Hillfields

Hi all. Just found this topic, very interesting and memorable too. Does anyone remember the Cum Bak cake shop opposite the Freemasons in Harnall Lane and its owner Sam Baker. Pie, peas and chips 1s/10d (less than 10p) it was a lot better than school dinners at Freddies, it used to be full of us at dinner times, much to the annoyance of the lorry drivers and workmen who used to dine there. Does anyone know what happened to Sam Baker?

Really enjoying the photos of this fascinating group of buildings Where would that shot have been taken from Anne? Actually ironically enough for us Anne, looking at old-maps (circa 1950), it could have been from Yardley Street! Covjb35 - your photos are fantastic - how did you get to go inside? Surely someone would have saved some of the old weaving equipment? Was it left just sitting there? The more post-war photos of old Coventry we discover on this forum of pre-war buildings that survived the war - I'm genuinely staggered - considering the amount of buildings lost - there was seemably not more of an outcry when those ageing structures were finally bulldozed. Hadn't we already lost enough? Or were the powers-that-be too powerful to be stopped?

I've found some more fantastic photos of the Triangle plus some other 19th century Workshop images from this early 70's study that has been put online in PDF form: Factory Workshops in Coventry Photos start on Page 28 - some brilliant images. Rights to the owner which also includes some excellent history within his research. Sadly demolition commenced in September 1972 and completed early '73

And further detective work - interesting reading from the Nuneaton and North Warwickshire Family History Society Journal here, with a history of Eli Green himself (from page 5).

Here is a shot of the Triangle with a JCB nibbling away at it.

This 1972 shot gives a good insight into the location compared to today's view - the point where Berry Street becomes King William Street is where the west facade of the triangle lay on Brook Street. Today you can only see a pathway along the side of the Baptist Church to indicate where Brook Street was. This is the section in the photo below - the football pitch is in today's grounds of St Mary and St Benedict's School. Good to see the old pylons at Highfield Road too Looks like that was a lovely day.

Sorry Neil I don't know when these pictures were taken. Some of the pictures Mr Beasley used he has got from other places but the ones he has taken round Hillfields seem to have been taken about the same time. The cars seem to be of the same era so I am sure someone could date them approximately. You asked on the Eli Green page where the picture was taken from. I have this one of Cox Street which is obviously taken from the block of flats on the right of your picture of Weston Street so I think the Eli Green one was taken from the same flats. Mr Beasley could well have lived in that area before he moved to Bonds Hospital. This picture was obviously taken a little while before the Weston Street one.

Fascinating picture Anne but that's clearly Weston Street looking towards Swanswell Street and not Cox Street.

Very true, Dutchman.

Sorry, don't know the area much. Can only go on the comments on the pictures.

In the mid-sixties, I remember twin boys at Freddies Juniors (Michael and John?) whose parents ran the Cum Bak Cafe. I don't remember their surname, only that they were younger than I was, had very dark hair, and that they were twins, a much rarer thing back then.

Wellington Street 1896

The Rev Eric W Jones went to Melanesia (Fiji, Solomon Islands etc). That's more north east of Australia. He married (after leaving St Peter's). His wife (Muriel Jones) wrote a book "Married to Melanesia" about their life there. He returned to the Coventry Diocese and was at St Bartholomew's Binley. He finally retired in 1987 from the North Ferncumbe Group of Parishes and died on 10 May 2009. (scrutiny - not 16 May as I wrote elsewhere)