Longford (inc. The Red Hills)

Massers Yard was off Longford Road near The Griffin pub, opposite the original entrance to Vinecote Road. See the 1954 old map scan on this site.

As Philex31 rightly says Masser's Yard was (is?) off the Longford Rd just opposite Vinecote Rd. It is still shown on Bing Maps:

My first girlfriend lived in Massers Yard to the rear of the Griffin. I can only remember a terrace of cottages. Too young to go in pubs. Happy memories of 1963, aged 15. Merseybeat going strong, The Ritz, skating rink. Great times.

Hello, everyone, this is me first go at forums, and cos I like history and especially Longford where I've lived nearly all me life, I thought I'd give it a go after reading how knowledgable you folks are. So, what I would like to know first is what was the name of what we kids used to call the old mansion next door to the Old Griffin pub, what now has the oakmoor estate built on it? Does anybody know the history of the place, e.g. family or house name? I remember in the early 70s riding an old motorbike round the grounds as it was derelict and you could do those things then, but now I'm too old for that stuff, I'd like to know about the place.

The large house in question was Southfields, 138 Longford Road. In 1911 and 1921 it was occupied by Edward Wootton, a hat manufacturer. He died in 1929 and in 1931 it was occupied by Cyril Wootton, probably his son.

I grew up next to the brick yard, I lived at No 8 Union Place (off Sydnall Road) next to the Baptist chapel (1960-1970). Union Place led to the rear entrance of the brickyard. The brickyard main entrance was about where Oban Road starts now on Sydnall Road. The brickyard (including the clay pit) stretched from Sydnall Road almost to the Bedworth Road. There were several brick kilns, four chimneys and an engine house complete with steam engine. If I remember correctly there was a concrete works on the canal side of the Bedworth Road next to Dowty Engineering with a small part on the opposite side of the road next to the railway bridge. The brickyard was closed and taken over by Gallifords who set up a company called Factory Waste Disposals. This firm was the first company to use skips and the claypit was used for land fill. The brickyard explosives shack was situated about 50 yards down from the rear of the chapel. Opposite the chapel was waste land with a pig sty in the far right corner owned by a chap called Jack Davis.

Thanks philex31 for your info about the Southfields house. My wife used to work for GH Wilson's Engineering next door to the Travellers Rest pub in Bedworth years ago and I think that was an old hat factory just 100 yards from Wootton Street, maybe named after this Edward chap you were saying had the old mansion in Longford. I think someone put an old photo of the railway house in Blackhorse Road on here and it made me think back to my childhood around the area when a coach used to take us kids to school in the mornings and we walked back in the afternoons from Exhall School in School Lane, and some days I would spend an old penny or two or a threepenny bit on a curly type piece of chocolate with no wrapping from a little old lady who used to serve me from a sort of stable type door at that house. Happy memories around Baker Street in the 60s. Thank you.

Hi all, as far as I can remember, Hacketts was before the bridge, over the canal were a row of houses then the pub, more houses, then a small field and smack up against the railway line by bridge was a small factory, opposite was the vicarage, through the bridge was about six houses then the Dunlop factory followed by the Blackhorse pub. I can't remember any concrete works of any shape or form on the right hand side between Hacketts and Exhall around 1940 time. Incidentally the Blackhorse pub around 2000 time was run by Alan Gordon one time Warwickshire cricketer.

Wasn't there a Jack 'o' Massers yard in Aldermans Green Road near the Miners Arms before the war? If so does it have any connection with the one in Longford? Anyone know? Kaga.

Correct, Kaga - link Quite a good friend at King Henry VIII in the early 60s Another one who died too young

Does anyone remember a plane crashing in a orchard in Longford road, I think it was a wellington, It would have been in the late 40 early 50s. It came down about were the scrap yard is on the left opposite where the park is now. I was only a young kid at the time but I can still remember it..

Hi all, hi Wizard, Do you mean this, discussed at length on our forum?

In my pre-teens (c, 1953 or so) there was a cycle speedway track atop the Red Hills in Longford. It was here that the Longford Dominoes (if memory serves respecting the club's name) played their home games. Home or away, the match was a Friday evening summer affair before the natural light was lost for the day. I attended the home games whenever I could. On that same track, in those same early days, I first took the bicycle I was building for speedway purposes. It was a Saturday morning, a beautiful summer's day, but it had rained overnight. I was wearing my first pair of those American pants called jeans, and I was wearing a white shirt, a white school-shirt. My bicycle - like all others put together for this sport - had no mudguards, so my first adventure around that track atop the Red Hills that day, a solo adventure, resulted in a mud-splattered shirt and a pair of mud splattered jeans. Not to be deterred, muddy clothes and all, I kept on doing four laps around the track, four more laps around the track, and then more. The track was not level. It was higher at the Bone Mill side and lower at the Salem Baptist Church/Longford Village side, so the hard-pedaling was always in the Bone Mill direction. In fact, the league (the league to which the Dominoes belonged) had set the starting line half-way up the Bone Mill-directed side, so once around the top side, heading downhill in the Village direction, the speed was considerable, short and all ll as the track was. I cleared the first corner (Bone Mill) and pedaled furiously down the Village side. I elected to go for one last turn of the pedals as I entered the Village turn, already leaning to my left for that turn. My left pedal hit the track, and my bicycle made a 360 degree turn on this pivot, throwing me off the bicycle, throwing me clear of the track, throwing me into harm's way against something hard in the otherwise soft soil. And then it was all film noir stuff, like when the hero has a sap or whatever applied to his head and he sinks into oblivion. Probably no more than a few minutes passed before some kind guy shook my shoulder and asked how I was. I answered that I was fine and that I should be getting home. He did not insist upon accompanying me - and, for this, I am grateful to this day. I was already sufficiently embarrassed to herald my state of gracelessness. I arrived home, sullied and bowed and filthy and wet, and was sent to bed without lunch (dinner, I suppose I would have called it). I did not dare to show my face, curiously now unsullied but furiously bowed, until the following day. Given my apparent resilience, I was left alone to recover until my Mam suddenly understood that I had been wearing the shirt that she had determined I would wear the following day, Monday, a school day. Then I rued the day. I sold the bike - a track bike - and put away my notions of a junior league of cycle speedway that would include a team from Longford, the Longford Lizards. You know, I was so much enamored of the alliteration of Longford Lizards that it never occurred to me that lizards were not noted for speed. Fidobsa, I think the men of whom you wrote were made of sterner stuff that I was able to muster.

LongfordLad - the 'cyclespeedwayhistory' website only lists two Longford teams in your era. In 1950 Longford Demons finished 5th in Division 3 of the Coventry and District League. In the same year, Longford Hounds were 12th in Division 2 of the same league. That could have been two teams using the same track, or two completely different locations. The team that I remember was Longford Lions who in 1964 had a track which I think was in Grange Road somewhere near to the canal. I only went there once and by the time I went to look again in the 1970's someone had built a great big motorway. I can sympathise with your efforts to get that last turn of the pedals before the bend - like you I can remember the pain and the knee ripped out of my jeans.

The bike track through the red hills still is used by motor cycles too.