Courthouse Green

According to this page, Sewall Highway was planned in 1932. It was of course in two separate sections for many years.

mcsporran, thank you, proof of the pudding.

Bell Green Road was Courthouse Green. This listing shows the houses numbered starting from the Old Church Road end.

Heathite. Thank you for your list of names, unfortunately for me they are to early. I think the Randles and the Roses may have moved into Bell Green Road in the early thirties.

Really interesting to read the Bell Green Road directory, thanks for posting it. I remember many of the house names on that directory, even though it was compiled a good 25 years before my memory comes into play, having been a paperboy delivering the length of Bell Green Road and down Sewall Highway, Elgar Street, Sullivan Road and Purcell Road. I confess that, as an uncultured 13 year old, the fact that those last four streets were named for famous English composers was completely lost on me. In about 1957ish when I was 9 I briefly attended Mrs. Stafford's for piano lessons, a futile exercise for both of us. Her house was one half of a large impressive house on the junction of Bell Green Road and Sewall Highway with Courthouse Green infants school to the rear. In the later 50s the Proffitt Avenue side of that junction was widened by demolishing a cottage and traffic lights installed. We used to sit in the watchman's shelter and warm ourselves by his coke brazier. There was a spectacular crash within days when a car ran through the lights and t-boned another car, sending it cartwheeling down Sewall Highway. I gave a witness statement to a PC, quite scary for a kid. The weavers cottages just past The Weavers pub, which form a sort of right angle on that old map, were eventually derelict by the early 60s and demolished some time after. Kelsey at 153b was a shop next to the gates of the junior school. I notice on Google maps it still is. Courthouse Green was a smashing school, I absolutely loved it there. There's a very good section about it elsewhere on this site.

I found the house listings for Bell Green Road very interesting. It shows my grandfather George Lester at No 77. He later moved to No 222 which was in a row of 5 cottages opposite Clark Street. These were demolished 20 years ago but a new building is currently being erected in their place. My grandfather's brother Henry Lester is at No 97. There is Albert Rawston listed at No 66 but I believe this to be a misprint. The family was called Rowstron and Albert (b1876) was the husband of Eliza Bird, my 1st cousin twice removed. They lived in a row of thatched cottages in front of the Golden Fleece pub, between Armfield Street and the brook. There are two other Birds (John & William Henry) who are probably brothers of my great grandmother. I noticed there are two Oldhams but no relation to me as far as I know. Although only born in 1951 a lot of the names are familiar to me: Demlow, Wildsmith.

Can anyone offer an explanation as to how the town planners reversed the road numbering and kept the public 'on board'? Here is the link for the Beaudesert Road note. Food for thought . .

Yes, it looks as if the numbering system for Bell Green Road was changed after 1929 so that it started at Navigation Bridge/Stoney Stanton Road because the Rowstron family always lived near the Golden Fleece. The above 1935 directory shows Albert Rowstron (senior) father of my mum's best friend Nellie Rowstron living at 327 Bell Green Road. I have attached a Christmas card that Nellie sent to my mum at Christmas 1930 and it gives the address as 327 Bell Green Road so the renumbering must have occurred after 1930. In my earlier post I said that the 1929 directory listed my grandfather at No 67 but the later one states 222. I always thought he had lived in the same house and this renumbering bears this out

I was told many years ago that local authorities used a reference point such as the main post office or the town hall. Addresses in a road would be numbered starting at the nearest to that reference point, odd on the left, even on the right. I assume Bell Green Road changed when Bell Green/Courthouse Green were incorporated back into the City of Coventry from the County of Warwickshire.

I lived at no 19 Bell Green Road right opposite the Morris Factory from 1945 to 1956. I knew Mrs Oldham at no 27, the other neighbours then were Mr Wise at no 15, Mr Rouse at no 17, Mr Gazey at no 21, Mr Marriott at no 23, Mr Jones at no 25. Lower down there was Dyers General Store, Albertons Cycle Repairs, Roses Garage and Harry Higgins shop. On the corner of Nuffield Road and Bell Green Road we had Majors the butchers, Sunderlands bakery, etc, a Chemist then Griffins the post office / paper shop. There was a very nice lady who worked in Griffins for years, Mrs Sanderson, she then took over the post office at Wood End.

I remember all those shops so well. The Griffins at the paper shop were a lovely couple, I delivered papers for them for two years. The pay was 17/6 a week and 2/6 in the pound for collecting the paper money each Friday. One of my sisters worked in the post office after leaving school and loved it there. The shop was ideally placed. Each morning there was a seemingly endless stream of men buying a paper and a packet of fags then again in the evening a Telegraph and fags. I had to be over the other side of the road before the Morris knocked off or I'd be stranded until the traffic, bikes mainly, had passed. There were a few other shops, Buggins shoe repairs and Masdens paint and decorating supplies. On the corner of Proffitt Avenue there were Hydes butchers, Blue Chain greengrocers and Worthingtons grocers. It was Bill Aubertin who had the bike repair/ironmomgers/Esso blee doolers shop. Some time in the late 50s or early 60s the Co-op built the funeral directory on the empty side of Bell Green Rd. Hydes butchers sold pork batches on Friday and Saturday nights, food of the gods.

I forgot Hydes butchers. In the late 40s and early 50s they gave us a metal dustbin to put all our cabbage, lettuce leaves, etc in and collected the bin to feed their pigs, and in return they gave us a large leg of pork at Christmas. The things we did in post war Britain.

Is this the new building?

Since some members liked the listings, here's some images of the older buildings in Courthouse Green/Bell Green Road.

Thanks for the pictures Heathite. Although not exactly pretty, the area never was, they are thought provoking and memory evoking. The Weavers is still the same, I had my first half pint of Ansells Mild there when I was 15, almost 55 years ago now. I even remember putting a record on the jukebox - Bob Dylan's "Times they are a changin". Kelsey's shop appears to be a hairdressers. I can taste sherbet when I think of Kelseys, you got 4 sherbet flying saucers for a penny. Many of the old houses remain although a bit out of context because of the newer buildings. The school gateway remains, I'm glad. The final picture was of course very different. The land that now has the high rise and the apartments etc was an open field when I was a kid. We would collect wild flowers and draw them for nature study at the infants school. I'm quite the expert on buttercups, dandelions and stinging nettles. The place has changed, mainly to accommodate the motor car but when I come home it's good to see the people haven't.