Westwood Parish (incl. Land Ownership and Development)

pixrobin - looking at a 1938 map - that area seems to show Westwood War Memorial Nurses home - If I have the correct spot:

Think you've been led astray a bit there Neils Yard. What looks like a road going diagonally across your map was really just a cart track. On the photo it shows up as a hedgerow towards the bottom of the picture. Before the war there was no Charter Avenue west of Mitchell Avenue. Post war (or maybe towards the end of the war) Charter Avenue continued (albeit as a single carriageway) from Mitchell Avenue to Cromwell Lane. It followed the northern edge of Ten Shilling and Park Wood and then curved to join Cromwell Lane in the field south of where the 'Windpump' is shown on the 1938 map. So it is the five strip fields below that which interests me. In the photograph there seems a lot too much activity for them to be gardens of a house.

What will get me out of bed in the early morning? Only a photograph that needs taking. This is a grade II listed building in Cryfield Grange Road built around 1965. It is influenced by the modern American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. It faces NNE so the best time to photograph it is before 7am on a June morning. I made it with just five minutes to spare. Leaving the sheltered accommodation so early (about 6.15am) set off all the alarms but I had warned the staff of my intentions of my planned early morning adventure yesterday. To me the picture was worth all of that.

That's excellent, Pixrobin, really quite wonderful!

Westwood Church. Some of my ancestors buried here two with gravestones.

Interesting to see the water tower has now been converted - amazing job, amazing price - rumoured to be 7 figures+

Hello all. I am a member of the Westwood Heath History Group. We have been researching the history of the area for about a year now. I would love to hear from anyone with memories of the area; whether the church, the school, the Reading Rooms, the old William & Mary Club or places you lived in the area. We are also researching WWII including soldiers who served and life on the home front in Westwood Heath. We are always on the look-out for old photographs of the area - it is rapidly changing and so old images are especially valuable. Any stories or recollections at all will be warmly welcomed!

Hi Jill K. I lived in the area for a few years in the early 60's as a pre-teen. I had the front bedroom above the entrance hall at number 113 Cromwell Lane - very cold in the winter of '63. I cycled regularly to the Westwood Heath Church as a choir member for services and choir practise, it was a lot quieter then! The junction at Cromwell Lane - Westwood Heath Road had a red GPO (A & B button) telephone box on the triangle. The local fields and tracks were a great places for exploring the countryside and to practise our dam-building in the small streams, which probably did not endear ourselves to the local farmers! My daily trip to school (KHVIII Junior) was using the train from Tile Hill Station, then still equipped with gates operated by the signalman's control box. Initially the locos were steam with compartment carriages, which often meant jumping off onto the trackside as then train were always longer than the platform. I guess this would no longer be tolerated as a safe way of leaving the train! During this period the steam locos were quickly replaced by the DMU's (Diesel Multiple Units) which took away the fun of leaning out of the carriage window and getting smoke and grit in your hair and eyes, but you could then stand at the front of the train watching down the track through the driver's cab. These are just a few of my immediate thoughts that come to mind. I have been in the area every few years to see how things have changed and it's amazing how much development has taken place, which is not surprising as the population (Coventry and the world in general) has approximately tripled since I was born. Hope the research goes well - do you have a website covering the history of the area? I'll see if I can find any photos, however, this was not my hobby at the time so this may be a long shot! Mike

Hi Jill, I don't know if you've seen them yet, but if you click the blue "Library pictures" button on the upper left of the page, you'll have access to the old Coventry Libraries collection of pictures, which I'm hosting in their absence until they get their own website updated and running again (it's been some years!). Anyway, I did a search on there for "Westwood", and there are five lovely old photos that might be useful to you. If you wish to use any publicly, you'll need to get permission at The Herbert, but they're fine for personal or private use.

Aha! 113 Cromwell Lane My father purchased the property from a business acquaintance in the early 1950s. Obviously there was not the level of survey carried out which is standard today - probably it was a cash purchase - but on moving in it was very quickly found that there was a considerable amount of dry rot and woodworm The deal was mutually cancelled, the property reverting to the previous owner, and after, I think, three weeks we moved out, to live with my grandparents for about eighteen months, whilst a house was built on a piece of land my father purchased elsewhere in the city I always glance at 113 when passing by (very occasionally) - it had seemed like a palace compared to the semi-detached house at Keresley where I'd lived before One thing I do recall is seeing the single decker Corporation buses which ran along Westwood Heath Road on the no.12 route to Burton Green

MR, 113 was a wonderful house to live in. I don't remember any rot problems so they had probably been fixed before we moved in, my parents effectively had the main house and my grandparents an almost self-contained wing. The garage doors opened by sliding them along rails that ran along the side wall, which is fine in the summer but any sign of ice would jam them. The land had an orchard at the very back of the plot which is now occupied by the two house accessed from Coleby Close, which didn't exist at the time. I had the honour of riding in one of the first E-type Jaguars when my grandfather brought it home to show us all. He spent virtually all his working life at Jaguar and trained the engineers for the overseas dealerships before he retired in the mid/late 60's. Incidentally Jill, my grandfather served on the WWI submarines and also on the submarine support vessel in the Mediterranean during WWI.

113 as it was on yesterday's dog walk

Thanks, Mick

Major development taking place on Westwood Heath Road. Not sure if it's for HS2, there were no signs or high viz vests that advertised that, and it appeared they were putting in drains and road kerbs.

It's another new big housing estate, Mick.