Forum Features & Updates

Further to John's excellent topic-statistics compilation, some of you might not be aware of the Forum stats that are linked at the very bottom of these pages. It automatically updates itself and shows weekly, monthly, yearly and "all time" graphs for topics and members - so as well as the most popular threads, we can also see which members can't pull themselves away from this forum!

This post is to tell our wonderful forum members about another little treat. I very recently bought a set of 25 original Joseph Wingrave photographs from a very old album, and they're now uploaded in super-size to my "Rob's pics" collection. If you set the image order (top right) to "Most recently added first", then the first 25 images will be the newly uploaded Wingraves. For photos of around 150 years old they are astonishing - I would think many modern cameras of many megapixels would barely compete for detail. Here are two examples. The first shows the man in the doorway of J. Wingrave's own Chemist's shop (shown in full in image c01117). My first instinct was that it might be Mr. Wingrave himself, but the only other photo of him that I've ever found is one I used on this page - and so I don't think it is him. The second image is a detail from the Art School in Ford Street (image c01114) - who knew those faces were there? If there are any other details that intrigue you when you view the photos, please let me know and I'll see if I can get a close-up for you.

I ogled these when they were up for sale. You're a very nice guy letting us have access.

Thank you and respect, you are a most generous man. Derek.

You're both very kind, thank you. A collection like that was simply a must, and I really wanted to make sure it didn't end up in the hands of anyone who might simply hide these super, historic images away in a drawer, as so many old photos sadly end up.

After recently getting a copy of the 1929 book "Old Coventry", plus a handful of postcards that I'd not had before, I've added them to my collection on here. To specifically see the 1929 photos, which include a couple of rather pleasing views, this link should bring them up.... ../robs_pics/search.php?q=1929+old+coventry Clicking the red "Browse all images" link and ordering by "Most recently added first" will soon reveal what else is new since you last looked.

Nice pictures Rob, I especially like 'Trinity Lane and Rear of Butcher Row', great find!

Thank you - and yes, that's a particularly nice and rare shot, isn't it. I'd only seen it in books before, so it's lovely to have my own copy that I could freely share.

Thanks for the bringing it to my attention, Rob. Will give me something to look at while in lockdown. Been neglecting things like this of late. It's given us both a kick start, these photos.

Hi Rob, I just found this post of yours and had to say how glad I am that you managed to buy these photos. I have been poring over the 'watermarked' eBay versions for a few months and am so grateful to see them unsullied here. Well done Rob PS, I also noticed a number of your other postcards since these that I think I may have bid for against you, sorry about that I just saw that some repro cards I was going to bid on are your daughter's

Hi Cliff, My pleasure! I love photos like that anyway, and I don't like to think of such gems getting stuck in someone's drawer to never be seen again, so I try to do what I'm sure the photographer would've wanted - get them seen. No worries about the bidding - it's one of those things almost out of our control nowadays since eBay stopped displaying the usernames of people bidding. I can see why they did it, to prevent people getting contacted or threatened to withdraw from bidding, but it can also be a nuisance. The only indicator we get now is if we get to know other bidders' feedback scores. Mine's currently 2429. If you let me know yours, then I can withhold from bidding against you if you already have one on, if you like? Over the years I've been given all sorts of Coventry related things by kind people who know about my site, so I've recently had a clear out of repros and other things that I don't really need to keep, and I gave them to our Mandy to make a bit of money. Hopefully you'll pick up whatever takes your fancy for a nice low price!

My Friday evening gratitude for the maintenance of our forum. Friday night gratitude is worth more than any other time, in fact it's the equivalent of the three brills award. On a serious note, if I have one, thank you.

A small but hopefully significant improvement to "Rob's pics" image library.... Apart from a sprinkling of new images, it is now possible to exclude words from a search by preceding them with a minus sign. For instance, if you wish to see pictures of Butcher Row, but don't want images of Little Butcher Row getting in the way, then search for butcher -little. Similarly, entering hill street -primrose will find Hill Street, and exclude Primrose Hill Street. Hope this is useful.

More images added recently - over 50 more since you probably last looked!