Nurses' Home, Stoney Stanton Road

Hi everyone, new member here I wonder whether anyone has any photos or other information about what the interior of the Nurses' Home on Stoney Stanton Road looked like. I've looked on Coventry Digital and elsewhere but haven't found anything relevant yet, although there are plenty of pictures of the exteriors and hospital wards. I'm working on a novel with a character who is a nurse there during WWII, so I would like to make this as historically accurate as possible, including what her living accommodation might have been like. Thank you very much in advance for anything you're able to share with me! Vicky

Hi Vicky, welcome to the forum Was it this building?

Hi. vayardley, Great to meet you on this wonderful forum. I'm sure you'll get help from our terrific members. Fictional works about women workers of all kinds in WW11 is one of my favourite genres so please let me know when I can get a copy. Lots of luck with your research.

My bad, the second photo is looking from the south east, the first one is looking from the west.

Not back to front.

Sorry Linda, I was wrong. The second photo is the other side of the building.

Hi Vicky, yes, please let us know when the book is available. I like reading books based on local places, good luck with it. Just noticed your name ! It is a common comment on here that us Yardley's get everywhere. My maiden name is Yardley and Neilsyard is one. We are both interested in our family history in Coventry but as of yet have not connected our families. We even have our own topic !

So I'm assuming that it is the right building, there should be pictures of the inside before they started developing it (ok, without furniture). I found no references in urban explorer sites but they may exist. The development is called Eden Square. Apart from the developers, the other place to look is Coventry's planning office because sketches and photos (maybe showing the before) should be logged as the prelude to planning permission.

There was a second photo? I'm not having a good day.

Hi Linda, We all want you to have a wonderful day. Ours is nearly tomorrow, but you've a bit to go yet. Love from us all. PS. It was quite common for nurses & staff to have accommodation at hospitals. Nowadays it's often students & trainees, but in years gone back, transport was a huge issue. Paybody in Allesley, where I spent a lot of my childhood, what was the original hospital building, once the purpose built flat level was built, became nurses accommodation right up until the hospital closed. I believe the same for Keresley hospital.

Sorry Linda, I added the second photo while you were replying and thought the second one looked wrong but they're from different directions.

Ok, did a bit of searching and found some stuff. The last link is perhaps the best but don't rule out there being more useful info if you dig deeper eg there is one application for the tiles in the fireplaces. Coventry planning map find the hospital, select planning current on the right, click on the hospital and a list of planning applications appear on the left. One I selected to look at for the hospital. The building heritage assessment PDF which has some good info, including floor by floor plans of the original layout.

While trying to unravel some unhappy childhood memories of a stay in Keresley Hospital, I found the following nurses and patients stories from the 1950's, archived from the CET: https://www.thefreelibrary.com/REMEMBER+WHEN...%3F%3A+A+patience+for+patients+an.... It must be remembered that until 1970 the "age of majority" was 21 and matrons and sisters were in loco parentis to the student nurses who could start training in Coventry from age 17. One correspondent remembers taking the Bunty buses from the nurses home in Stoney Stanton Road to Keresley Hospital. Ordnance Survey shows nurses' homes on the Keresley site but I have no recollection of them.

Hi there, My mother was trained as a nurse here, back in the 1950s. She was black. Is there any information you can share with me about her time there? What it would've been like for her as a black student? I believe she arrived there perhaps in 1954. Her marriage license, which I just found, shows her living here at the nurses' home. After my birth, the family moved back to Jamaica in the late 60s, where she opened her own nursing home, nursing school... a huge establishment. I am trying to connect a lot of misplaced dots. If someone can respond here or in private, I'd really appreciate it.

Hi Alilee, welcome to the forum I hope that someone can help you but Choirboy's link might have some interesting stories here. There may be a Facebook page out there for NHS nurse memories?