Woodway Lane and Potters Green

Now, to me, the original canal passed the clod banks round the Boat Inn, across Deedmore Road and Woodway Lane and on to Ansty. When they built the new part that by-passed that loop, the two bridges that spanned the canal of the new section could not have spanned the old canal, so was Woodway Lane and Deedmore Road a dead end at the canal and Sowe Common? I can't remember, was the very old cemetery between the two canals, or Walsgrave side?

Kaga. Not sure of the year of the map (think late 1940's) but it shows the Wyken Arm of Oxford Canal from Stone Bridge to Whiting's Bridge and how complex & intricate an arm it was in its full splendour. Whiting's Bridge Arm is now the Marina. The roads are shown in broken red & white with upper Deedmore Road/Shilton Lane stretching from bottom left and converging with Woodway Lane at junction with Lenton's Lane

Derrickarthur. Brilliant, where the two canals link under L, I actually think was just past the road, the red line footpath I believe was through Lesters Woodyard, the woodyard ran from the road towards the S in stone bridge, there were two houses stood facing the canal, edge on to the road between the yard and the canal, one occupied the Liggins family, another one of the family. The Jolly Colliers was owned at one time by Paul Guy's grandad Enoch Simpson. The top left Whitings Bridge we knew as the double bridges for it spanned the old canal and the basin arm, there were deepcuts in the brick work from the boat ropes, underneath the bridge one time we found a guy in the ice. But yes, the best map I have ever seen of the two canals, great work, I am delighted. Thank you. Kaga.

Derrick, sorry, Whitings Bridge was actually the farm bridge, the double bridges was just a few yards away.

In the summer of 1960 we moved from Rugby to Angela Avenue in Potters Green. We were one of the first residents in the street and my brother has a photo of us making sandcastles right across the street as the roads had not yet been completed. We went to the Co-op and the newsagents in the Parade and also nearby Diana Stores with a hairdressers above it. We got our haircut at Stan Catchpoles on Yewdale Crescent - a real back and sides. My brother and I went to St Patricks in Wood End and went over the canal to get to it, past a couple of bunkers and old shepherd huts. There was a woodyard by the school and we got our first stilts there. There was a post office on Woodway Lane and a sweet shop by Eburne School on Deedmore Road. The woman in the Post Office always asked what you were going to spend your money on when you drew it out. We lived in Angela Avenue for 10 years and have happy memories except when my brother fell off the slide at the Jolly Colliers. I lost touch with a lot of my friends at St Patricks when I went to Bishop Ullathorne Grammar School at the other end of the city and it took me an hour there and back. I remember the escalator at Owen Owen, queueing up to get Freddie and the Dreamers autograph in that store. Also my mum took us to a few shows at the Coventry Theatre in the early 60s such as Jimmy Clitheroe and also the King and I. Buying records from Boots and Jill Hansons, toys from Barnby's by the Locarno, chips from Fishy Moores and school stuff from the Midland Educational near the market. My worst memories was going from shop to shop for our groceries, waiting in the pouring rain when the Queen passed by after the rededication of Coventry Cathedral and seeing Coventry lose to Newcastle United 4-3 at Highfield Road with Wyn Davies getting a hatrick, again pouring rain. I still visit friends in that area and the big change is the number of cars. We could play football on the road with only one or two cars and barely any traffic. We went to St Patricks Church was then on Clennon Rise and went by Cardinal Wiseman School past the Convent.

Hi there Clitheroe 63. I lived in Potters Green at that time when the estate was just being built and lived in Ambleside. Had a fantastic childhood and very fond memories of my life there. The shop/post office at the top of Ringwood Highway was Sextons shop and she sold single cigarettes and a couple of matches in a sweetie bag to us kids on our way to Foxford School (Woodway Park wasn't built then). I worked on Saturday mornings in the wood yard was just over the old canal bridge where they sold the stilts that consisted of two lengths of wood and two triangles of wood along with a few screws so you could screw the triangles to the poles, happy days! If you look under memories and nostalgia for the Woodway Lane and Potters Green** topic there's lots of views from that time, happy reading! ** Mods note: New posts now merged with that thread (thanks for the heads-up)

Hi PGL You might have been served by my grandmother, May Bicknell, who helped out at Mrs Sexton's shop most days. She lived in "Townsend Cottage", which was next door to the shop (towards the wood yard). I might even have met you there, as she was also an easy touch for an iced lolly back then!

My pal Michael Sexton was the grandson of Mrs. Sexton. We lived in Courthouse Green, he on the Bell Green Road and I in Proffitt Ave. We sometimes dropped in to see his gran on our way to Shilton bridge for some trainspotting. The Wood End estate was rapidly spreading but that area of Potters Green was sparsely populated and still seemed isolated and quite bleak back then.

I see a path leading down to the wood yard, on the left of the path was the old canal, on the left of that two houses facing the real canal, end on to Woodway Lane then the canal bridge and the lane to Lentons Lane, can anyone confirm?

Hi guys, I was five in 1959 when we moved from Burton on Trent to Coventry or more precisely Potters Green. Here's a few names of friends I grew up with. Ray Frost - lived in Ambleside, Andrew Allahlumpa - lived on Ringwood Highway in the houses opposite Diana Drive, mother Dutch and father Greek, Steve Burns - lived in Kentmere Close, Dougie Wilson - went to Foxford with him and he lived on the hill going down to Aldermans Green in Wood End and finally Nick Chamberlain who lived in Aldermans Green. I used to have a paper round at Wardies paper shop that I took over from my brother Dave that meant a walk out to the 'four corners' twice a day morning and night in some of the worst winters I can remember but the money allowed me to go over to the cycle shop in the precinct at Bell Green and buy inner tubes for the bikes we dragged out of the old canal arm that ran across the top of Ambleside which we painted up and sold on if they were good enough! I also used to chop kindling wood on a Saturday at the wood yard up by Sextons, imagine that with H&S today!!!

Potters Green Lad, it was not the arm, it was the canal, the arm was added many years later as a short cut. Twenty years previous to your 59 I carried a sixpenny tea chest from the woodyard to Tusses Bridge, the day war was declared.

All this historic information on that area is great. What I remember about that area from St Patrick's School to Potters Green was the clay stuff before you got to the canal which you could not get off your shoes. We were always told there was a massive pike in the canal that people tried to catch. Of course it is all landscaped now and the alley gates prevent you going the ways we used to go. In the Potters Green Estate there were not many children going to the Catholic school and we got bullied by several lads (confidentiality prevents me from naming them!). As a result I used to walk along Deedmore Road to Woodway Lane and down Ringwood Highway. Then when I was at Bishop Ullathorne I used to get off at Potters Green Road in case they were waiting for me at the Potters Green shops, the terminus. Sometimes my dad would drive me to school but was usually held up by farmers taking their cows along the road by the hump back bridge. Yes the stilts were just two pieces of wood with triangle bits screwed on to put your feet on. The part of St Patrick's I went to is knocked down now but the newer Infants part is now the whole school. I left in 1970 before the new St Patricks Church was built and we used to worship at the old building in Clennon Rise. My dad ran a Cubs and Scouts at Eburne School for a while but it was attached to St Patrick's. The GP we attended was in an ordinary house on the Potters Green Estate.

Hi all & thank you for your memories & recollections on this topic. I love reading them.

"Origin of the name Potters Green" I was just wondering how old the name is? Does it pre-date the 50's estate ?