Demolition around Coventry

Hi Dutchman, & thank you for putting me right on that. I can remember a relative talking about someone in hospital there, a very long time ago. ps. I have an ambulance on my gallery, talking about hospitals. It's a B'ham ambulance supplied by Gen-Motors under contract with Bedford. I have asked for a Coventry maroon one or a St. Johns black with white stripe. For all of my time spent in Paybodys, I only travelled in an ambulance once.

There was a large isolated building below the garage near the corner of Spon Street called 'Holyhead House', your relative may have meant that?

Hi Dutchman. You are bril' as always.

I had a Hillman Imp in, I think, 1968 from here - cost £625 as I recall

They were a nice little car apart from the cooling problems they suffered from. The police had some of them as panda cars. The first time I drove one I sheared the gearchange flexible linkage and had to be towed in and then had to explain it to a friend who had lent it to me.

Interesting to see a "burial ground" marked on that map. Was that linked to the Quakers?

Yes! There was another one for Congregationalists slightly further up Hill Street.

Hi NormK, I was asking if anyone had any photographs of the Francis Barnett factory in Lower Ford Street (opposite the chapel) a week or so ago. It was demolished post 1963 I believe. I wondered if Hilditch were involved in this and whether any photos survive of the demolition?

Hilditch was the main contractor in the area at the time and I worked there at the time you mentioned but I cannot remember us demolishing the FB factory. Sorry, Steve, can't help.

Ok, thanks NormK. It was worth a try. Steve.

When I left school in 1964 I started working in the building trade I worked for Arthur Maguire, offices on Torrington Ave in Canley. We got the job of demolishing the old Lea Francis factory in Much Park St around 1965-66, the place was fire damaged and very dangerous. We also had to take down some of the very old buildings in Much Park St piece by piece and they were taken away to the museum, later to be re-erected in Spon Street opposite the Rising Sun pub. One Sunday we were told to come to work to demolish the old Dun Cow pub in Jordan Well which joined the old Gaumont cinema (now the Odeon). You can still see the roofline marks on the Odeon wall of the Lea Francis which also joined onto the cinema. I climbed onto the roof and started to take the very old tiles off and found an older thatched roof inside, the main timber support for the thatched roof was a complete oak trunk, still had bark on it!! We stopped work and told the foreman, Gordon, and some guy from the museum opposite had come down to watch, and he got very excited. We then had to take the pub down very carefully as it was believed to be even older than Much Park St buildings. Anyone know what happened to the building? After that job we demolished Godiva Street, and went on to Lower Ford St where I found £6,000 in used fivers under the floor boards in Blackmores electrical shop. After taking it to Little Park St police station and getting a receipt for it I went back to work and found another £2.500 and another £800 in another little hidey hole. This was on all TV channels and even made the London Evening Standard as well as the Evening Telegraph in Cov. Just to put it into perspective, the cost of a semi in Cov then was £2,500. I well remember ripping out the kitchen in the quick service cafe opposite Wheatley St school, I used to enjoy the brekkie there, massive plate of bacon, eggs, sausages, beans, black pudding, unfortunately my pleasant memories of past feasts were knocked a bit when we moved the cooker in the cafe and 50 million huge cockroaches took off down Lower Ford St towards Raglan St, it was like a river of roaches for a few minutes!! Tom from Tile Hill (also owned the hairdressers there in the 80's)

Hi Tom, I lived in East Street at the time you were working in Lower Ford Street, I`m intrigued, did you receive a reward for being so honest???

The Dun Cow wasn't reconstructed elsewhere Tom if that's what you mean? It would have been pointless in any case as a third of the original building was destroyed in the Blitz and without the neighbouring 14th Century row of shops it would have lacked any visual context.

Hi Tom... Reading your post on the Lea Francis left me thinking, I also worked on that job, but it wasn't for Maguire's, I worked for George Hilditch. Did the two firms share the job? I think they must have done. That job brings bad memories for me because I fell through the roof and landed on the concrete floor and could not work for a whole year, due to my injuries. Even to this day I still get some pain in my right wrist. The compensation I got was a whole £20!!... not so happy days

Tom - when you visit Coventry, we'll try and arrange a forum breakfast meeting (very small and select!) - NormK came to the last one, so hopefully you two could meet up and exchange notes - between you, you two and the Luftwaffe must have knocked down the whole of Coventry