Finham

I used to live in Oxley Drive, Finham in the 1970s but left around 1975. I returned last weekend and struggled with some of the changes so was hoping somebody might be able to explain a couple of things! Firstly, there used to be a primary/nursery school opposite the shops at Finham but now its all houses - where did it go? Is it now on Green Lane? As a kid growing up in Finham, we used to play a lot around some old derelict buildings/huts that sat just down the hill from the school that we referred to as the "youth hostels". They have also gone now but I'd love to know what they were - were they something connected to the airfield at Baginton or did they not go back that far?

Hi Paul You are correct the school is now in Green Lane opposite the shops there. I used to have to go to the clinic in Brentwood Avenue, on the same site, for anti-natal classes nearly 50 years ago. The flats which have been built on the site are Brentwood Gardens. As I didn't live down that area I don't recall the huts so can't help you there. I'm sure someone else on the forum will know though.

Hi, I'm new to this forum! so bear with me. Now live in Rugby many years. Went to school between 1959 and 1964 at the old Finham Junior & Infant School at the bottom of Brentwood Avenue. We were told it was a hostel during the second World War, but became a school around 1948. It had a big assembly hall with a stage, with climbing ropes and ladders at the opposite end, like a mini gym. there was a big field at the rear of the playground. Most of the classrooms were old, even in the 60s; and there was a pottery room and an enormous "dining room", with massive kitchens, which must have been from the original hostel era (it was at the Leaf Lane end of the school). Yes, there was a clinic next door and they built a row of shops opposite the clinic. The headmaster was Mr. Williams, and he was quite elderly. I haven't been around Finham for about 40 years, so would probably not recognise it now.

Hi, does anyone remember the old house in St Martin's Road, called Finham Lodge? I think it was demolished in the 70s, but was derelict in the 60s when we used to play in the grounds - I think an elderly spinster used to live there, but died in the 60s before we played there. It had a magnificent staircase! Cannot find anything online about it.

Hi Val D & welcome to our forum. Thank you for your posts & we hope that you receive some responses.

Old picture from 1939 showing A45 Kenpas Highway. Road heading south at the bottom is St. Martins Road

It must have been where the southwest end of Joanna Drive is now. I used to live in the third house on the left of what is now Joanna Drive (turn left in Hadleigh and then immediate right) into what I knew as St Martins Rd between the years 1958 to 1965. There used to be just 4 houses there and then a large hedge and one or two places just beyond. Finham Lodge was a little further up, I think. I can't believe how much has been built around there. And what happened to the 16 bus terminus on Droylsdon Park Road. Where does the 16 go now?

The 60s estate built with Cotswold Drive as its main road was known as the Finham Lodge estate - we lived there, and our near neighbours included Noel Cantwell, Neil Martin and Ernie Hunt - and Brian Lewis lived in nearby Brentwood Avenue Today's no 16 runs from Keresley into town, then out to the Hospital at Walsgrave, via Stoke Aldermoor

No 16 Green Lane?? How would I have got to school without the 16?? I was always first there at the terminus, and I used to listen to the Gardner 6LW's before taking my favourite seat on the other side of the division to the 'Used Tickets' box. There was always something comforting about the CCT 6LW's. Finham was Warwickshire originally, and we (the family) moved out to Leamington Spa in 1965, no disrespect to Coventry and the rates rise that we would have had after absorption. The buildings opposite the shops on Brentwood Avenue served as a Sunday school, and I got thrown out, having been called the 'anti-Christ', and I did my Cycling Proficiency test there too. My sister and I used to be given a sixpence each on Sunday, and we would make our way to the newsagent on Brentford Avenue. The lady hated us. My sister always asked for Fruit Salads, 8 for 1d, and I always asked for Flying Saucers, also 8 for 1d. Sometimes she would make us wait behind other customers because it took too long to count out 48 of each. My friend and I made a dam on the stream which ran at the side of the Styvechale Arms, and we got into trouble for it because it all backed up and caused havoc with the drains. I was nicked one time for scrumping in the orchard which existed prior to Cotswold Drive et al by the local bobby who looked like George Dixon.

Dave Clements also lived there MR in the early 70's. I used to frequent the area as one of my best pals from school lived at 43 Cotswold Drive.

Quite correct, Beesman, I'd forgotten that - and Joe Mercer lived in the house in which the Cantwells had previously lived whilst he was at CCFC

Am new to this site and have just got halfway through a post when it disappeared - probably "Operator error"! However, to recap - was born in Erithway Road, Green Lane, but moved to the new development of Hadleigh Road in approx 1955. I believe that that area had previously been occupied by concrete huts for itinerant workers during the war. Went to Finham County Primary from around 1953 to 1960. Recall Mr. Williams as Headmaster, Miss Player, Mrs. Westley and of course, "Daddy" Day. In my last year was a member of the victorious Finham team that won the Mid Warwickshire Junior Knockout Cup. Peter Bagguley scored the only goal in the final against St. Peters Leamington. Then went to Leamington College and sat next to the St Peter's captain in a number of lessons. I well remember the Sky Blues footballers who lived in club owned houses in those days, especially as I was an evening paperboy for a while operating from that sweetshop in Brentwood Ave, opposite the health clinic, where we were marched from time to time for various injections, and the polio vaccine on a sugar cube! Happy Days! In later years my parents moved to Holly Walk, Baginton, and they still remain in that village, albeit in the churchyard these days.

I copy this from the excellent "Pride in Finham, Wainbody and Stivichall" FaceBook page (with permission).... Just reading The History of the County of Warwick: Volume 6, Knightlow Hundred, as you do (well I do!), and noticed the passage talking about the Monks of Stoneleigh. "by the beginning of the 16th century the abbot had converted much arable to pasture, putting 2 ploughs out of use and rendering 16 persons homeless. there had been much depopulation, so that by the beginning of the reign of Henry VII out of 19 houses at Hurst only one was left, at Cryfield out of 12 only the Grange, at Finham 8 houses out of 12 had gone, and Millburn was completely depopulated. Source A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 6, Knightlow Hundred. Ref Dugd. 263-6; Rous, Hist. Regum Angliae (1744), 123 So around the year 1485, Finham had gone from having 12 houses down to 4, because sheep paid more than people. now I'm wondering which 4 houses they would have been? and which 8 had gone? maybe the moated house down Moat Ave was one? Any more Ideas? Presume Stivichall Grange (now called Manor) was one." Anyone on our forum have any ideas?