Stoke

I think Alfred Clements was buried in Stoke St Michael's churchyard, which is no surprise really.

Yes, Prof, he was Clements, Alfred, d. 25 Feb 1919. age 75yr, Parish Clerk at Stoke for 31 years.

Looking at Old-Maps.co.uk there are two buildings in the area. The small "Weigh Bridge" building in the photo which would have had the weighing mechanism for the weigh bridge (large metal plate) in the road. There is a large building (the "Weigh House"?) just to the north west of the weigh bridge on the west side of the drive way. I think the original road is now the southern (inbound) carriage way and the weigh bridge seems to have dissappeared when the road was made into a dual carriage way. If this is correct then the "Weigh House" would now be next to the road. The "Coventry Training Consortium" building seems to be in the right place and of the right vintage. This may have been the "Weigh House" where Mr Clements lived. Peter.

This building "Coventry Training Consortium" was previously the offices of the late A.E. (Alf) Youell, builders. The yard and workshops stretched out at the back.

From an internet search . . .

Next to where we think that Weigh House used to be, now stands an office building belonging to the Coventry Training Consortium. (See on Google Maps here.) Not clearly visible in the street-view image is a stone plaque near the top of the chimney breast, and when my wife and I walked past a while ago we noted that it said 1907. So could this possibly have been where Alfred Clements lived back during the years 1916 to 1931?

This is reference to a document in Coventry Collections. As Mrs Clements passed away in 1931 Youells obviously took over after that. There is also reference in another document to the Weigh House opposite land purchased by Mitchells and Butlers on Ansty Road, previously Walsgrave Road so we must be in the right place opposite the Walsgrave pub. I can find no reference to a Weighbridge in Walsgrave Road. Is it possible that the weighing would be done inside the building for sacks etc. for tax collection purposes?

A 1913 map. WM is Weighing machine or Weigh Bridge. BP, boundary post, W is a well. So it does look as WM is in the road. Is our picture the little building above the WM?

It would be interesting to do a bit of digging in this area!

We are still living in one of their houses which we bought from them, new, in 1968. Later on they became Monsell Youell.

Thank you everyone for your replies. Annewiggy. Yes I believe Mrs Clements would have lived at Orchard House (the only house). Before Youells moved there, about 1930, the Morris factory, Sewall Highway, Dane Road, had not been built - we knew it as Stoke Common/Heath. The whole lot seemed like church land, with cemetery, and I believe that the weigh-bridge building could be centuries old, and where they rested the coffin, for time between dying and whatever. David McGrory says they took the coal from Craven pit to be weighed there (by horse and cart?) but I doubt that when they had a weighbridge not fifty yards from the pithead, tram lines for wheeled bogeys, a railway line and a canal loading bay. Stoke and Caludon area really goes back centuries, probably before the Cathedral, Priory etc - really intrigues me.

A little more from the directories.

Yes, thanks for the photo Rob and to others for information. I remember that house (offices for Youell) and the Weigh House to the right of it.

Heathite, Thanks - as you see in 1912 there is no weighbridge mentioned but there in 1921. I'm wondering if they needed to weigh something during the war? There is no mention of anything industrial in the area, and Youells not in the area. The residents are mainly churchgoers or gardeners etc. To me that building had to be the lychgate (many types in the old days) or bier before burial. Whatever, I believe it to be ancient and an historical building, long before becoming a Coventry housing estate.

There is still a weighing machine and office at the canal basin The "weighing plate" was build in the roadway while the office contained the weighing mechanism and kept the clerk and paperwork dry. Weighing machine offices were generally small and built to blend in with the existing buildings in the area. Peter.