On 17th Aug 2024 5:26pm, Not Local said:
John, did you visit the little graveyard behind Lentons Lane Baptist Church? I did some research a few years back regarding Coventry blitz deaths and the minister there got a local lady to show me the exact family graves I was looking for - they relate to the 1940's and earlier. There are still lots of families living in the area that have descendants who were either miners or off the boats. There is another older cemetery called Walsgrave Cemetery which is accessed from Woodway Lane, at the very far end, almost against the M6 motorway. In pre-second world war years the canal was very close to this cemetery before it was straightened out. The coming of the M6 in about 1970 also altered the local roads. There used to be a canal side pub at the M6 end of Woodway Lane called the Jolly Colliers which is mentioned elsewhere. The road which is now across the motorway from Woodway Lane used to be a continuous route directly through to Lentons Lane - it still is if you are on foot. A look at Google Maps or similar will explain better. If you think that your family were boat people just look for births alongside the canal, often somewhere between Coventry and London.
If you are interested, the results of my Coventry blitz research are recorded under the 'Members Articles' section of the forum, you access it top left. It is article Number 21.
Thank you, Not Local.
We visited Lentons Lane and all those cemeteries yesterday but were not successful. There was no-one in attendance at the church unfortunately. I may ask Coventry cemeteries to do a search for me. My research on ancestry is coming up with a wealth of links in Lentons Lane, plus the names of the boats that different ancestors were on at the time of the censuses. I now know I'm related to the Swains as well as the Oldhams and the Moores. It seems the Colliery was the place to work after canal life, many of the names later became miners and enginemen. I guess the canals were in economic decline forcing the boat families to put down roots and find work. It looks to me as though Lentons Lane was the place for many crews to settle. They must have been proud boatmen as they listed on the census as 'Master', with their sons as 'crew'. I need to trace the boats from the names and look for history of their travels and cargo etc.
