Bedworth and Nuneaton

Villages and photos parts of Nuneaton history - link

Did any one know that the main hall in the Almshouses had a secret door. You do now. The good ladies of the houses were having morning coffee in the other room. Lucky for me the cleaner let me into the secret. The stairwell heads upstairs to another room. No doubt via another secret door way. I must say the woodwork in the room is fantastic, as well are the table and chairs. And if you get a chance, the whole of the Almshouses are worth a look around. There were four schools linked to the houses, and each year, a number of residents go for a special visit, that has something to do with Church Canons, an old penny and I think a flat piece of bread. Maybe someone will help me out on that one.

Your answer Baz is 2nd paragraph above where the new paragraph starts about Coal and Charity. Either that or it might be bun day you're on about. Nicholas Chamberlaine Charities

Thanks for that Morgana. A lady did say it had something to do with the church and visiting schools. She also said that they don't give the old penny anymore. Cut backs ha!

It's probably bun day then with the bread bit. You're welcome, shame you never seen Bedworth prior to it being altered. My link above shows how I recall it when I was a kid. Both my inlaws were born in Bedworth

Hi all, Any memories here? Canon Maggs School, Bedworth

Thomas Jackson Woodhouse seems to have married Dorothy Jackson two years before he was born (have I read this right)

Thomas Jackson Woodhouse I can only apologise for the mistake, proves you should double check facts rather than take them at face value. The information came from a old technical journal After checking the parish records Dorothy Jackson was his mother, not his wife, which probably accounts for his middle name. His father John Woodhouse may have been married twice. Thomas is a difficult man to trace as he lived/worked in Ireland and Italy for much of his later life. I found an obitary dated 1857 but appears to be too long to be downloaded onto the site. Very busy week, getting ready to launch two new websites for the Bedworth Society and Northern Warwickshire Tourism.

The Almshouses we see today only date from the 1840's. The writing tells that it was "Rebuilt and Enlarged A.D 1840". It would seem by the second image that it may have had a church or more extension work done before the war.

Nuneaton Lido Milk Bar. A lady showed me a pic hanging on her wall, and I just had to take a photo of it. With the Maypole in the distance, you can roughly guess where the milk bar used to be. I know there used to be a Milk Bar in Canley, Coventry. And Wales still have one in Barmouth, and other seaside resorts.

A snowy Duke Street

The single arch in the photograph is rather odd but was certainly never part of a later church. On the plans drawn up by Thomas Larkin Walker and dated 1840 (just three years after Victoria came to the throne) it is shown with a short wall abutting it at 90 degrees. We don't know how the almshouses were fenced in 1840 but perhaps the wall joined with a boundary fence at one time, the arch providing access to the rear of the building. A lot of the almshouse records were lost during the Second World War, the clerk's office being in Hay Lane close the the old cathedral. Ground plan and corner detail below. I don't know how well the plan will display, fingers crossed. Red is arch, blue is section which is no longer there.

Bedworth Town centre from the air in the early 1970's

Very interesting thread about various aspects of Bedworth. Some of my ancestors were recorded on the 1861 Census as living in Old Workhouse Yard, which I think was somewhere near the top of Roadway (Park Road today). Does anyone have any information on this yard, or the old workhouse, which as far as I can make out was near the junction today of George St Ringway and Margaret Ave?

Courtaulds Nuneaton, Sterling Metals, Northey Road, Coventry plant towards bottom of page, flour mills, Finn Shoes, Nuneaton Local People Nuneaton & Bedworth.