Tile Hill

My gran lived in Conway Ave, at the bottom of which there was Duggins Lane. I believe that a local blacksmith called George Duggins had his workshop on that lane (presumably called something else), does anyone know the history and what happened to the Duggins family and the old workshop?

Hi Dean. The old smithy was there when I moved here in 1979. I would take my boys there to look through the derelict building. The blacksmiths tools were still there with horseshoes etc littered about. Over time they disappeared and the builders moved in. Now its a small complex of little cottages. Very nice but the history has gone.

Hello Dean, Have a look at this site, it should answer your question. Old George Duggins died a few years ago, he was a regular in The Bell.

They are very nice pictures Chaingang the before and after is so easy to distinguish well done.

Many thanks to all of you above for the information provided. My grandad was a regular at the Bell too , and I have no doubt they would have known one another !

In the years 1932-34 I lived on Duggins Lane and spent many hours watching Mr. Duggins shoeing horses, watched him heat up the forge, hammer the red hot shoes on the anvil, press the shoes on the hooves, and then there was the aroma, wonderful memories.

Hello Peter & welcome to our Coventry forum.

Just wondering if anyone knows when exactly the Jardine Crescent shops were built and the identity of some of the early businesses. I know there was a Co-op as I remember going there with my Mum and getting a little ticket once you had given your "divi" number.

1953 and it was originally called Humphrey Wanley Crescent! City Planning Application Aubrey Allen butchers and St George's dry cleaners were among the first occupants.

Hi Dean, it was built in the early 1950's. We had lodgers when I was little who moved out to a maisonette in Berners Close in about 1953 which had just been built and I think Jardine Crescent was built around the same time. It was named after the site foreman, Dan Jardine who was a big but shy Scot according to "Twentieth Century Coventry" by Kenneth Richardson. He was a man who rarely spoke but he was capable of getting that extra ounce of effort from the men who worked under him. He could always be depended upon when the situation was really desperate to somehow have one or two houses ready before time. The affection in which he was held by the people whose houses he built and the Council for whom he built them resulted in the crescent being named after him.

From my wife: JARDINE CRESCENT: Jardine Crescent was called after my great Uncle Danny Jardine. He was the Scottish site agent who was in charge of the construction of the Tile Hill Housing Estate. My grandad (Hugh Easton) was also involved working alongside Uncle Danny. While I am not from Tile Hill myself (now reside in Canada). I spent many a good time at my grand parents in Aldrich Avenue. I do remember my grandparents and parents speaking about what transpired at Tile Hill and how Uncle Danny was loved by all and given the honour of having a street called after him. In the days of Tile Hill being constructed numerous men came over from Ireland to work and rebuild Coventry. The job was hard and long hours and Uncle Danny while being a task master treated everybody with the utmost fairness and respect and as such the guys would do anything for him. Uncle Danny knew that the wife and families were back in Ireland depending on the men's wages so he set it up that a portion of their wages was sent back to Ireland every payday to feed and take care of their families. A lot of the Irishmen were Catholic and Uncle Danny was a Protestant but when he died they paid for a shrine to be erected at the local Catholic Church in Tile Hill in Danny's name with the words : "TO OUR BELOVED PROTESTANT". I can remember visiting the shrine as a child and I believe that it was at Our Lady of Assumption Church but not sure. I wish I had a picture of it etc. Do you have any knowledge of this shrine? if it still exists. My mum remembers vaguely many years ago about being in the paper about moving it? Wondered if anyone could shine some light on this situation?

I lived for a year in Jobs Lane and I remember Aubrey Allen the butchers, Gauntlett the grocer/delicatessen and a bakers whom, I think, were Wimbush and have a vague memory of a Lipton's. There were many other shops whose names I cannot remember including a fish shop, greengrocers, newsagent, wool shop, hardware shop/Post Office and a shop that sold records

. . . . and at the Jobs Lane end of Jardine Crescent, the New Star public house (photo here), the first licensee of which was George Mason, Coventry City's famous centre-half

I remember the shops facing the bus terminus being St Georges Dry Cleaners, a Barbers Shop and a Ladies Hairdressers, Where Popeye's the chip shop is now, was all owned by the Co-op, from left to right I think, was the Co-op butchers, the grocery store, greengrocers the drapery store, and round the corner in the square a Co-op chemist, not sure of the next two shops then Gauntlets, the Launderette, Lloyds Bank, Frank Mills Clifton (electrical shop), a shoe shop then a greengrocers on the corner opposite the woods, NSS Newsagents, Lipton's, Aubrey Allen's, Sunblest the Bakers then the hardware shop and post office. On the side facing the health centre, there was "Wine Sellers" the off license, not sure what the shop next to that one was, then a chemist shop, the wool shop on the corner (could be the Co-op drapery store, and the wool shop next to the Co-op greengrocers) The original fish & chip shop was where the Indian take away is now.