Spon Street

Yes Dutchman it was one with an arm with fire that shot across the room lol it was black with a window for the flame. But my aunty who now lives in OZ owned the wool shop in Spon Street

I could fill the board with stories about our's Don't remember it I'm afraid. Two thirds of Spon Street had already disappeared by the time I moved here

Did your aunty become Mayoress of Coventry? I remember going to the shop as a child, they also sold beautiful knitwear, I think I called her Mrs Allen, there was also a shop that sold cooked meats and they had the bacon slicer there, I used to buy sixpence worth of spam with my pocket money, I also remember my gran giving me farthings to spend in that shop, again I think it was called Bates, then again I was only a child (lol)

They were in that shop until at least 1980, because I took a watch there in that year, and were still there, so far as I am aware, when I left Coventry in June 1982. (OMG, was it that long ago?? ) They were still supplying watch materials at that time, and had a separate shop and counter for them. They were the last Coventry supplier of such things. It would be very interesting to me to find out if they continued to do so after they moved, whenever that was, or what happened to that part of their business. Maybe the BHI would have info on it; I could e-mail them, I guess. But turning their old shop into a hair and beauty salon.....sad. I find myself getting disorientated by so many changes having taken place in the years since I left Coventry.

I probably should have said they were based there up until at least the 1970s. I don't know when they moved into the Tudor timber-framed building or indeed when the latter was reconstructed there after being demolished in another part of town. The Spon Street Townscape Sceme took place over a long period and I wasn't living here at the time. I think I've read a planning application from Alexander Edwards regarding the demolition of an air raid shelter behind the former Plough in 1983 which might be the date they moved? It coincides with the opening of a shop selling cheap costume jewellery close to their original premises. By the way, the building to the left of the salon in the picture is another reconstruction and the facade of the pub to the right of it has been altered beyond recogniton only recently despite being in a so-called 'conservation area'!

M'mm, 1983 sounds not at all impossible. I'm surprised they turned themselves into a cheapo jewellery shop; no-one in their right mind would expect to survive with that somewhere like Spon St,out of the mainstream. Ironically, if they had expanded their parts business, and gone over to mail order, they would probably have prospered, like others that have done so, elsewhere. Never a good idea to forget your roots, and why they were your roots! "Conservation area"...now where have I heard that phrase before? Isn't that a euphemism for 'urban decay'?

It was even later than that it seems Keith. In 1985 plans to convert No9 into a restaurant were abandoned and towards the end of 1986 the Bridge Club behind No17 decided to expand into the retail area formerly occupied by Alexander Edwards. As usual the city planning records are about as clear as mud on the matter! I don't think the costume jewellery shop at No21 had anything to do with Edwards. It was broken into with monotonous regularity and was very soon converted into a cafebar.

Phew - glad to hear it! So it sounds like 1986, then. I have somewhere a 1997 BHI Directory, it would be interesting to see if Edwards' were listed in it still.

Hi dutchman I've found my BHI Directory. It's 1996/7. Alexander Edwards isn't listed, so they must have ceased supplying parts by then. (Unless, of course, they were not members of BHI, although that wouldn't necessarily matter, on the one hand, and is unlikely if they were still supplying parts, on the other.) So it looks like the business was at that time more or less defunct, certainly, so far as watch parts and repairs were concerned.

About the only part which needs replacing in modern watches Keith is the battery and they can be bought from a kiosk in the precinct for a fraction of the price that Edwards was charging. As a bit of an aside I was following a particularly attractive* blonde along Spon Street the other week and was surprised when she crossed the road just to look in the window of the shop which has replaced Edwards. Then again, maybe she was just trying to get away from me? *Hope she's reading this and responds

Hate to disillusion you, but there are more mechanical watch movements being made now than in the late 1970s. Mostly fairly expensive ones; Rolex, Zenith, Omega, TAG Heuer, Breitling, Jaeger, Lange u Soehne, IWC, etc, etc. and of course millions of classics still in use. And an awful lot of collectors out there, for example collecting especially WWII military ones, a lot of which are now rather valuable! And having said that, the better quality qtz ones can even be repaired!

Maybe so Keith but the people who own them are not the kind who shop in the centre of Coventry. They would probably travel to Leamington or Birmingham and spend a lot more for exactly the same service.

Mmm, I bet there isn't one high quality watch shop in Coventry now. Watches of Switzerland went years ago, did it not? And as you said, Flinn's. At one time there was James Reid, Walker's, and another whose name I've forgotten. If you look at this link, you'll see what I mean about how Edwards's abdicated from a valuable type of business; they wouldn't have needed the shopfront, just a small office type premises, and a bit of business initiative. But such has been the lack of forward thinking and nous of so many Coventry businesses over the years. After all, the demise of the watchmaking industry in Coventry was due to a general refusal to modernise and change their practices, wasn't it? And motor cycles. And cars. And machine tools. A great shame, but we can't change history.

H. Samuels comes to mind also Gilbert's

You think you have problems there in Coventry - my husband has just been informed if any major problem occurs with his Tissot watch here in Perth, it will have to go to Switzerland to be repaired and it will cost around one thousand dollars for starters.