Spon End

You mean this one Helen?

Apologies of this is a repost but linking this in to the images up towards the Plaza.

Thanks but that one is the south side of the bridge. Obviously the north side would be very similar.

I think this is the other side, Helen as that's The Dyers to the left.

And another - No wonder every boy loves steam!

That's the same view as the one above it! The north side is private land and fenced off so very few if any photos have been taken from there.

Afraid not.

Not seen that one before NeilsYard but I lived on the other side of the embankment in Earlsdon at one time and well remember those commuter trains shuffling between Nuneaton and Leamington every morning and evening.

I don't know if it's just me but does the road seem a lot wider in that photo, stretching between two of the arches rather than one? Seems odd that in days gone by the road was wider but now, with bigger cars and vehicles, and more of them, plus this road being joined to a multi-lane bypass that it appears to have got smaller.

It's an illusion. This is the view from the other side:

There is however a curiously wide distance between the buildings on each side. I assume that there might have been a market place in the past? Similar areas were near the St John's School, near Gosford gate and in Broadgate too. I fact I've been surprised how wide the old roads were generally. Thanks for trying to find a photo Neil and thanks for placing them Dutchman. I suspected that the north side was private and also obscured by trees.

Don't know which side this is Helen but I thought you might be interested in the trough in the corner. According to the article this was called the "Dyers Trough" The article is dated 1915 and the sketch is by Florence Weston. It says that the stone bridge was built in 1767 and the trough had recently been broken up when the article was written.

East side looking towards Spon End. The dyers would have lived in Summer Row which was to the right out-of-picture.

Thanks Anne. I've got a Troughton picture that shows the edge of the trough and I wondered what it was. The silting of the river and weeds have buried a lot of the features of this area. To the left, between the building and the bridge there was a track way. I'm guessing it wasn't just a path to the river but the remains of where the river was originally forded. It's now been embanked and even in Florence Weston's day a drain emerged at that point. Sometimes I feel a bit like a time traveller. I've seen Coventry over hundreds of years but often never seen it live in the 21st century.

Hi Helen, I know what you mean, I am ashamed to say many of the places we discuss on here I never knew when I lived in Coventry. Glad the picture was of some use, the article also said that the dyers polluted the river and killed the fish !