Quirky facts about Coventry

This is Not Local waiting outside The Regal haha

Good photograph Deano. That is exactly the location other than I was a bit further back towards the entrance and it was a fair bit drier. The clothing is spot-on for a 1950's schoolboy - cap, blazer, short trousers and long socks. The Regal cinema is still there I think but the art deco look was lost when it was modernised in the 70's or a bit later. Anyone growing up in Leamington in the 50's and 60's would have visited the town's three cinemas - the Regal, the Regent, and the Clifton. Alternatively they could have travelled to the Warwick Cinema where I saw 'Reach For The Sky' which was the story of Douglas Bader which sort of links in with other information about Bader.

Fashion disasters from the Telegraph.

Sally Cinnamon, hi. Quirky, unusual story. Guy in Coventry robbed a bank, five minutes later walked into police station. Hey, think I'll save you some time, I'm the guy that robbed the bank. Cops throw him in a cell, rush to his address with warrant to search for money. Wife said 'hey what's that got to do with me, this is my house, and your not coming in here with your muddy boots' or words to that effect.

In 1772 Coventry seems to have a reference to a classic case of 'spontaneous combustion'. Mary Clues of Gosford Street died on the floor of her room and was found just as a pile of ashes, thighs and one leg left. Only a few bits of the room and furniture singed. It was assumed that her blood had turned to alcohol due to the amount she drank. Even then it was assumed that her candle was the source of the fire. Until recently this phenomena was seen as a myth but modern experiments with pig carcasses show that clothing acts as a wick and the body slowly burns, melting fat as it goes and supplying further fuel. Intoxication or illness is often a factor because the person is in an extreme state of weakness and unconsciousness and doesn't wake to avoid the flames. Icky but fascinating. The History and Antiquities of the City of Coventry:

Hi Helen Hi all, Thank you for that, Helen, I attended a company fire wardens meeting one day, where the perils of instantaneous combustion were demonstrated in a conventional waste paper basket. Using old fashioned carbon copy paper, some iron fillings & a piece of fresh out of the copy machine screwed up ordinary copy paper. The screwing up of the warm paper produced an electrical charge, which when thrown into the basket, micro-sparked through the carbon paper neutralising onto the iron filings, both the carbon paper & the screwed up paper started to burn. It only took two goes by the demonstrator for it to work. I am convinced.

I remember in summer pre war on cloudless weekends as a nipper watching the sky writers trailing smoke advertising various products! I only remember the one for Persil which was finally enclosed in a circle! I was watching this from Keresley Common!

Sounds like happy days No doubt you couldn't foresee what else would occur in the skies above Coventry a little later

My mum as a toddler was terrified of the pre-war planes flying over but the moment they started dropping bombs, she stopped being scared. Perverse or what?

That was my experience as well. I remember being in the back garden and hearing a noise above, looking up I saw this black thing in the sky, I ran indoors. During a raid us children would hang out the bedroom window watching the display.

This sounds like it, from Birmingham Post 1955 but it does say Gosford Street. I can't get the whole of the article on.

I recall this now as my father used to tell the story - he banked there (Lloyds, Gosford Green) and I seem to remember him being in or near the bank at the time

Annewiggy, thanks, that definitely is the piece that I read so many moons ago, just tell me was it in the fifties?

1955 Kaga

Thank you Anne.