Foleshill (inc. Foleshill Road)

Weren't they on either side of the road? I should know the thousands of times I went down the street. But hey look at that, about 2/3 doors down. Early 50s. We had a wild telephone call, "Come quick, a bomb gone off in our kitchen." "Address?" The phone went down. We raced to Station Street East, the police were there from round the corner. We put the water on the fire, the Chief spoke to the police and the stricken woman and daughter. We entered, the smoke and flames horrendous, we got it under control. I was sent upstairs to check the rooms. The aftermath - the woman had put a metal toilet ball, that controlled the flow, in the oven to dry, it had exploded. The fire too high, really a chimney fire and kitchen fire combined, but people panic. We would have been parked about three doors down from that fire engine in the photo.

Thank's Philip, I can see on the map there is another Primitive Methodist Chapel in Holbrook Lane built in 1847. But I still think the answer to Neil's original question is that it is none of these Methodist Chapels but Paradise School in Station Station Street East that had the fire.

NeilsYard, If it was just inside Station Street on the right, could it have been St Paul's Church?

Actually, I agree Anne. You have unravelled the confusion. That's the three brill salute!

Philip, The asbestos hut was on church land, I wonder if they paid compensation for the shortening of life for those band people? But just behind the asbestos hut was the church rectory, if that's the right word, that stood in that acre of grassland on the corner of Foleshill Road and Broad Street. This was a beautiful house that I lodged in for some weeks in the middle 1950's and I have great memories of an hilarious time there. There was a huge bath in the middle of a huge room that stood on brass animal paws. There were a number of beautiful paintings - it really was a very interesting house that didn't seem to fit in with Broad Street.

"How Foleshill Road has changed from the 1970s to 2000s" - Telegraph photos

General Wolfe, Foleshill Red Bob Skrzeczkowski

Rob has this excellent image in the library collection which I'd not noted before of the Foleshill War Memorial in Durbar Road (Rob, it says Dunbar on the Library pictures!). It was mentioned on this thread a while ago. According to the Coventry Society - This memorial consisted of four columns on a platform, each with a globe on top. Figures of an airman, sailor and soldier were on the front, surmounted by the angel of victory. It was unveiled by the Mayor in 1919 on Durbar Avenue. It was made of wood and plaster and was intended to be a temporary memorial, but the permanent one was never built. The memorial was demolished in the 1930s. A lovely 'temporary' memorial if you ask me! Anyway my friend Cliff Berwick has just found this one of it -

Cheers Neil - I've corrected the Dunbar / Durbar error now. I guess with so many thousands of images to catalogue, the archivists were bound to make a few mistakes. I corrected quite a lot when I first skimmed through it, but there'll be many more for sure!

Rob, Durbar Avenue.

In the strictest of geographical terms, its address was Boston Place. Before the railway bridge was built, the sculpture sat on a small traffic island, where Boston Place, Durbar Ave & Lockhurst Lane met.

I was given this little book, with an interesting article. Post copied from topic Books on Coventry on 17th Apr 2020 11:57 am

Now I never knew it had done so much damage. I knew it had been hit. Now I believe the vicar that married us was a young German vicar, but apart from asking him outright was never sure, but Gordon Bennett was a real wartime saying. And I believe that the war convinced the council that the district needed a fire-station.

An image from the 1935 directory, it possibly shows the cycle agent that Kaga recently referred to, although many years before the fifties. It also shows the location of Bacon's Yard and the William IV Inn. I don't know why but I like that name, Bacon's Yard, there must be a story to that

Taylor, right near the gas works, was the local scoutmaster at Aldermans GR opposite the Slough road, behind the church a scout hut. Forget the troop number, but there for many years in the thirties.