Hales Street

Ah! Thanks Rob, I could have sworn a picture like this was labelled Hobb's Hole.... OK I checked it out. In David McGrory's The City of Coventry, Images of the Past page 39 - It says that the image is Pool Meadow/St Osburg's Pool and at the east end was the Devil's Ash and Hobs Hole. I see the problem. Directly outside the Cox Street gate was another mill pond that must have looked similar to the Priory Mill pond because it was in another loop of the river and roughly triangular, except it was backed by the city wall and the Cox Street gate. It was the Bastille Mill pond and there are no images of it that I know of. On the 1750 map, it does indicate Hobbes Well near that pond. But the image above and on page 39 is definitely of the Priory Mill pond off New Buildings. The oldest mill is behind the row on the left of the sketch - see below. Confusingly there were two more mills between those two mill ponds. One ended up at the end of Priory Street and looked very similar to the building above. See the middle of this photo for the mill building. There was no pond for this mill or the next in line. The fourth mill was at the end of Miller Lane and there doesn't seem to be an image of that either. In Pool Meadow itself there were fish ponds but they had dried up after the Priory was demolished. Did I mention how hard the city was to understand?

Considering that you're not a "Coventrian" Helen, you do a marvellous job of understanding far more about our city than most locals do!

I'll say she does

An old mill stood at the bottom of Cox Street from very early times, and the house connected was outside the walls near Mill Lane Gate, close to which was a place called Hobs Hole. At one time it was the custom of certain persons to elect a member or Mayor of Hobs Hole. From Mill Gate a trackway extended outside the walls, along Spinney Lane, so named from a small wooded enclosure on the bank of the deep brook course, which extended by the side of it to Swanswell Pool, which was known as 'Catchem's Corner', the junction of Primrose Hill Street and Swanswell Street. In 1880 Paynes Lane was only a minor road, barely passable, a cart road (foredrift) stretched from there to the Harnall Brook towards the town.

Yes, I think Helen must have walked around Coventry in a previous life!

Kaga, the gate and mill and the end of Cox Street which was formerly Mill Lane was the Bastille or Earls Mill and gate. I have mentioned before that my Yardley ancestors lived there and were millers from the 16th century, John Yardley being mayor in 1689.

Annewiggy. Sorry, the strange thing is I can remember things from childhood but not things I have read recently, I find I now have to keep turning back to pages of books I am reading.

Memories are tricky things. Some methods we learn stuff better than others. Our childhood memories have the advantage of tenure. We lived through them. We take them out regularly and reinforce the events. Reading about things is much harder. The books about Coventry are good but imperfect because they are trying to make sense of stuff long gone. They often don't agree with each other. Authors change their mind or find new facts. At least one modern book is riddled with errors, poor images and mislabelled photos, so if an author can get it that wrong, what chance do the rest of us stand? I'm enjoying and finding useful your snippets from old books and old memories. They make me think about new... err old stuff.

You are not alone in that respect Kaga. Considering - dare I say your age - you are doing pretty damn well I reckon. You must have had so many memorable Christmases.

Helen F. I fully agree about old books, to believe or not?

Millenium View, today

Another view towards Grammar School

Interesting one just on FB. I think this is taken from Hales Street - cameraman would have his back to the Hippodrome looking south up New Buildings, the Meriden Tavern (latterly the Alhambra) in the distance. Must be just pre-war with the trams still running.

NeilsYard. Would you see the spires in that angle from there?

Nice image Neil. The rise of big buildings have killed views like that. That scene looking up New Buildings is a short distance to the left of the sketch in post 161. I've gained an appreciation for photos like that because they provide perspective for earlier sketches that might show better buildings but have an element of artistic inaccuracy.