Bus crashes

Can anybody remember when a Coventry double decker crashed into the Bon Bon on Stoney Stanton Road at Harnall Lane in the days when the traffic went straight across and up to the five ways? Also a bit further down SSR before the Swanswell there was a sign on some double doors by some old houses that stood back from the road that said OLD 43 RILEY can anyone remember it and what did it mean.

Hi NormK I am sure that at least two of our members can answer the first question. The second question, can I join you on that? I feel some maps coming on. We will see.

I recall the bus going into the Bon Bon, I can also recall prams being in that shop, while having to attend hospital.

Thanks for that morgana, a lot of the younger generation do not believe Harnall Lane East used to go straight across Stoney Stanton Road at the side of the pub, I think it was Harnall Lane West.

Yes there was Harnall Lane East and West but I'm sure they have built houses there on the west side.

The road is still there Morgana but is no longer open to through traffic.

Thank you Dutchman I haven't been down there for ages, I was looking back on old photo's on Google at that area also Foleshill Road, how clean neat and tidy the streets looked back then.

Many thanks for your nice comments Philip & Foxcote and thanks also to "Midland Red" for adding the link to the photo of bus No.244!!! (it's much appreciated!!!). The picture of Bus No.163 (KVC 163) that you've now put on here "Foxcote" is superb, although that Bus unfortunately didn't look as good as that at one point back in November 1961!!! It crashed one morning through the front of a house in Allesley Old Road, Spon End (by the bottom of Hearsall Lane). The owner of the house had fortunately gotten out of bed half an hour before the bus came through the front of his ground floor bedroom and so luckily for him, he escaped uninjured!!! The driver of the bus also escaped any injury, but "8" of his passengers on the crowded bus were taken to hospital with minor injuries!!! The house was later demolished, but the bus suprisingly was repaired and went on to give another 10 years service, finally being withdrawn in 1971!!! If anyone wants to see pictures of the accident, I wrote an article about it in the Coventry Telegraph's "YOUR SPACE" section back in September 2009 (the 21st) and with the enclosed photos, it covered nearly 2 pages! The History Centre in town should still have a copy of it, if anyone wants to see it??? (Copied from 'Coventry buses past and present')

The company I worked for demolished that house after the damage, I still have one of the chimney pots in the garden.

That's strange. I lived slightly further up Hearsall Lane between 1967 and 1975 and don't recall there being any gap between the buildings in Stanley Terrace? Bus enthusiast Graham Bailey posted in another forum that he remembered the house being repaired after the accident and planning records show that all eleven properties in Stanley Terrace were intact and fully occupied as late as 1976. It was a shop in Harnall Lane which was demolished after being hit by a bus.

Dutchman. I think where the confusion is, can you remember an explosion which completely destroyed one of those houses? I remember it shattering the windows in The Model Shop opposite. I think this is the one we demolished. The only one involving a bus was when it went into the front of The Bon Bon as mentioned on here some time ago.

I don't remember it myself Norm but have read that happened around 1990. Four houses in middle of the terrace (Nos 6-12) were demolished around the same time leaving the two ends standing. The remainder of the terrace was demolished in 2002 to make way for a bus lane which was ultimately abandoned by the council.

Thanks for your replies guys to my post about the Spon End bus crash in 1961! When I was in the process of putting my article together for the Telegraph back in 2009, I had to visit the History Centre to try and get as much information as I could about the accident, as I wasn't even around back in 1961 (born in 1970 you see!). I've got a small set of photo's, of which 5 were included in my article and it shows the bus still standing smashed into the front of the house and also there's a photo of the bus after it had been pulled back away from the house (showing all its front n/s corner badly damaged!). Another photo shows the house itself, with just this big hole in the front of it and some workmen there shoring it up to try and make it safe!!! When I was down looking for information in the History Centre, I did read that the house was later demolished! For years afterwards, the terrace did remain with a gap in it and to some people, it was a reminder of where the accident happened!!! (it probably became a gap just full of litter and overgrown weeds later on, if that area in between the remaining terraces had been neglected?). If it helps at all, from what I can see on my photo's here, there's a shop (???? Studio) just visible on the left of the damaged house and I think that has No.10 on its front door, so it looks like it must have been No.8 that was damaged! I do remember the gas explosion that has been mentioned about on here and obviously after that, there was just one big gap, then afterwards and no distinctive little one to show where the accident once happened!!! It's probably a long shot and maybe the reason why people never really noticed the gap so much, but could it possibly have been partially obscured by some sort of big street sign on the pavement there??? For drivers coming down Hearsall Lane, there could have been a big sign at the bottom in front of them, to indicate this way (left) for <<<< ALLESLEY & CHAPELFIELDS ------ CITY CENTRE >>>> (turn right) !!! There's gotta be a photo around somewhere of Stanley Terrace before the gas explosion (hopefully) or even meet some "local gossip" who's lived in Spon End for years and years and who might be able to shed some light on it??? What's got me worried a bit now is that forum member "Dutchman" once lived in this particular area for a number of years and he himself doesn't recall noticing the missing terrace??? I don't think I'm going mad just yet though, as another member on this forum (Greg, Coventry) has posted in another section on here (Errington's (Astral) Factory) that he recalls one of the terraces being demolished by a double decker "CCT" bus that failed to negotiate the junction having come from Hearsall Lane!!! He also said that the gas explosion rings a bell to him too!!!

Is this photo any help? I'll have a look to see if I can find the incident in the newspapers. There was a barbers, Smiths, opposite Hearsall Lane. Bus coming out of Hearsall Lane Is this your article about the crash? Bus Crash 1961 And a response to the article. Letter to the Press regarding the accident

The "BON BON" shop bus crash happened just after 6pm one evening back in August 1953, when two buses collided on the Stoney Stanton Road (by "Harnall Lane East") and it was the bus on the "Inner Circle" route that mounted the pavement afterwards, crashing into the front of the shop and clearing the window of most (if not all ?) of its display??? About 16 or 17 passengers were slightly injured, after being thrown from their seats into the gangways. Four ambulances attended the accident and ran a shuttle service, taking the injured to the nearby Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital, but all of them were released after treatment for cuts, bruises and shock!!! The driver and his conductor were also bruised and shaken!!!