Coventry Trams

Yes good work TonyS and good work Greg for bringing it to light.

It is a great pity that this significant piece of Coventry's tram heritage has finally gone after surviving for 75 years. I myself remember well seeing these small sections of tram track as a child at what I think was the gateway of the RHMS company whenever I passed by in the fifties and sixties, and now we are as with so much more of Coventry and surroundings, only left with memories. Returning to these, the trams were long-gone before I was born, but even I remember the area of Coventry Road/High Street Bedworth next to the White Lion pub referred to as the "Top of the Trams" for it was here that the trams terminated at Bedworth, and the trolley-pole turned round ready for the return journey to Coventry on a single track down the middle of the road punctuated by passing places, the track set in a strip of granite setts. Whilst the now late lamented White Lion would have been very handy for refreshment after the journey, I understand that the building a little further down just next to the gates of the Miners' Welfare Park, now a wool shop was an alternative - a cafe called the "Top O' The Trams" run in the 1930's by the Shortridge family according to local historian John Burton. In fact if you look closely at this building now it is possible still to see one of the cafe signs on an upstairs window.

Actually, the first tram out of that depot was in 1895 but It would appear that, in this once important city, that does not qualify as important local history. I was not surprised having once walked round the sterile `Transport Museum`. Frankly, I reckon we should hand over the reins to our cultural wasteland to Birmingham (at least they have taken steps to preserve some of their trams, buses and buildings - try a visit to the Black Country Museum and their Transport Museum). Having been born here, over 70 years ago, I used to get upset by the important buildings which were demolished in my lifetime but, frankly, I no longer care and I would never advise anyone to waste their time visiting the City. I am seriously thinking of leaving the group right now as `Historic Coventry` only exists in pictures.

But Greg, aren't you forgetting that the pictures we take today represent the history of tomorrow. Just think of the hullabaloo that will arise when they decide to demolish IKEA

Sorry, Pixrobin, I did not intend to denigrate pictures (I started taking them myself 65 years ago, when I was eight). However, unless you can see an object/building/painting etc. in real life and close up, there is a world of difference in the information you can take away from it.

Greg, photographs are merely a 2 dimensional representation of 3 dimensions and only at one particular point in time. On the other hand a picture is an entity in itself. As for trams, I was born too late to experience Coventry trams but if the trams along the Blackpool seafront are a representation of them then I don't despair at their passing.

My experience of the Transport Museum was similar to yours Greg, did the whole thing in less than five minutes! There was very little to engage my attention and when I did show an obvious interest in an exhibit (a Daimler bus engine) I was studiously ignored by the staff who seemed to spend their entire time engaged in private conversation. The only nod to the city's tram history was a large scale model of a tram from another area.

Although the electric tram service began in 1895, there was a steam tram service which began in 1884 and used the same depot at Foleshill and the same 3ft 6in gauge track. So the tram lines have probably been there over 130 years.

I am fully aware as to how long the Coventry tram system was in operation, both electric and steam and have a fair amount of source material that I refer to including previous forum posts. I always try to be careful when I put a post on that it is as accurate as I can get it and also that it just may contain a snippet of information that is of some interest to other people. When I talked about the tram track at the Foleshill depot surviving for 75 years obviously that referred to the period after the tram network closed when most if not all traces of the system were removed and so did not survive. To me it is understandable that the main part of the tram network was removed swiftly. This was not a time that had the luxury of a heritage mind-set. It was about survival initially then the rebuilding of a city ravaged by war. Buses quickly replaced the trams, for example the number 20 service replacing the longest stretch from the city centre to Bedworth. It is therefore hardly surprising that the Transport Museum does not have much of Coventry's tram heritage to display, because there was probably hardly any to start with. Therefore now the main sources of information regarding this topic lie in pictures and text, and luckily there are a number of these available to study. As regards the view expressed on Blackpool trams, I have been lucky in having been able to periodically experience this tram system over the past thirty years or so. I have actually seen a conductor walking round a tram in changing over a trolley-pole, have seen the old trams clanking up the main street in Fleetwood and have ridden in them with their clunky ride and flickering lights. Real heritage experiences! Now however the whole system has been rebuilt with state of the art trams, and to ride in them is a smooth and very enjoyable experience as well as being highly efficient in providing millions of passenger journeys every year. However the heritage trams are still there and run regularly throughout the year, so you can still have the old tram experience! Best of both worlds!

Don't know if you are aware of this or if its been posted before : Trams quiz

That's harsh and ignorant. For a start, the Black Country Museum isn't in Birmingham or run by Birmingham, it's in Dudley. Your opinion of the Transport Museum is just what is it: your opinion. My children enjoy visiting it and find it far from 'sterile'. As for recommending people not to visit here. Well, I'm critical of the mess they've made over the years and the stuff that has (mainly needlessly) been demolished, but there is still plenty to see and history is not about what's visible, it's what has happened to get to this point, and if more people actually studied history we wouldn't make the same mistakes - it's not all about photographs. Try picking up some of the academic papers on Coventry and leave the coffee table photo books alone. Even with the ravages of National Socialists and Socialists there's still plenty to see, and Coventry is a far more interesting place than Stratford and has more heritage than Birmingham. - Herbert Art Gallery - Guild Hall - Medieval painting in Holy Trinity (itself a fine building) - Priory undercrofts - Fragments of city wall - Fragments of various abbeys - Greyfriars Green (now looking fantastic with the removal of the flyover.) - Old Grammar School - Spon Street area If you go further out there's the 'Weaver's Cottage' in Spon End and now Fargo Village. The 'big chains' may have left Coventry out of their plans and John Lewis aren't interested, but maybe the grassroots will step in and replace them with interesting stuff with more of an edge. With interesting developments like the Country Park around Charterhouse the future is looking interesting.

David H. Yes your pictures bring a few memories back, thank you. Looks a lot cleaner now than when I knew it, but of course the railings were not there then. Now, with the mass public and private transport, the walkability of people has almost been forgotten, walking was the only means of getting about in Coventry in the 1800s, the horse buses would have little impression, the centre of the city was beyond the reach of many. So the tram would have been a godsend. With Coventry being a leading industrial city, towards the end of the century bicycles were in production. But few people could afford a watch until that time so many workers were late, alarm clocks had not been invented then it was for this reason that street clocks became common. But by far, the tram was the outstanding way of getting about the city. And my view of remembering the 'Tram'.

I was cycling back from Coleshill this afternoon and saw this in the woods. Looking on the internet, I was amazed to find that it is probably the remains of Coventry Tramcar 32. A previous post on the forum says this is on the Meriden-Fillongley road which ties in with where I found this. It's amazing what you find when your not looking for it!

I was over in Maxstoke today and remembered this - can anyone tell me exactly whereabouts this is?

Neil, This was also mentioned in post 13 and 19 in Coventry Tram Memories.