John Hough's Mission

Walking up Trinity Street this morning admiring the council's latest waste of money, I went past New Buildings and took a look at the development of the old ribbon factory. My memory went back to around 1950 when it had been decided to send me to Sunday School. To this day I don't know why, but the school of choice was John Hough's Mission in a large room in New Buildings, the entrance being next to what was to become the Scout Shop. Woggles and hats anyone. John Hough's Mission is/was a charity which now seems to be based in Telfer Road, but that apart I know nothing about it. A John Hough was the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry around 1700 but was it the same man. There was a Ragged Sunday School in the Stevens Memorial Hall next to New Buildings which had been built around 1908 and certainly used as a place of worship until its demolition in 1999 for the Phoenix Initiative. Would this have been the room used for the Sunday school of sixty years ago?

I remember John Hough's Mission using a building at the side of Brandish's Garage in Whitefriars Lane, off Whitefriars Street. My great grandmother lived in 2 court 5 house Whitefriars street. As a child hanging out of the kitchen window of this one up one down I could see the steps of the Mission as it was called. One tap between all of the houses in the yard and toilet at the end backing onto a stonemason's yard and the then derelict Toy Museum, happy days. The air raid shelter was under Brandish's, when they dug it out we observed it was sat next to their petrol storage tanks.

This one? I knew Court No.2, three toilets between 14 dwellings but as I remember it they each had their own sink which emptied into an open gully in the yard which stank to high heaven! My friend Willie Carson was one of a family of four living in a one-up, one-down.

It was probably a nice chapel in its early life. I never knew about earlier premises, too young to care, presumably the mission moved to New Buildings in the late 1940s.

What a good picture of the Mission, I was only about 8 year old at the time cannot remember the Carsons, I recall a Mr Lane who smoked Woodbines and Mad Frankie a drummer who played his drum kit on the yard every Sunday, there was also a gent who helped at Coventry Boys Club. Was Brandish's a Marks and Spencer at some time after the war, or was it nearby? Opposite the tunnel from the yard into Whitefriars street was Foreys the ironmonger, used to take gran's accumulators there for recharging could then listen to the radio.

That was Willie Carson's dad! He was a builder by trade and spent most of his spare time helping youths in the local community. He once built a wooden swing in my back yard for us all to play on. You might also remember Chief Superintendant Pendleton was a regular helper at the boy's club? Yes it was! Don't remember the hardware shop but I do remember the tiny grocer's which stank of soap and cheese and the corner tea shop with its equally overpowering smell

What a great picture of M and S, the fittings hanging down between the lights were gas heaters which used to glow red just like today's patio heaters.