Lower Ford Street

This is from my father. The year would have been 1946. An old boy and his even more elderly horse are travelling down Lower Ford Street, when the horse suddenly expires a crowd gathers, in no time a bobby appears. "Right what's going on here then?" The old boy (grim faced) reports to the bobby that it has died. "Right then", the bobby taking out his note book and pencil says "I will have to take some details. Right, what is your name then?" The old boy replies "Harry Brown, sir". "Your address?" "27 Gulson Rd. The horse's name's Hercules". The bobby, lifting his head and looking around, "Right, what's this street called then?" Local resident pipes up "Vecqueray Street". Bobby "Vek.. Vec.. Veq, oh sod it, can't you drag it round into Smith Street!" Anybody remember this one!

My Dad used to tell this one, we lived in Gosford Green area, I guess it was the product of The White Lion or Pitts Head bar or Armstrong Siddeley where he worked at the time.

Godiva Street

Picture taken from the Lower Ford St. end. At the end of the pic on the left were bill-boardings, Cox St. end. The first few houses on the left were "cottage style" with an old fashioned latch type front door and you stepped down straight into the front room. Then they changed into the terraced houses you can see. Just to the left of pic, out of view, was the entrance to the garages which led through to Gosford St. Delivered newspapers up there 1960ish but only half way as another newsagent had the other half from the Cox St. end. Sherbourne under the bridge and going on to pass by Astley's.

from The Evening Telegraph, 29 Jul 2013 A 150-year-old Coventry church is undergoing a £900,000 makeover to bring it in to the 21st Century. Work has begun at Lower Ford Street Baptist Church, near Pool Meadow, to add community facilities which will help support an ever-growing congregation. The present building was built in 1857 and the £904,000 project will see the floor space increased by 76 per cent. A new first floor will be put in, along with an extension at the back and a side extension where it will join to a neighbouring house. Work is already under way thanks to a £75,000 grant from landfill charity WREN, who support community projects, which will go towards a community space, kitchen and toilets. A grant has also been secured from the Garfield Weston Foundation with £10,000 to help towards the cost of community use on the first floor, while £612,000 has been raised by the congregation through donations and fundraising events. The church also received an interest-free loan of £150,000 which leaves only £57,000 to find for later phases of the project. Church leaders expect the transformation to be completed in March 2014. Paul Watts, senior pastor at the church, said: "We are thankful to God that we are now able to turn our vision into a reality. "The giving by the church family has been amazing and we are delighted at the expression of confidence in the project represented by the grants from WREN and the Garfield Weston Foundation." Peter Cox, managing director of WREN, said: "WREN makes a difference to people's lives by awarding grants to community, environmental and heritage projects across the UK. "We're delighted to support Lower Ford Street Baptist Church and their valuable work." The church is not open during the building work and services are being shared with Hillfields Evangelical Baptist Church on Sundays (9.30am and 11.15am) and 6.30pm evening services are at Durbar Avenue Evangelical Church, in Foleshill. Photographs taken this morning

Hi Midland Red, You will have noticed my church mentioned at the end of the text. It is handy that Durbar has an afternoon service 4pm on a Sunday, which makes it feasible for the folk from Ford St to come at 6.30pm. Thank you for the pic.

From B.T.H. Reminiscences, Sixty Years of Progress, dated 1946

Hi all, I've been searching the internet for days trying to find some photos or references of my gran and grandad's old shop; was wondering if anyone here remembered it or have any stories about it. It was a second hand clothes and joke shop (strange combination! ) on Lower Ford Street (number 10) called "C. R. Garland". You may remember my grandad, Ron Garland (pictured below), as well, he had a broad Welsh accent and wicked sense of humour. Or my gran, Eileen (pictured below). The above photographs are from 1985 a few days before the shop shut down. The photo below is an earlier photograph of the shop when the shop had a sign hanging over the window with a witch and clown on (1970's???) (sorry about poor quality): The shop originally sold second hand clothes and later became a joke shop as well. The shop was very popular with construction workers who would come in and buy a whole new outfit (trousers, shirt, coat, tie, underwear, etc.) every week for work, throw the old clothes away and come back for more. The joke side of the shop, at the front, sold tricks, masks, fancy dress, silly string and whatever else you could think of. My grandad also had a shop on Swanswell Street (which was just a second hand shop) and Holbrook Lane (joke and second hand) before the one on Lower Ford Street, unfortunately I have no photos for either of them. If you have any memories of the shop (or perhaps more unlikely some photos) I would love to hear them. Many thanks, Luke (Garland).

Hello Luke and welcome to our forum I do hope (and expect) that you will get plenty of responses from our members

Hi all The shops all along Ford St & Lower Ford St were an underrated community in themselves. A fabulous model railway shop for decades was amongst them, as well as a shop selling photo stuff where I bought a Sanyo super eight cine kit. Most of you know that music got me involved with amateur drama groups in Coventry, & I remember buying wax sticks & spray coloured cans from Garlands & then buying boxes of unsold wigs from Joyces hair salon nearby. The art people would turn them into all kinds of character hairstyles like Egyptian, at a fraction of the cost of buying specialist theatrical wigs. So yes, I do remember Garlands.

Hi all I remember the CR Garland shop in Lower Ford Street. We used to visit it nearly every Saturday when we were kids. I discovered it by accident as it had stink bombs, cigarette bangers, itching powder, etc. in the window. I do remember the lady who was very cheerful in the shop and her husband. I always wondered what happened to the shop as new outlets have opened up there now. Is the lady and gentleman still alive?

Is this the same building now?

Midland Red: Thank you. PhilipInCoventry: Yes, the shop used to stock all sorts, but didn't know they sold stage makeup! Deannottz: From what my gran says it was very popular with kids spending their pocket money. As far as I am aware at one point in the late 70's/early 80's it was the only joke shop in Coventry (???). My grandad passed away just over 2 years ago after about 27 years retirement, my gran's still around, talking about her memories of the shop; (I'm going to print off this forum thread and show her at some point )

Yes!

Yes it is, I've been past it quite a few times and would like to look inside but it always seems to be shut(?); I think it's some kind of internet cafe. I keep wondering what the black stain is above the window - it was there when my grandparents had the shop and appears that there is a black stain above the window now (is it the same stain???? ) (fire damage, damp?)