What happened on THIS day in Coventry's history?

Telegraph photos taken on 18th September

18th Sep 1917 Queen Mary and Princess Alexandra visited Coventry, cheered by hundreds of work girls and school children lining the route. The royal party visited various places, including St. Mary's Hall, St. Michael's Church (soon to become a cathedral) and White & Poppe's munition works. 18th Sep 1949 Marjorie 'Mo' Mowlam born - brought up in Coventry and became one of the country's most respected MPs, serving in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

19th Sep 1643 Spencer Compton, 2nd Earl of Northampton, Coventry's ex-recorder was killed at Hopton Heath during the Civil War.

Telegraph photos taken on 19th September

An interesting collection of photos for us today MR I say interesting because the one of George Cole is so typical of his position as Cov scrumhalf, I think he had a wonderful relationship with his pack - any chance anybody can name anybody else in the picture, or even the team that day? The other picture which interested me was the one of the British Lift Slab 17 storey block. It was a time the multi storeys, of which there were three (that I know of) competing with different methods of construction. I worked as a Surveyor on two of them, but not British Lift slab I never actually watched BLS in action but as you can see in the picture they formed a central reinforced concrete core and used what came to be called a "climbing shutter", which I assume contained central services, space for lifts and escape stairs and then they formed the slabs on the ground and lifted them up threaded on outside columns separately. Costains while I was working there as a junior had a method that they called the "Jack Block", in other words they built it from the top downwards, they constructed the top storey first then "jacked" it up and built the top storey but one on the ground, jacked the lot up and then built the next storey but two, and so on until I seem to remember it had 20 storeys. The advantage of this method was they could cut down the finishing and delivery time (in theory - I don`t think it happened in practice) as some of the finishing could start shortly after commencing operations. Truscons 17 Storey blocks (Meadow Street and Manor Farm and ???) were more traditional reinforced concrete structures in which each concrete shell storey was constructed on roughly a 10 day turnover period - finishings followed. I`m not sure what happened to BSL, I looked them up on Wikipedia and they don`t appear to be around anymore, but I do know they had trouble with the collapse of one building which was a multi storey car park (Piper Street somewhere) built on the lift slab principle - whether that resulted in the demise of the system or it was just not economical, I don`t know. Perhaps other systems took over, I know Gilbert Ash were building at Brierley Hill and Dudley, and Bryants built an awful lot of flats in Birmingham. Truscons died, in fact they shot themselves in the foot, They had originated as a subsidiary of an American reinforced concrete structure company who patented a special sort of reinforcing bar which enabled the concrete to "stick" to the bar more effectively and I think was very successful in constructing the enormous grain silos needed on the Prairies. Anyway the British offshoot operated from at least the 1920`s, had a design division in Manchester and were famed for their excellent concrete frame structures. They didn`t do the finishings - they thought they were losing out on profit from finishing work - unfortunately they should have stuck to concrete work, they bit off more than they could chew. They were eventually bought out by a bank and progressively closed down. I won`t say I was actually the last employee, but not far off - I moved on to Gleesons on the University of Warwick contracts.

20th Sep 1459 Again, the English Parliament was held at the Priory, and Coventry became a "stand-by capital city" while the violence continued in London during the War of the Roses. 20th Sep 1997 Coventry Bees Speedway rider, Greg Hancock, clinches the Speedway World Championship at the Grand Prix at Vojens, Denmark.

Telegraph photos taken on 20th September

21st Sep 1451 King Henry VI came to Coventry - he will make us a county during this visit. 21st Sep 1919 A full-sized plaster temporary copy of a War Memorial was unveiled on this day in Lockhurst Lane. It was proposed that a permanent memorial would be placed in Foleshill, but a permanent structure was never made.

Telegraph photos taken on 21st September

On 21st September 1954, Woodlands Comprehensive School opened, becoming one of the first comprehensive schools in the country. The Headmaster was Mr. F. West M.A., previously Head of the Coventry Technical Secondary School. The official opening by The Right Worshipful The Lord Mayor of Coventry, Alderman T.H. Dewis J.P., took place on 12th October 1955.

Midland Red, I was one CTSS boy of 500 in the first intake of Woodlands. I was in the Lower Sixth, in Sparks House, named after the Deputy Head at CTSS 'Ned' Sparks (I had been in Spencer House at Tech), Mr Long was the Housemaster, and I was made a Prefect.

22nd Sep 1400 Henry IV set off from Coventry with an army to quash the rebellion of Owain Glyndwr in north Wales. 22nd Sep 1761 Great festivities were held in Coventry to celebrate the Coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte.

So, Rob, the 22nd September has mostly been a VERY boring day in Coventry, with only two bursts of excitement in the past 617 years! I blame the City Council - it's time they looked at something to liven it up!

Telegraph photos taken on 22nd September

Hi MR - I think this proves my point?