Hillfields

It does look like 3 tees rather than ells. It might take an old medical dictionary to work out exactly what it referred to. Diseases had a variety of names before they were pinned down (eg my Mum warned us against sitting on cold surfaces or we'd get chincough - which we all, including Mum, assumed was piles. Only it turned out to be hooping cough). What would we do without the internet?

At the turn of the twentieth century, a deep brook passed by the large pool of Swanswell, upon the borders of Coventry of the old city and the new town - Hillfields as it was called for a long time. The low ground immediately surrounding the pool was covered in extensive osier and reed beds, a favourite resort and breeding place of all kinds of water fowl. Wild duck, widgeon, dipper and water hen were constant visitors enlivened by the sounds of warblers that abounded. The water itself teemed with fish - pike, perch, roach, tench and eels, afforded sport for anglers. Before the new town of Hillfields encroached on it, the water was bordered with fine old pollards (pruned trees), willows that grew on the edge right up into Hillfiields, and clusters of tall elms, chestnuts and maples. There was a path that bounded the pool, led across the fields to Harnall Lane, which was a mile long where it ended at Stoke at Swan Lane. It was a beautiful, rugged place, so narrow in parts that farm carts almost touched either side. Ferns abounded in rich profusion, toadflax, horehound, in a secluded place like this, hundreds of birds, butterflies and wild flowers - bluebells, primrose and cranes bill (geranium). The highest part of Hillfields was Primrose Hill, from which a path runs across two fields into Swan Lane, named for its mass of primroses. This hill was beautifully wooded with stately elms, maples, and oaks, smaller white birch and then pines - thirty, forty feet high, romantic, wild and so beautiful, enlivened by the rich songs. The home of the nightingale, blackbird, finches etc - such beauty. Among these stately trees, the mansion called Primrose Hill House. Around 1850 they built Swanswell pool and had filled it by November.

Very atmospheric Kaga. The picture below shows the mound/hill at Primrose Hill Park. This is the map at least 50 years earlier. The mound above doesn't look big enough to fit the map details but I assume that the path winding round was very narrow. An ornamental feature of the gardens that wasn't meant to speed access to the top. The mound is still there but the area is very changed, partly due to mining and partly due to reconstructive landscaping. Obviously the Swanswell Pool is much older than the modifications made in 1850. The mill there was very ancient and the area to the south of it was crossed by channels created by the monks. I assume that they were essential for drainage. Even before the wall was built the area was semi protected by the marshy ground. Most if not all of the city's gatehouses had wooden piles driven deep into the mud to help support the weight of the stones. Godiva and Leofric were very generous to give half the city to the Church but they kept the best bit for themselves.

My memories of Primrose Hill are from the late 1960s/early 1970s. Opposing football hooligans would fight to take the hill from each other as they walked back to town after a City match - the police usually won in the end, usually after one or both sets of hooligans had made a tactical withdrawal! It was nicknamed "Pork Chop Hill" after the 1959 Korean War film starring Gregory Peck.

Helen, Primrose Hill - one part of the hill had been quarried very extensively to a great depth for the valuable sandstone it contained, the stone used in the construction of the city walls and gates about six hundred years ago. The sides of the excavations were terraced in all directions under the shade of the trees.

The terracing and sandstone quarry isn't apparent on the 1850 map other than a small quarry on what was later to become Nicholls Street. By 1888 the quarry features are there. There were several quarries around the city, so no one quarry was needed to provide massive quantities. So while it's possible the terracing was missed off the earlier map it looks like it was mostly a later endeavour. By your time Kaga, it would have looked pretty old.

Not my time Helen. J Gutteridge about 1820.

Christine Hill

Hello there, I'm new to this forum but have been drawn here by the lovely stories and great memories many people have recounted. I had grandparents and great-grandparents that lived in Perkins Street from about 1905 until it was demolished. They lived next door to each other for quite some time. I have very early memories as a small child, being taken by my mum to visit my gran, who lived there alone by then (sadly my granddad and great grandparents had passed before my birth). I remember walking down the street, passing a huge gap in the long stretch of terraced houses, where there was just rubble, and much later finding out that this was where a German bomb had taken down two (I think) houses during WW2. This was only several house up from where my gran lived, so a lucky miss for our family, but through young eyes it looked like a great place to go and play (not that I was allowed to at the time). Eventually, my gran was moved to 2-storey flats in Radford when the street was emptied, but I can't remember when that was. Sadly, my gran has long since passed and my mum more recently, so I no longer have family to ask. I was trying to think what year this might have been and guess that it was probably late 60's sometime, but I don't actually know what year Perkins Street was demolished, and have been unable to find much out about the history or fate of the street or the surrounding streets that subsequently disappeared. Does anyone know of any good publications or sources (printed or digital) that cover this subject at all? There seems to be a lack of information generally on the internet about it, or I am just unable to find it. Thank you.

Hi Rigsby and welcome. Try reading through this topic.

Hi Rigsby, welcome to the forum. As mentioned in this topic, it was swallowed up by the construction for the Sidney Stringer School, sometime late 60s, early 70s. The school might have more information about its development. Link to Old Maps Zoom out a few times to see first map. Skip through the dates to see how the area changed. There are photos on the net for this street. There are also ones at the Coventry Digital - you'll need a free login to see them. Link to Perkins search This is a link to Coventry Archives that mention "Perkins Street" Search for Perkins Street at Coventry Collections Hope these help

Hi Rigsby. Looking through the newspaper archives there are several stories about people moving out if Perkins Street and compulsary purchase orders which were around 1971 and 1972. There are several names mentioned so if you would like to give me yoyr Nan's name either on here or via my link I will have a look to see if she is mentioned in any of them.

Thank you scrutiny. A very interesting read. Thank you so much Helen for the pointers and the links - very useful. I have since confirmed that the Sidney Stringer School was opened sometime in either 1971 or 1972 (different sources state different years), so there is a definite cut-off period for me. However, I found a mention of a Compulsory Purchase Order for the house she lived at for 1970 (Coventry Collections), although I can't see any of the details, just a reference to it, it suggests 1970 as a further approximate cut-off year. The old maps also show some very interesting facts for me. The pre-WW2 maps show that the large gap in the terrace of houses that I remember as being rubble in my memories, were of course shown on these maps as still being houses and the post-WW2 maps before the 1970's shows the houses as missing, confirming they were most likely bombed out. But most startling, was that one of the maps shows the actual street house numbers, so I could locate my grans house, and it was actually right next door to the missing houses, the two blocks of houses were separated only by an entry (or alley), which probably saved my grans house from damage. I didn't realise just how close they were to being bombed out. It seems that both my grans and great grandparents houses survived the Luftwaffe, but sadly not the council planners. Thanks Anne. My grans name was Violet Brimley. I'll PM you some further details. I'd love to hear of any other information or photo's that people might have of Perkins Street, as it all helps rebuild the images and stories of my fading memories. Thank you all.

Hi again. The references at Coventry Collections are to documents held at the Archives at the Herbert Art Gallery. If you can get there they can supply the full record (booking required). If you can't get there, they may copy stuff and send it for a fee. Coventry aerial views at Britain From Above Four lines down at EPW044035, you can just about see Perkins Street. Orientate yourself and then look through some of the other images for other or better versions. If you get a free login you can zoom into the images. The search is roughly date order.