalgia perhaps but it could have been made such a beautiful city had more been preserved.

I guess the stork brought me that fine day in 1950, and I'm still here. Never been anywhere else other than for holidays.

Well I guess I came with the canal boats in the 18th century. My great great grandfather bought boats and a boat repair yard in Coventry in the early 19th century, they also had wharfs etc in the canal basin, top of Bishop Street, then houses, and so on, the Slough, Roses Garage. Now the family are spread around the world and a great many under various names still in Coventry. I came in 1927.