Stoke

I know - that's what's bugging me

I thought it might be the view from Glencoe Road, but on second thoughts, maybe not. It's just that I'm struggling to remember any houses on Bourne Road despite working at GEC for 14 years!

According to the Coventry We Lost (Vol 1) they were demolished in the 1970s to allow for the factory to be expanded. The same volume has a picture taken from the same end in 1927 (page 75) but oddly the picture is not included on the author's website.

Good work dutchman! They must have been demolished shortly before I started working there.

It is indeed! I have only driven past a few times in recent years to visit other relatives in Second Avenue, but Google Earth Street View takes me straight to the picture you have here.

Does this help?

Thanks, that's it. We moved nearby in 1970, & I can't remember houses being there, but if Vtopian is on the site, I'm sure he will.

No mention on that site of the Whitefriars Works which predates the one in Spon Street

Fantastic work all of you, thank you. I knew there was more than enough knowledge on this forum to solve this problem - or virtually any other for that matter! At least now I know where that photo was taken from..... the other end of the road to where I originally thought it was. I never had any idea that houses existed there on Bourne Road - they must've been knocked down some time before I spent a little time there on placement as an apprentice in the early 1980s. The whole Stoke plant seemed more like its own self-contained village in those days - I believe there were at least 7,000 workers there in its hey-day.

You're absolutely right Rob, the Stoke plant was like a self-contained village, which makes it all the more disappointing that all that now remains is a barren wasteland.

During my GEC apprenticeship In the 1960's I once worked with somebody who lived in one of the houses within the factory boundary. Sometimes he would get up in the morning, stroll across the road to the factory and clock in, and then go back to his house to have his breakfast.

Sounds like Astley's, as well

The houses on one side of Crescent Avenue were built in 1919, but there were already storage sheds on the site which were allowed to remain. I had always assumed that the houses opposite were later in date (just by their appearance), but they seem to be present on the aerial photographs, so maybe I'm wrong there. When the lunch hour times at the GEC were reduced (mid 70's I guess), it had a catastrophic effect on the businesses in Crescent Ave. The Canteen at the GEC was very good; and also contained a small area called 'The Supervisory' where managers were served by waitresses in black and white uniforms. I do remember that some of the houses in Second Avenue were used as storage for the factory, but many others were occupied. As kids, we used to ride our bikes in the 'bowl' of a discarded microwave radio dish opposite the end of Second Ave - thereby inventing the skateboard park a couple of decades early!

The photo of Ball Hill has brought my mum some very fond memories as she worked in my grandparents' shop on Ball Hill "Coventry Curtain Services" further down. Sadly she thinks that where the photo was taken is where she was run over

Hi all, The two shops that I remember on Ball Hill were Whitehouse butcher's & Farren's hairdressers.