Watch and Clock Industry in Coventry

A version of that with high enough resolution to see the numbers properly would be ideal. I thought that my German bombing map might have been OK, but the houses aren't numbered (well, they didn't numbers, did they? ) And it would be difficult to photocopy anyway.

Doh, I'm always doing that! Corrected it now. Watchmakers' houses with a third storey at the front which this one seems to have are extremely unusual, unless they were formerly weavers' cottages adapted for the purpose later? Without a proper picture of the house it's impossible to say. There was another three-story watchmaker's house on the other side of the road next to the Black Horse but it was set well back from the pavement with an ornanmental garden in front of it. Most people will remember it as Moore's off-license. Hard to say Keith. The oldest map I've seen just says "To Berkswell"

Well, if Balsall Common Lane is today's Hearsall Lane - and I can't think what else it could be*, because the census goes from 61 Spon End (occupied by a carpenter) to 2, Balsall Common Lane (which would be the "watch factory", occupied by a cycle repairer, A F Whittaker, who was an employee aged 25, and already 2 kids and a 13 year old brother in law! No 3 is a watchmaker, No 4 a charwoman and ribbon weaver, No 5 is a watch jeweller with wife and 5 daughters and a son(!!), No 6 is a watch balance maker with 2 sons in the trade and a daughter. Then it goes to Court 1, Balsall Common Lane, etc. This numbering, I think, fits with the buildings in the space now occupied by the 1950s shops in Hearsall Lane. * The census goes along one side of a street, then along any side streets or courts, back again, and then back along the other side of the street. Hearsall Lane doesn't appear in the 1891 census. Watchmakers didn't generally use top-shops so far as I'm aware, they seemed to be for ribbon weavers; but there's a rear workshop behind that building anyway, although there was a row of top shop houses in the Butts (but of course they could have been ribbon weavers' houses originally anyway), and Prescot watchmakers often had top shops, so those why moved to Coventry wouldn't have been fazed by using them. Could be that the house at the front was originally a weaver's house, or if, as you thought, it was built 1881, the original house could have been pulled down and rebuilt with an extra storey to form a top shop, and give extra working space. Next to the Black Horse (No 73 Spon End) at 72 was Charles Rigby, watch balance maker, his son was a cycle fitter. At 74 was Robert Beesley watch movement maker, also his son Joseph, same trade. Between 73 and 74 it goes round Court7; nearly every family in Court 7 were in the watch trade - and some families were really big, like no 1 in Court 7 had 13 people resident in it!! Of those, 3 were in the watch trade, 1 was a herring curer(!) , 1 a labourer, 1 a bicycle wheel maker, and 4 children at school!!! All in one tiny cottage......cosy!

According to John Ashby's occupancy tables the end building in Spon End was No.62 from at least 1874 to 1935. This fits with the numbering on the other side of Spon End which begins at No.63. In 1874 No.62 was occupied by a watch case maker by the name of Legg. The address is then shown as void until 1886 so it's possible Legg's home predates the building of the watch factory? The 1888 city architect's map shows Court No.1 as running parallel to Hearsall Cottages in what we now call Broomfield Place but was not named as such at the time. Census enumerators often make mistakes especially if they are not local residents. Hearsall Common was originally known as 'Horsall Common' and the enumerator may simply have misheard it as 'Balsall Common'?

No 72 was a very modest dwelling, possibly a dormer cottage dating from when Spon End was semi-rural. No 74 on the other hand was a purpose-built watchmaker's house. After the collapse of the watch trade it was used as Dingley Bros cycle factory. There were Beesleys all over Spon End of which the branch which became timber merchants survived the longest. 'Black Horse Court'. Five of the cottages backed directly onto the river and were probably intended for weavers or dyers. The water was much cleaner at that point than further downstream.

It may be so! In the 1891 census, there is no No 62 Spon End - it goes from 61 to 63. 'Hearsall buildings' looks sort of built later, doesn't it? It's an odd style for a watch factory; I'm thinking it was actually built on the site of a watch factory, but was built later as a cycle maker's. It certainly looks more suited to that. Hearsall/Balsall - "Next to 49 Craven St" (a watch jeweller) is 'Broomfields' inhabited by a farmer, then "Hearsall Lane. The Knob" inhabited by Nathaniel Morris, watch motioner; it then goes to 1 Broomfield Terrace, Broomfield Place, Ambrose Day, watch motioner. Broomfield Place has 8 addresses at least; there's also in Broomfield Place "Westraps Property", and "Bayliss Property" both inhabited by watchmakers. Henry Smith is in Westraps. Bayliss Property appears to be next to the Broomfield Tavern, and has 2 machinists and 4 watchmakers resident in 2 dwellings. Westraps is much bigger, and has: 4 Hewitts engaged in watch jewel making; Woods - father, watch finisher (presumbaly self employed) 5 daughters - a box maker, a watch case polisher, a servant, a silk weaver, and a pupil; Daniel Brown watchmaker, Sarah Woods (lodger) watchmaker, and his wife, tailoress; Henry Smith watch finisher, self employed, daughter watch factory hand, daughter boots shop assistant; William Maynard watch finisher self employed, son = iron polisher (possibly watch trade); Walter Henry Ireland watch finisher self employed; George Edwards watchmaker. That's 7 dwellings within "Westraps Property". Next is Broomfield Cottage - William Morton, watch hand maker.His wife plus 3 other women, all Elementary Teachers all living there too. Do you have any indication which are Bayliss and Westraps properties? And, BTW - looking again at your photo end on to Hearsall cottages, the top floor of Annie Guillaume's house isn't a top shop! It has normal bedroom windows. Nowhere have I seen an address at "Hearsall Buildings"; it can't have been a dwelling in 1891. Also, if you look at the side along Hearsall Lane, there is a bricked-up doorway in Hearsall Buildings, so that may have been 2 properties, as well. I'm guessing that "Westraps Property" is the row of 7 houses extreme bottom right on your map. But where "Bayliss Property" was....who knows? Maybe the two buildings in the courtyard next to Annie Guillaume? We need some good maps from the time!

Westrap (Henry Westrap)was in the 1861 census - an Earlsdon watch maker and employer! He lived in "Earlsdon Villa, Earlsdon Lane. LINK So that explain Westrap Property, but not where exactly it was. And the watchmakers there almost certainly worked for Westrap; Henry lived till 1889. And Bayliss? "The Bayliss-Thomas ordinary bicycle of 1879" Now could that be the Bayliss of Hearsall Buildings? In 1850, there was a Francis Bayliss, watchmaker, in Hughes Yard, Coventry; There was also a John Bayliss clockmaker in Birmingham, 1849-64, so probably not him. I'm guessing that Bayliss was a sewing machine man - machinist; a lot of them migrated to bicycle making in the late 19th century. There was also a baker named Bayliss in Spon End in the mid-19th century; he may have bought some property to rent in Broomfield Place. Fascinating, eh?

49 Craven Street is the factory fronting directly onto the pavement between the Hearsall Inn and the next row of houses. Oddly, I've never seen it mentioned before or photographed. I know from inside sources the land it sits on it was purchased by the brewery with the intention of providing a car park for cutomers. Their effort was in vain as the council refused vehicle access from Hearsall Lane so the land remained derelict for decades afterwards. I suspect the other buildings are the ones dotted around Hearsall Lane which at that time was still part of the common. The pound was for animals which strayed off the common!

I've found out that Westrap retained a factory in Spon End until 1874, unfortunately, no address. He was at 22 Butts until 1872; prior to 1862 he was in Hill St. Doesn't look as though he had a son; maybe someone bought his factory, maybe his widow kept it on. I'll try to find out! Update: in his house in 1891: Earlsdon Terr. Holly Bank, 1, Thomas T Stevens, Head, M, 32, Fancy Ribbon Manuf., Employer, Coventry Warwickshire I notice there are a lot more terraces in the 1891 census. I'll have to list them, and we can see if we can site them on the map..and one in your bit of map above.

Broomfield Terrace was a short row of houses on the corner of what was later to become Melbourne Road but at that time was still Court No 4 Spon End.

That figures - 7 houses, so we've pinned that down! Now 1861! 1 Hearsall Lane: George Smith,Head,M,47,,Groom,Warwick Warwickshire 2 Hearsall Lane: William Holt,Head,M,34,,Horse Breaker,Easenhall Warwickshire Andagain my surmising was right - Hearsall Buildings is 2 properties in your map above. now, 3 Hearsall Lane: Robert Ford,Head,M,30,,Watch Polisher 4, Hearsall Lane: John Buckingham,Head,M,52,,Gas Fitter,Bretford Warwickshir and 4 Hearsall Lane,1,William Charley,Head,M,49,,Watch Finisher, (Back row?) 5 Hearsall Lane Front Row,1,Sarah Francis,Head,W,,56,Governess,Coventry 6 Hearsall Lane Front Row,1,Luke Henry Morris,Head,M,33,,Watch Motion Maker,London 3 Hearsall Lane Back Row,1,William Prescott,Head,M,52,,Watch Finisher,Liverpool 2 Hearsall Lane Back Row,1,Thomas Aris,Head,M,25,,Watch Jeweller 1 Hearsall Lane Back Row,1,John Warren,Head,M,32,,Ag Lab,Sharnford There are 6 cottages in Hearsall, Kane, so that ties up; I reckon "Back Row" = the Court No 1 of the map. This is interesting too: 2 Oxford Terrace,1,James Hoddell,Head,M,48,,Watch Manufctr E. 30men 7boy,Clodock Hertfordshir 37 employees!! And here's Henry Smith: 1 Craven Street,1,Henry Smith,Head,M,52,,Clerk Watch Manufactory,Stafford Staffordshire That ties up wiht my previous post for Henry. There are a lot of ribbon weavers in Cock Court, Spon End. (and one hawker of tins!!) There are a number of Prussian Jewish watchmakers listed, and their master was at 1 Oxford Terrace. A lot of silk winders in the courts along Spon End I told you they didn't need much room for watch materials: 65 Craven St,1,Ralph Hunt,Head,M,49,,Dealer In Watch Materials,Tarbuck Lancashire, plus a large family. The Black Horse is listed in 1861; next door, 72 is a ... ribbon weaver. 74 was a commercial traveller. Back to Henry Westrap. He had a wife of the same age, and two daughters of school age in 1861, Sarah and Dinah. So the business must have been sold on Henry and his wife's death. It's clear that there were far more silk weavers in Spon End and its courts in 1861 than people in the watch trade. Fascinating stuff!

And finally - what was on the corner of Hearsall Lane?? 62 Spon End,1,Benjamin Day,Head,M,56,,Newsagent,Coventry Warwickshire 63 Spon End,1,Thomas Yardley,Head,M,25,,Watch Finisher,Manchester Lancashire - which suggests that it must have been a house with a workshop. A finisher probably put his name on it; he certainly cased it, rated it (i.e. regulated it); and may well have retailed it. I don't believe for one minute that this describes the "Watch Factory" in Hearsall Buildings!

One thing that struck me very significantly from looking at the 1861 census was the large number of people NOT from Coventry who were residents. In many cases, the head of the household was something like "Ag labourer", "Labourer", "Keeper of Cows", or "Unemployed". The breadwinner was then one or more of the children; typically a son in the watch trade, daughter a silk winder or weaver. That's quite an interesting social comment: poor people were migrating to Coventry - some from as far afield as Devon - not to better themselves, but to better their kids. Not so different to economic migration today, is it? Also, in poorer households with large families, I spotted as many as three school age children designated as "Watchmaker's Errand-runner". These kids were used to move trays of parts around between specialist workshops as required. Another factor that I spotted was that some very large families where the head was a skilled watch trade worker occupied more than one house! This was evident especially in Craven St and the Chapelfields area - but not in Spon End/Butts/Thomas St/White St areas,where there were also large families in cramped conditions. I can see myself spending a lot more time with my nose buried in those censuses!

I have now established that Charles Hutton Errington had his factory in Holyhead Road from 1892-6. He doesn't seem to show up on the 1891 census; however, the Hutton family does - as watchmakers. Maybe Errington married a Hutton?

Nos 63 to 66 were a group of weavers' cottages on the opposite side of the road.