Photo poser - Jack Frost and his steam roller

Hi to you both, Hi all I was taught that over any period of time, unless being worn away by constant flowing water, ground level is constantly rising. Another issue is the photo itself. We may have to ask a photo expert, to have a look at the picture, as the lens & focal length of the camera may distort different parts of a picture, or even the enlarger during the printing process, making a structure look taller or wider than in reality. Whatever, I have enjoyed as I hope we all have with this picture search, the contributions & thoughts & hard work that have gone into it. This picture above which is lovely, thank you for going & recording it. If you walk through to the other side of the viaduct & stand where I think that a sports centre is, then look back at the viaduct, that is where I had hoped that the original picture had been recorded from. I believe that the brightest part of the sky was facing the camera, which would normally be facing south. Another clue that I am wrong is shown up by the king stones. The arch king stones in the original picture are smooth blue engineers brick style, not the sandstone blocks which stand out in relief, in the colour pic recorded by you Baz, today. You're a star! Thank you again.

There has been a lot of work done on the brickwork and pillars to make it safe. Bands around and the long bolts through the hole width of the bridge. One person put that the side arches were gated at one time to store things. (I bet they got wet).

Hi Baz Thank you for that pic too Baz, as that I am sure rules out that as a location for the original. Another clue that I have missed up to now in the original is that the roller is brand new. There is no pitting in any of the wheels & the depth of the tyre is such that it has no wear. Also there is no weathering on the top rain cover which were always being hit with the fire irons. Compare it with the tyre depth on the colour photo from Wiki. Thank you again.

My money would have been on Nauls Mill Park bridge.

The trouble is there was no factory or chimney in that area Fred, I checked.

Hi There is another viaduct on the Coventry to Nuneaton line, but for most of its life it was almost filled in. That is not uncommon, as land usage changes over time. (As a point in fact, mostly only trainspotters know that Nuneaton Trent Valley station sits on a filled in viaduct). Where the Coventry line crosses the river Sowe at the Ricoh, there is a three arch viaduct, that remained not very visible, until this last decade, but the other thing to take on board is how far Coventry Corporation would send their steam rollers. Our city boundary did not extend to the Ricoh a century ago just as it may not have extended to Nauls Mill park. I do not know the boundary change history well enough for that.

Hi all Wait a minute, what about this in Whitley/Willenhall, what is called the Sherbourne viaduct. This picture is from Flickr. This is on the Coventry to Rugby line & passes near to the City Engineers main depot. There used to be a direct rail link here years ago called Whitley Wharf. A short spur of the siding still remained until recently which was used by an oil distributor. Where the viaduct is situated, there is no public access, as it is part of the Whitley Corporation site. Google sat has it shrouded in trees so we cannot get a good look at it. The fact that the steam roller is new (my opinion), it could have been delivered new by the looks of the unused bucket, we have a viaduct & a Corporation depot, my opinion is now shifting to Whitley. No chimney now, but that could have come & gone years ago, just as the one there now is about to be moved. ps. On a nice day, I might be able to get to the north side by walking passed the Charterhouse into park fields. This was the land which featured in a schools ownership dispute, recently. I hope that I do not get shot at! Please look at this photo in link, & note the then height of the viaduct. Whitley Sewage Works & this Whitley Sewage Works & this Corporation Steam Roller & this Viaducts

You obviously meant the Sowe viaduct Philip!

Would this have been any where near Old Church Road. I keep looking at this side of the City, our Jack Frost on the picture lived on this side of the City.

Hello Annewiggy, No. Old Church Rd is in Great Heath, which is the Bedworth end, whereas Whitley is south east.. At the time of the photo, Old Church Rd was outside of the city. A good tram service existed from Old Church Rd, right into the city from a century ago, so he could still have worked in Whitley. Whitley started out as Coventry's first sewage treatment plant in 1858. When the treatment plant moved to Baginton, Whitley became the city's general site for highways & is where most of Coventry's rubbish is taken to be processed nowadays. Hope that helps.

The place where the rubbish goes is not the same place as the highways depot. As I'm sure you know, the rubbish goes to the incinerator at Bar Road. The highways depot is (or was) between the A46 roundabout and Asda. It was one of three such depots in the city, although it was the largest. The others were in Windmill Road, and in Falkland Close, Tile Hill, next to the station. Each covered an area of the city, and had its own team of road gangs and inspectors, run by the area highways superindentent. My first job after leaving school was at Tile Hill depot.

Hi MisterD-Di, Thank you for enlightening me on that. I was going back to the turn of the previous century, when the prospect of the development of Stoke, Wyken, Binley & Walsgrave required the sewage plant to be enlarged & it was decided to move it to Baginton, so as to benefit from the merge of the Sowe & the Sherbourne. There was until recently an engineers depot at Bishopsgate too. Have you any thoughts on the likely location of the photo? I am still 80 to 1 for Whitley.

Hi Dutchman I had originally called it the Sowe as that is what it is called on the Flickr photo, but the City engineers site describe it as the Sherbourne Viaduct. Also, it is described as the Sherbourne viaduct in Bournes history of the London & B'ham railway, which is where I referenced. The two rivers merge south of the A45. Have you any further thoughts of the photo location?

Hi, Philip. I also had a spell at Foleshill Road Depot, Bishopgate Green. It did not deal with highways though. It was the depot for refuse collection, street cleaning, street lighting and also housed the training centre for the craft apprentices. I was in the deployment office that administered the refuse collection, the most boring job imaginable, and I soon left to join Weights & Measures in Livingstone Road. My only good memory of Foleshill Road depot is the staff canteen where the prices were the same as the Derby Lane canteen but the portions were about twice as much! I'm afraid I can't add much to the discussion on the photo location, I'm not sure at all.