Holbrooks and Holbrook Lane

Do you remember a pub called the Holbrooks before it bcame the Hollybush

Hi dougan & a warm welcome to you too. A book was written about Holbrooks history & records a murder in the late sixties where the body was concealed in a bricked up room.

Loved reading about your memories about Holbrooks, very similar to mine. I use to walk down Holbrook Lane home from Holbrooks School, there was a little sweet shop next to the Brookville, now Carpet Kingdom. Can remember picking a stick and rattling on the railings and fences as I walked home, kicking the leaves in the autumn, even now when I walk down there I get the urge to pick up a stick . Holbrooks pub had an off licence at the side, when my old gran came to visit we would meet her at the bus stop by the red phone box then go in the offy, she'd have a 1/2 beer and got pint bottle to take home, we got crisps with a little blue bag of salt in it, a real treat

Hi Philip. We lived just off Holbrook Lane in the 60s but don't remember anything about a murder. I do remember a horrible incident when a boy drowned in a large water tank in Rotherham Road.

Hi Bryn, lovely to see you again I will read out some info. The boy that drowned was 5 year old Dean Christian in 1968. The licensee of the then Holbrooks pub, Derek William Lloyd was convicted of murdering his wife, Josephine Clare Lloyd in 1965. The report of the case showed that he had hid the body in a bricked-up room. We do hope that you are keeping well. Best wishes from all of us here in Coventry.

I must have been about 14 at the time of the murder and only lived a mile away from the pub but never knew anything about it until now! On a personal note, you asked how I was. I'm doing okay thank you. It was my birthday a couple of months ago and my carers dared me to do something daring so I wore an England rugby top. In West Wales that could have led to yet another murder. Edited by TonyS, 12th Oct 2012 8:08 pm (Quote not necessary)

That shop was The Empress Stores and I lived there until I was 3 years old. The off license was run by Jack Gibbons for many years. My old doctors was next door to the Holbrooks, Dr Wiener, Sandoz and Choudree.

Hi all The medical centre next to the Holbrooks is still there & recently smartened up.

Holbrooks 1948 via Britain from Above website Large white building is the Lyric Cinema, Parkgate Road runs from bottom left, Hen Lane is the road with curves in it

Everdon road housing estate being built after the war, Coventry bit starts a 1min 27 secs

Here's one from 1931 via Britain from Above. Does anyone know if the small houses belong to the factory workers of the Dunlop

In the 60s myself and several children from my street found an old air raid shelter just inside St Pauls Cemetery, opp the Brookville cafe. We used it as a den, it stunk, and probably was not very safe.

The Empress stores have now been amalgamated into Coventry Building Supplies. When I lived there it was Pegg's building Yard. I remember playing in the sandpits, watching the men cutting great sheets of glass in the glass shed, and watching them turn baulks of wood into timbers. On the other side of the drive was The Stanway, if you went up the wooden stairs at the back there was a tailors cutting room up there, and I used to watch these little Jewish men marking up cloth and bolts of material being made up into made to measure suits. Quite why the put up with an inquisitive little boy wandering round the place is beyond me, but they always made me feel very welcome. Though I moved out of the flat above the shop in 1957, my mother still kept it for several years, and so I was often there until my teenage years, especially during the school holidays. There was a post office a bit further down set back a bit from the road, and I'd go there and buy colouring books when I was little.

Bryn Thomas mentioned an incident about a boy drowning near Rotherham Rd. I remember it well, he drowned in a 'fire' water tank at the ICI factory. His mother used to own the wool shop on Everdon Road. He was only about 6yrs old if I remember rightly. Tragic affair