Longford (inc. The Red Hills)

Does anyone remember Letchford and Swift engineering company who were in Lady Lane Longford?

Wow, I had no idea this thread was still going! I must apologise for not returning sooner! Thanks to everyone who has posted info and photos/maps - it's very much appreciated. treddz, I wonder if you did work with my Dad? His name was Bob McCorkell and he was Irish. (I do vaguely recall meeting a workmate from Longford Concrete whilst walking with my Dad when I was very small, and he addressed my Dad as Jack - I have no idea why!) I know he worked there when I was born at the end of 1958 and I think he was there for a few years. Thanks again everyone for all the effort you've all gone too

Longford Lad, when I was a kid, the Sephtons kept the Elephant and Castle pub - on Aldermans Green Rd I think the road was called

MaryMc. The pub you refer to is now a private residence, and the large car park is now a lawn. You are right on the location Tusses Bridge.

Yes I remember Corkie worked with him for couple of years. He was a big friend of my elder Brother Walter (Len) and the Watt brothers Bob nickname (Stumpy )and his Brother Little Joe. I do recall like us all Irishmen he liked to have a drink or two.

Regarding the Haywoods they are cousins of mine from both sides of my family. My father's cousin Joseph Haywood married an Annie Carvell who was my mother's cousin. Our great aunt Eliza married a Grimley and keep the shop at the entrance to Oakes Yard. By the little shop by the jetty do you mean the one by the Salem, Mr Jones, or the other one next to the pub which we called Phyllis. I know Mr. Jones suffered in the First World War over 40 years later with bomb shock. We lived a number 21 The Croft, my uncle lives at the top of the Croft opposite Marlowe's. You forgot the Lole family of Longford.

treddz, yes, that was him. How wonderful to know someone here remembers him. He worked at a lot of different places over the years, but often talked fondly of Longford Concrete. I remember Joe Watt although I haven't seen him since I was a child. Yes, Dad liked to drink, right till the day he died. Hard worker, hard drinker

The Haywood closest to me in age (a year or so older) was Maurice. I'm not sure about his siblings in general, but he had an older brother, Alan, who was a journeyman actor. I do not believe I ever met Alan in person, but I do recall his being cast in EMERGENCY WARD 10, a tv-series that boosted the career of so many young performers, and - as the story went at the time - for all that his character was supposed to be at death's door (or whatever), he stayed on the show for a while, the producers, directors, and production staff finding him eminently pleasant as a co-worker. Alan died in London (aged 65) in 1995. His career, it seems to me, was not stellar but certainly notable. His theatrical appearances have gone with the wind, and his last appearance in film/television was 1983, but the film/television aspect of his career included most of the major British tv series of the time (Dr Who, The Avengers, Crossroads, No Hiding Place, Z Cars, Dixon of Dock Green and the like). In 1962 he appeared in the Hammer Films production CASH ON DEMAND, in which he appeared alongside Peter Cushing. Among actors, the greatest achievement is to be a ":working actor". Alan Haywood was a "working actor". Of the Haywood I knew well as a child, Maurice, I know nothing of his adult life, for I left Longford in 1964, and had not really known him well for a time even as I left, save for the fact that he had the most striking girl friend of any young man in the village. I did mean the shop near Salem that was run by Mr & Mrs Jones, but I misspoke myself in saying that my paternal grandmother's parents once ran that shop, for it was my granny's grandparents, so back in the 19th C., perhaps before there was so much as a Salem Baptist Church. My father's initials appear on red bricks that comprise that chapel, but whether they were red bricks of the original building or red bricks of an extension, I have no idea. I did not neglect the Lole family, having discussed them on another thread at this wonderful site. In the same thread I mentioned the Marlowe family, uncertain as I was about the spelling of that name; specifically, the final "e" in the name. You have managed to clear up that mini-mystery in favour of the presence of the "e". There was, in my early days, a Marlowe daughter - more or less the same age as I - and she was charming, a great play fellow at the Orchard. Thank you, friend, for tightening-up once more the detail of yesteryear, for leading me with sound memory down Memory Lane - Lady Lane - the Croft!

So happy for you, Mary Mc, in opening doors from your past you perhaps once thought forever closed. The power of the Internet? Possibly. The power of Historic Coventry Forum? Definitely!

"WOW" I thought for one moment somebody had answered my question.

If the engineering company was on the right as you go down Lady Lane, a friend of mine used the building for hydraulic repairs, Trolly Jacks, bottle jacks etc. This would be in the 80s

I use to get letter s posted to my home for an engineering company would it of been where the old units were where Dave Lang had his unit spraying cars or like Normk says which sounds like its by where Longford Bearings is now thats on the right.

I have a vague recollection of the name Letchford and Swift. A planning application from 1970 calls them Letchford Swifts Motor Panel.co with an address of East Side, Lady Lane. A later planning application in 1980 to use the land as a base for goods vehicle operation mentions Letchford Swifts and F.A. Loach and also a sub-tenant of Vidra Foundry. I also recall a friend taking his ancient trolley jacks to a place in Lady Lane for new seals. I remember the same friend also pointing out a small factory unit where someone was loading an old pre-war Austin 7 bodyshell into a van. I am pretty sure that he told me that the bloke doing the sheet metal work on the bodies was a former director, partner, or owner of Letchford and Swifts. Whether that was at Longford I don't know. It may just be a coincidence that I have memories of two of the things brought up in this post.

This is a pic of Hurst Rd, c1928, where my grandparents lived. I suspect the lad on the wall in the distance is my dad, Len Trinder, standing on the wall of No. 26. I don't know if they had regular floods. It was almost a country lane when I used to go there in the early 50's. Behind the house was a smallholding belonging to a Mr Bray and beyond that, the park. My granddad, William Trinder, was an engineer at the Power Station. Remarkable as one of his arms was withered from polio. He used to drive and maintain his own car. It was an old Lanchester, which had an early automatic gearbox.