Wood End

I remember Wood End being built during the mid to late 50s. My aunt was allocated a top floor flat in Wappenbury Road. People moved in as soon as the buildings were finished. There were no finished roads or shops. Very few people owned cars so access was by bus to Bell Green terminus and then by foot across the wooden walkways known as River Walk. The connecting roads came later and, I think, the 21A service round Almond Tree Rd and Hillmorton Rd to the Live and Let Live (if I'm wrong, it's been over 50 years since I was in that area). There was an ever present and overpowering smell of damp concrete but there was definitely a sense of hope for a fresh start and a bright future. There was a mix of people, several of my teachers at Caludon lived there in the early days. Wood End was, like all the other estates being rushed at the time, built with the post war utopian dream. Great ideas but architecturally brutal.

walrus, so the damp did penetrate the concrete then, so my fears were justified. Next to the path over the bridge at the Bell Green end of the 'slough' was once the long meadow in the mid-thirties, a 14 acre field of wild flowers of great beauty, skylarks filled the air with their song, a pair of kingfishers near the little rickety bridge that spanned the slough overflow. The sound of bumble bees, the mellow rhythm of those days, a blessing seemed to lie in the quiet countryside. Then the war bade us plough the field for corn.

The houses in Wood End were constructed entirely from 'no fines' concrete and the the roads were also concrete. This would all take a long tome to dry out completely and would not be helped by ground which was naturally wet. My long departed old friend used to tell the story about helping his brother, who was plasterer, finish off the houses in Milverton Road because there were people waiting to move in. Apparently the weather was very wet and the houses were still very damp and so the only way to get the plaster onto the walls and dry was to mix in a fair proportion of cement. The job was completed on time, the people moved in and fortunately the plasterer and his mate were well gone by the time anyone tried to drive a nail into the 'plaster' wall to hang a picture.

I grew up in Wood End, spent the first 24 years of my life there, and still look back on those days fondly. Because so many families moved in over a short period, there were lots of kids your own age. Great fun playing 30 odd a side football on the green by Skinner's brook. The old stories about the doors of houses being open were very true. I used to come home from school, and pop into each neighbour's house till I found mum having a cuppa with a bunch of other mums. Just used to ask what time's tea, and scarper to play with pals again. Recall having to clamber over the old wooden bridge when the weather was bad to get to Bell Green School, some of the girls would be carried over by their mums. Although we always hoped, it was never allowed to be a reason to miss school. Riding home-made "trolleys" down the path from the Livvy to the bridge, trying to turn to head down River Walk. Pretty dangerous as there was a lamp post on the corner. Get it wrong, and headfirst into it!! Used to wander all over the place, and cycle even further. Fishing down the slough or the hot waters, "scrambling" over the cloggy banks, skating at the rink in Longford, cycle speedway at Henley College, swimming in the canal by the Jolly Colliers etc etc We used to get the rent man, Prudential man, etc knock the door, and never saw them anything other than alone, never in pairs. When older, I used to pop in the Livvy for a pint if the no 21 wasn't at the terminus. It was a bit rough I guess, but when you knew most people there, it was fine. Happy days. My kids had nowhere near the freedom we did as kids.

Hi Jwill, How refreshing to read an account on this subject from yet another resident of one of these so called Dodge Cities, this is just how I remember growing up in Willenhall lots of good friends lots of freedom and good neighbours. It never ceases to amaze me how some people will believe anything they are told and in most cases with no experience of the subject.

I was a young T.V. engineer for a national company in the early / mid 70s, whose area included Wood End (3 channel, get out of your chair type remote control, and pre-video recorder days). I must have visited thousands of homes all over Coventry - who knows, maybe yours - and once knew the place like the back of my hand. Though Wood End was not the most desirable area of the city, and no doubt still isn't, I never once encountered any problems with the people who lived there.

Zig-zag, you are guilty of your own statement, 'no experience of the subject', so let me ask you two questions. Were you in Wood End in 1958? What do you know of flowers in Wood End in 1958? I brought the subject up, and I apologised.

Gilly, Wood End was almost an island, just about two-hundred yards kept it from being so. It had been to me a lush green hill of a profusion of wild flowers, but in 1950 the old brick narrow bridge was replaced by a modern one, a new estate was born. A lot of bombed out people moved in, new friends, kids again laughing, many became my friends, we still get cards from them. One won a Blackpool jive contest in 1960 with my wife, we still hear from her. Just read through the topic, I sounded harsh.

Hi Kaga, I moved into Milverton Rd in 1958. Stayed there until we got married in 1969. I had a wonderful childhood. Many friends. Used to go wherever we wanted to and never ever felt 'unsafe' We were young and free! Like you, still keep in touch with my childhood friends.

I love seeing the city through your eyes. I saw Wood End in 1991 while I was house hunting. There were riots there a year and a half later. 'A lush green hill of a profusion of wild flowers' sounds much better. I visited a bungalow that bragged a dining room. Which was code for 'hall'. To dine at a tiny table, each guest would have had to sit in a doorway. Pity the fourth guest who would have had to poke their botty out the front door. It convinced me that I needed to borrow more money.

I lived in Potters Green and went to Foxford School. We walked up Ringwood highway to the shop at the top called Sextons where we would use our school bus money to buy two ciggies and two matches sold in the old fashioned triangular sweetie bags (those were the days) so we could have a fag as we walked over clod banks passed an old deserted house and down the farm track past the boating lake to Jackers Road. In the winter I remember it was bitterly cold but we were always happy. Most of my mates were from Wood End and Bell Green, areas didn't mean anything to us, we were all pretty poor and wandered around all over the place, beans on toast tastes the same anywhere when you're hungry!

Evening all, New Housing Development