Allesley

Can SKS help, please The HPL building on the old Birmingham Road at Allesley/Windmill Hill - next to what was The Sportsmans - was that ever part of The Standard Motor Co? Midland Red

Although no-one responded on this forum, for anyone who may be the least bit interested, this is the response I received from The Standard Motor Club forum : ". . research shows that this building was operated by Standard after the war, but no vehicles were assembled there. It was the home of the Service Department managed by Jack Male. The Workshops had about 50 bays and took in cars for Service and warranty issues - and an area of the shop was used by Ken Richardson's team for preparing Rally Cars. At the front of the building were Management Offices on the Ground floor and there was a canteen on the first floor." Cliff

I would love to know the origins of the factory? I've seen references to it being a wartime shadow factory but no documentary evidence to support that, only the ones in Banner Lane and Browns Lane. There is a reference to Triumph Engineering Ltd transferring production to a factory "in Allesley" in 1942 but its exact location is not revealed. This is entirely off the top of my head but could it possibly have been a decoy building to distract German bombers and not used until some time after it was first built?

Hi It was definitely the Standard in the late 50s / 60s, and I was at school with Jack Male's son. Before the Standard owned it, it was firstly Peerless Ericsson and Co, and was nicely illuminated at night; then for a short time by Massey Ferguson as a service department, after which Standard bought it. In the 70s it was Jaguar-Rover Triumph Service. I thought it must have been Peerless Ericsson before the war, but Grace's Guide says: Peerless and Ericsson of The Hyde, London * 1928 Private company formed as C. O. Ericsson Engineering Works. * 1946 Public company formed and name changed to Peerless & Ericsson. * 1960 Name changed to Kenwood Manufacturing Co. * 1961 Manufacturers of food preparing machinery for bakery, confectionery, catering and allied trades. 460 employees. [1] I recollect that it was making stuff for war production during WWII, electrical switchgear for example. This is useful, too, on eBay: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1953-Peerless-And-Ericsson-Ransomes-Forklift-Trucks-Ad-/230652848611 so it looks as though they were making food mixers and similar things early after the war. Whilst the address is London, the factory was definitely on the A45!

Hi Midland Red Some more information for you: From Warwick Uni website: Level Item Title "Allesley Factory January 1952 to Dec 1954" Date 1951 Dec - 1954 Dec Reference Code MSS.226/ST/3/A/PR/14 Description Purchase of factory of Peerless Ericsson Ltd. at Birmingham Road, Meriden [apparently previously No.4 Factory of Arthur Pattison Ltd., Premier Works, Coventry], to be used by SMC as service depot; rating revision; agreements re 'phone, etc., installations. Main correspondents : Robinson, Osborne Moules, valuers, Band Hatton Co., solicitors. File incl. site plan in relation to sports ground leased by vendors from Mr Warden. (B 18.e.4) [The depot is now (1989) the base of MGA Developments, automotive designers]. This is the link. It looks as though it was used by Harry Ferguson Ltd as a service facility, not Massey-Ferguson. Peerless Ericsson's main factory was at King's Norton, Brum, where they made parts for Bofors guns during the war.

Cheers! Much appreciated

Growing up around Allesley, I remember the sweetshop in the old house near to the doctors' surgery. Just where the White fencing started and the other side of the road to the Allesley Hotel. Big jars of hard sweets lined the shelves behind the counter, and pick and mix was under. The doctors' house is where they ran the surgery. Dewsbury and Leggett I think were the doctors. Wooden panels all over the waiting room. The sweetshop is now a house, but for us young kids growing up around there, it will always be the sweetshop. The Rainbow PH was the only pub in the village, and there is something somewhere that explains why there was so many steps up to get in the place, I will try and find it out. On the same side as the sweet shop a little further down was Butchers Lane. I can just remember a butcher in that lane, on the left hand side as you went up. Further along still you came to the walkway up to the church. Many grooms before being married, have passed this way. Rainbow pub and then to church. I myself did that long walk many many years ago. But what people tend to miss is the building half way up the ramp. No one knows who built it, when it was built, and why it was built. There you go. A little trip down memory lane for you if you came from or knew of Allesley Village.

Great memories Baz - which house was the sweetshop? The Rainbow is high up because the road was lowered in the 19th century - which is why most of the places on that stretch are higher up. The little building on the ramp - do you mean the place where tolls where gathered? Again high up because of the road being lowered. I have lived in Allesley Village for 22 years and didn't know about the sweetshop - thanks!

Hi all. The sweetshop was next to the bus stop opp Allesley Hotel. It is just where the path went narrow, at the start of the white fence. If you go onto Google Earth, it's the house that has the for sale sign on it and is next to a lamp-post.

Shall we buy it and turn it back into a sweetshop? I have very similar memeories of Gilkes shop in Bennetts Road North, Keresley End. That too is a house now

There is a little more to that part of Allesley. Anyone remember Allesley annex school close to Paybody Hospital. I think it was only used for about 4-5 years. A brand new school built and within a few years had become unused. Whether it was the child population drop, or money matters, it lay empty for about 3 years or so before getting pulled down and now is the site of Norton Grange. And of course Paybody Hospital itself. There are a great many people that can add a few words together about that place. If they read this, I'm sure they will have their say. The Stone House to the right of the lane that crosses Pickford Way to Allesley Park dates back to the 16th century. It is said that the ghost of one Will Braynes (a castle official) haunts this area.

I grew up in Allesley Park and spent ages running around the park and through the village. I used to play on Castle Mound and in the then derelict farm buildings that are now part of the nursing home and Allesley Hall. I also used to go behind Paybody Hospital past the church and over the field at the back where there was a stream - spent many a happy summer in that stream and watching the Jags on test.

The River Sherbourne was the stream, And walking from Butt Lane, you crossed a bridge over the stream and up the side of Townfield saddlers. The Jag car park was behind that. Following the path next to the football pitches to the side of the Jag gates, my dad dug the allotment to the left, behind the shop. There were some pig pens that he used at greenhouses at the bottom of the allotment in line with the gatehouse.

Ah this is an interesting thread! I lived for 21 years in Allesley Green, I worked in the Rainbow pub for John (Grote?) for a while. My grandmother and father lived up in the oap bungalows at Barnfield Avenue, my grandfather would regularly drink in the Rainbow many years ago. Me and my brother would have a good day out at the fetes at the church and Allesley village primary school and open garden day round the village. Spent a lot of time as a kid playing up that neck of the woods. We also spent a lot of time in the Herbert looking over what seemed like mounds of local history pages all about what had happened in the village over decades. I have a fascination with history and people's lives and what better way to spend some time, then to indulge yourself. Most locals will know about the motte and bailey castle you have up in Allesley Park!! My grandfather had to stay for a while up in the eye ward, I remember exploring all around that area when my mother came to visit. There is a hotel up other end of road called the Coventry Hill Hotel, dose anybody know was there ever a big old manor house that stood opposite it where the flats are now (Halifax Close?). I remember hearing some a while ago about it. I wonder who lived there?

There was a big house there called "Guiting House" but it dates only from the early 20th Century: Old-Maps.co.uk