Railways around Coventry

This picture is from an 1896 book. I am not sure where this building was but a think it was part of the Daimler Complex. It clearly shows the railway line.

This 1902 map shows the line coming off the main line.

It's not THE railway line in the photo, but rail tracks within the works complex Here's a plan of the site which will help you locate your photograph - you can see the two tracks coming into the plan on the right

It was the former cotton mill on the canal wharf. The line was originally laid by the LNWR to serve the cotton business.

Hi all Progress at the Ricoh

Some nostalgia

What seems to have been lost in the mists of time is the fact that a station was planned and indeed built on the Coundon side of what is now known as Radford Road, on the Coventry to Nuneaton branch. However for reasons currently unknown, the London and North Western Railway (LNWR) chose not to open the station to the public. A friend of mine is currently working his way through the minutes of the LNWR in the hope that the relevant information will come to light. What is known is that the station had been constructed at least by 1855. A letter published in the Coventry Herald on 23rd March 1855 refers to the 'new station in the Radford-road'. 'It was constructed some time ago'. The letter goes on 'Either it will be an accommodation to the public, or it will not. If the latter, it need not have been constructed; but if the former, the sooner the accommodation is placed within reach of the public, the better'. This seems to infer it was constructed sometime after the line was opened to the public in September 1850. A mention in the Herald in November 1855 brings up the question again and goes on 'I well know what it is to wade through dirt and filth from the Roman Catholic Chapel to the Counden [note the spelling; Coundon Road station opened initially as 'Counden Road'] station, and as so many persons are so anxious for this new station to be opened, allow me a corner in your next number to state it will never be opened; for the Directors' Inspector has distinctly refused to sanction it as a fit and proper place for a station'. This seems to throw some confusion into the situation - why build it (if it ever was properly built, but some later maps show platforms in place as well as the station building) if the location wasn't 'fit and proper'?? Another piece in the Herald of 5th December 1856 says that the 'Town Council' are to make efforts to get the station 'in the Radford-road opened for public use'. It goes on 'We trust the movement will be successful, as there cannot be two opinions as to the greater eligibilty of the new station over the one at Coundon, both as it respects its nearness to the Town, and its superiority of the road leading to it, the approach to the Coundon station (especially in the winter evenings) being dark, dirty and lonely'. By Friday 13th February 1857, great chunks of Spon End viaduct had collapsed. The Lord Mayor reported that the 'Board' (ie Coventry Council) had written to the LNWR once again asking when the Radford station was going to open. Seeing as the arches had collapsed trains were terminating at Coundon Road. The LNWR's view was that the 'Coundon-road Station was nearer to the City and to the main station, than the Radford-road station, and that at present it is not desirable to open a station at Coventry'. The Lord Mayor's view was that 'though further from the main station, the Radford-road station was closer to the City and more convenient than that at Coundon'. The LNWR's response was that arrangements were in place for the 'present month' (!!]) and could not be altered (!!!). More on this when we find it.... On the same date, 'Mr T Hill wished to know whether steps could be taken to clear a footpath at Spon-end, where the arches had fallen-in? At present, foot passengers were subject to great inconvenience'. There is no doubt that the station at Radford was built, despite its closeness to Coundon Road. The station house was built, but not in the same sandstone as Coundon Road station, Spon End Viaduct and all the other bridges on the section of line between Spon End viaduct and Foleshill. That includes the bridge on the Radford Road alongside which it was built. As you can see in this image taken off Radford Road bridge looking towards Coundon Road on 12th September 1971, the station building was still standing and can be seen to be of a completely different design to the original station buildings at Coundon Road (and Hawkesbury Lane). I believe it was demolished sometime in the late 1970s, and the site incorporated into Barrs Hill school. The train is a Nuneaton to Coventry shuttle, the main line through Coventry being closed for engineering work.The Carbodies plant dominates the distant skyline. Today's view is pretty typical of the modern railway - a row of trees!

Just thought this might be of interest. A clipping from the Coventry Herald newspaper, September 13th & 14th 1935.

^^^I think the holiday excursions were the only time the station entrance in Warwick Road was ever open?

In comparison of price in 1940 my dad's wage for the week was 19/11d when my parents lived in Earlsdon.

I've acquired a cheap film scanner to see what I can obtain from old negatives I have retained from years gone by Some time ago I scanned print I had showing Bedlam Lane Crossing in 1982 I've just found that I in fact took three other photographs at the location that day, and I've now scanned the negs and made the best I can of them As they've been filed away for over 30 years, and travelled the country during our home moves, I didn't recall them at all as I hadn't had a print made of them at the time - I'm made up to find them

These photographs take me back to the early forties. My mother used to take me down to the railway crossing in Bedlam Lane to visit Billy & Dolly Rush who lived at the bungalow in the photo. Billy Rush worked the signal box, and he took me up into the box to show me all the levers for the trains plus the levers for the gate crossing. I lived in Bedlam Lane at that time.

Hi & thank you both, As this is such a subject so close to my heart, three special Brills to you both. I have been researching a bit of railway activity from that area & discovered that Foleshill gas works had a number of onetime petroleum, come oil tank wagons for internal use. A few were kept to BR running standards & were used to transfer tar, to Whitley Wharf sidings, that were located near to the Coventry Engineers depot London Rd. My friend tells me they were simply numbered one to seven he thinks. I am just in the throws of numbering a couple of so treated tank wagons on our Hall Brooks railway.

Hi Arthur P, You say you used to live in Bedlam Lane, did you know the Bird family who live in the first house of the row of houses that started the other side of the Ebonite factory, later to become Brands Paper ware house. The son Peter Bird was a schoolmate of mine. Also lived in Bedlam lane was the man who owned "The City Sheet Metal Works" in Clinton Road. Their name is on the tip of my tongue, its only age that stops me remembering, possibly Wilkinson.

Hi johnwright Sorry the names don't ring a bell. I lived next too the Adams coal merchants. I left Bedlam Lane in 1961.