Wyken Slough

Hi Kaga. Hope you and yours are well. Think back. Opposite the Green Man, junction of all three roads, was a long low building facing the Green Man. Well that was the Rose in June. I remember a pub sign being over the door but never knew it being in business as a pub. Entering in from Taylors three acre meadow we would go and steal the fruit, we were never challenged so never knew if anyone lived there. Kays farm was the one on the slope. Franklin delivered the coal to our houses. He worked from a large detached premises just in Windmill Rd. Coal came on a flat pony and cart driven by Franklin so I thought he owned the business. Norman

Hi Norman, I thought that building was two cottages, I saw people go in them on occasions, I never took much notice of them, neither did I know much about the lower half of Windmill Lane, I knew, and went to school with, a boy from one of the cottages, Windmill side of Green Man. I heard that Taylors son was the youngest jockey in England about 1940 but that was hearsay. Have no idea who delivered our coal. When the bomb burst the canal, that was a vast amount of water that surged down to the slough, neither culvert could handle that amount, so the field on the left of the road became a half slough, if my memory serves me right it took about three days for it to get back to normal. It was so strange to see the canal empty, the boats were toppling into the centre, only the ropes held them from rolling so, even so they tilted at a dangerous angle, but the planks at Tusses Bridge held until the repairs were finished.

Hi Kaga. Sitting on the low wall in front of the Green Man having a pint you would be looking up AG Rd. Opposite you at junction of HG Rd and AG Rd was the Rose in June. Opposite Rose in June, corner of AG Rd and Windmill Rd was two shops next door to each other. Next to the right hand shop was Mill Race Lane, just a footpath really, went up to the millpool and the mill. Still sitting on the Green Man wall, if you looked left up Windmill Rd there were two 18th century cottages now gone. In the nearest one lived Charlie Pinnegar and his family. Next to those cottages was/is a large detached house, that was where the coalman ran his business from. In 1940 Taylors older son Jim would have been about 15 but if he rode then I have no idea. 1950 I went with the Taylor family to watch Jim race at Towcester. He rode a horse named Satrap that belonged to the widow at Nettle Hill farm. He also rode another Nettle Hill horse named Orphan Lad. I went to school with Peter the youngest in the Taylor family, his fingers were webbed like a ducks feet. Norman.

Found the above in Guide to pubs and Beerhouses in Coventry

Hey Norman, this is getting weird, first in mill race cottage lived one of the Blythe twins from Lentons Lane, I married into the family, next to Pinnegar lived the Nassua family, I went to school with the eldest boy. Now I know there was a Nettle Farm out near the Ansty Aerodrome don't tell me? I am a big friend, in fact he came down a few weeks ago for a holiday, with a guy from Ball Hill, long distance swimmer that has webbed feet.

Bang on Kaga. Main drive to Nettle Hill was opposite entrance to Coombe Lake but there was a back drive that went off Birchley Wood direction. There were two sisters living at Nettle Hill farm during and after the war. Both racehorses Satrap and Orphan Lad belonged to them but were trained by the Taylor family. I met those sisters several times but have now forgotten their names. Could one of them been Emily? Could the surname have been Moulden or something similar? Long time ago. I lost touch with the Pinnegars when those cottages were demolished. Norman

Well! How time marches on, from a farmhouse to a machine shop to a conference centre. I suppose that it has little resemblance to when the sisters lived there. Norman

Hi Norman. Well we move around, if you looked from Nettle Hill to the railway line and slightly left, I was evacuated to a house on the canal side there, but after a couple of nights there, they dropped bombs trying to hit canal and Shilton station, so dad brought us home. The canal was breached there once, have no idea how, but the water gushed down into that dip and formed a lake for sometime. Now there was a farm entrance just before there, went through the fields and under the canal, that was Pages farm also run mostly by three sisters. Now I mentioned earlier that my father planted a tree in A G Rd, when he came home from the 1st war, so, on V.E. day he planted a tree where the council couldn't touch it out there in the wilds, but the golf people did. In 46-7 he moved house and job and became a lengthman on canal.

That would be Nettle Hill farm, next to Mobbs Wood farm?

Not sure about that Greg. I can't think of a Mobbs wood in the area. Main entrance to Coombe Abbey. Opposite side of the road to the main gate is a dead straight drive that goes all the way to Brandon Stadium. It runs close to Nettle Hill and passes through woodland but don't think that wood is called Mobbs. Last time I went up that long drive was about 1952/53, not sure if its public now. There are several farms in that area but if I ever knew the names I have long forgotten them. Norman.

Morning, Norman, Greg, what a small world we live in. Now Greg how do you Mobbs Wood? Behind Nettle Farm was the high bridge crossed both canal and railway, Mobbs Wood was up there, there was a farm, could be Adams not sure but my younger brother worked there for a few years around 50-1-2 time, I wasn't at home then. Now main pit farm above the slough was owned by a Mr Colledge he was the organist at Ansty Church one week then Shilton Church the following week or so I was led to believe. Now, I live on the cliff top, but manage a small estate at the back of the town, two hundred and twenty grapevines, three fig trees, numerous apple, plum and pear trees and a sixty foot greenhouse, but I will have to give it up in March, call it a day. Just remembered, there were a couple of cottages close to Nettle Farm, suppose they're gone now. Either of you go to the pub in Brinklow, sat right over the railway, drink fast or the train spilt it.

Yep. Small world it maybe but I wouldn't like to have to paint it. I know there was a farm beyond Nettle Hill, never went there. The wood down that way we called the One o'clock Wood, no idea why. I think that pub on the rail line is now a private house. Gone like so many other good inns. Norman

Norman I was brought up in Almond Tree Ave in the late 60's and 70's and recall a derelict red brick building on the corner of Almond Tree Ave and AG Road behind where the Manor House bus terminus was I'm pretty sure it was and as I recall right near AG Rd almost in the trees. It was never given a 2nd thought really but amazed now to find that it may have been the remnants of the Rose In June, after reading above that the remains were demolished in 1998?