Wyken Slough

I remember the off licence. When work on Wood End estate started in the 50s the path included a rickety sort of duckboard bridge across the Sowe and marshy surrounds. I think it was called River Walk. It was some time before the 21A bus service to Wood End started up.

I've just remembered, a few doors to the left of Norman's photo, just out of shot was the doctor's surgery. In my childhood the GP was Dr. Baird.

Hi, Norman Conquest. I lived in Purcell Road (Sewall H`way end) from 1955 till 1967 and, in the early days, it wasn`t unusual for the smell from the `skinners yard` to stink the house out.

The doctors were Laird and MacNamara (not sure about the spelling of the second name).

History of Dr McNamara surgery, photos of area, slough, also the brook with little bridge - link

Laird, yes of course, thanks. Long time ago. In those days he'd come to your house at 2 or 3 in the morning. How times have changed.

Spot on PinC The three doctors once practiced all together in the small house top of Hall Green Rd. Dr Mac lived in a large detached house bottom of Hall Green hill. Up to the start of the NHS Dr Mac would visit any time for a charge of two shillings and was always an easy touch for a sick note. As I mentioned in another thread, I was once a miner at Newdigate Colliery as were quite a number of others in the area. Any miner wanting a few days off could get a sick note off Dr Mac just for the asking. I got notes for gout, sciatica and a whole bunch of other ailments. Miners started calling the area Cripples Corner and the pub just a few doors away The Cripples. Norman

Hi Norman, was that the Exhall 'pit', if so when I was given the choice of 'pit' or army, a local coal man from lower end of A.G Rd took me down said 'pit'. No way, I admire your courage. Although my father worked down Craven for a spell way back. I'm trying to establish what is between rear hut and the pool, post 27, eyes not good these days, for that is where the houseboat was moored, fighting with my elder brother in houseboat, slipped over side a couple times, hey had to be mile deep, we got banned unless with adult. By the time I was 6/7 the reed beds, A.G Rd side were so high, so thick, no fisherman could penetrate to fish. A guy did drown by the little white bridge mid-thirties, there were only two swans on the pool throughout that period, we called the male Sammy, he would allow other swans to rest for a while, then up go his wings (arched) the fights were hard and bitter, but for around 7-8-9 years he was king of the pool.

Hi Kaga. No Newdigate was on other side of Bedworth, Newtown Rd area. My father was a sailor and served on HMS Jervis Bay until it was sunk by enemy action but had been a merchant seaman long before that. I wanted to follow my dad but when I finished my apprenticeship I really needed a lot more money than the navy would pay. 1952 I was earning over £40.00 a week, lot more than the navy would pay. Yes the work was hard and sometimes dangerous but I really enjoyed my time at the pit, miners are good people to work with. Norman

Norman 'hey' I was earning £12 at that time, but I was at a woodyard alongside Coventry Basin. Slip of memory, about 'pit', I was living in Bedworth 1950/1, but the whole area was about coal, people off the boats and colliery all settled in the area, I remember the old folks telling me they would go to school, Lentons Lane-Woodway Lane, for a couple of months then they would be away working the boats for a month or two, when it all came to an end people settled. I would think if you looked at school register in 1900 you would still see the same names in 1940. There was always earth movement, a pond or small hill in every field, near the clod banks it was always treacherous, do you remember the tanks training there, I think they stopped due to the unsafe area, could be wrong, but the local talk at the time. Kaga.

I have no personal recollection of the tanks at the clod banks but I know that it took place. A Coventry motor cycle club tried to use a part of it for some sort of racing event but the riders were having trouble with total loss of traction so that idea was scrapped. The ground underfoot was a sort of grey clay that was quite slippy in places. I have no idea of how grass managed to grow there. Yes Kaga Coventry and its surrounds had many coal mines. I could never understand the logic of importing expensive third rate coal when here we have around 50 million tons of top quality coal underfoot. About 45% of our power stations still burn coal. Norman

Kaga - the woodyard you mention was probably Cartwrights. My dad drove their little Morris J van for a time in the 1950s.

The coal face is on a steep angle and the farther south it goes, the deeper it gets to the point where it is uneconomical to extract.

Telmec, hi, post 83. No a relative lived at that house, I believe in the long past, they found the site for a well then built the house, fixed a hand pump on the side of house, and all the neighbours had access, The house I lived in was less than six feet from the train rail, add a coal wagon on that and your close to the wall, the pump was fixed to that wall, consider the danger, yet the other side was a large garden, so the well had to have priority. Now the Simpsons in the lane would be descendants of my cousin. His father at one time lived in a house right on the edge of canal, next to the bridge, a small bay window looked on to the towpath, doubt it being there now. On your side of the bridge a small road, houses down to within 2 feet of the water, a small door fixed to side of house overhung the water, we used to squeeze through door to get to allotments. Jogging my memory, there were quite a few houses side on to the road, or stood back from the road, can't remember if they had pumps. The yard with our pump was only a yard wide, coal man came once a week, my brothers job was to pump a few buckets of water from pump and swill the yard, as we got older and played football, the pump got smashed, have no idea what father did to seal it.