Devils Dungeon

That was the one, Helen, yes.

Hi All, Was just researching the bowl shaped depression in the ground off Kenilworth Road (and beside Beechwood Ave) called by many as 'Devil's Dungeon'. Many have thought it was created by WW2 or even WW1 bomb cratering. However, in a 1888 map (surveyed 1887) it shows the area of 'Devil's Dungeon' as a 'Old stone pit' suggesting that it was indeed a result from old quarry activity. It's also suggested on the Coventry City Council website here: Kenilworth Road Woodlands. I've included the 1888 map here (Warwickshire Sheet XXI.SE 1888): I've highlighted the stone pit and marked the rough location of the present depression by a orange hexagon. I've also marked the present roads (Kenilworth Road and Beechwood Avenue). Map Credit and attribution: Use licensed under CC-BY 4.0 Creative Commons. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland -https://maps.nls.uk/. Title of image: "Warwickshire Sheet XXI.SE Surveyed: 1887, Published: 1888 Size: map 31 x 46 cm (ca. 12 x 18 inches), on sheet ca. 43 x 58 cm (ca. 17 x 23 inches)" Link to specific map image: map link. Derivative changes made: addition of text, highlighting and markup. So I'm 99% sure that 'Devil's Dungeon' was made by old stone quarrying.

Amazing what one learns as one ages. My father was a Brummy until the age of 8, in 1923, when his family moved to Earlsdon. He told me they used to play there as kids, and he too said it was a bomb crater, which must have been from WW1. Everyone believed it was a bomb crater. One never heard mention of a quarry, one didn't. And kids found anything to do with bombs more exciting than people digging holes! Many humans like to believe something because it sounds better, or more interesting, or more believable than the truth. That miracle of mental clarity, Bertrand Russell, once advised "don't believe something, or form an opinion, or come to a conclusion, merely because it might please somebody to do so, or because it's what you'd like to believe, or because you think it might be beneficent to the human race; always ask yourself: what are the facts?. " (I cannot remember his exact words but that is near enough.) I won't mention clerical matters here, but that is why the Cottingley fairies hoax fooled so many people for ages. People wanted to believe that fairies really existed.

If it's the one not far from the former Canley Milk Bar, then I too remember the Devil's Dungeon, though as Slim says, I recall it as a bomb crater. It used to be fun riding my bike down as fast as I could to get up the other side with little of no effort.

You've jogged my memory. There were two of them, and as you say, Mike, the smaller one near the milk bar was the one we used. It was between the lane and the golf course. We used to tazz round on our bikes. And our go-kart was far too big and heavy, so after a push-off down the hill, it overturned with me on it when it got down the slope near to the water, because the bottom centre of the pit was a pond which got deeper after heavy rain. In those days you didn't feel pain, just got back up and pretended nothing had gone wrong. Such was our astonishing credulity that whenever we were exploring, and came upon a natural pond or lake, it had to be a bomb crater, even if it was out in the countryside, miles away from civilisation.

Digressing slightly, there are still some the reinforced concrete blocks used to thwart any German invasion. Whether they're still there or not, I've no idea, the area as far as I'm aware is still looked after by the Friends Of Canley Ford. Likewise I'm not sure if the Friends Of Canley Ford is still active or not.

I'd completely forgotten about the Devils Dungeon close to the corner of Beechwood Ave and Kenilworth Rd. The Google Maps link below should take you to that. Google Maps Devils Dungeon Coventry

There was a whole load of cylindrical blocks, about a yard long and 2' 6" diameter, all neatly stacked vertically, tightly packed together, in what was a wedge-shaped field at the start of Canley Ford lane opposite the Cedar Cafe on the A45, which is now the petrol station. There was a concrete ramp at the rear end, probably added so that it could be used for loading lorry trailers, as the blocks formed a solid platform a yard high that would support hundreds of tons. We use to play on the blocks as kids. A five-bar gate gave access to what was then a cleared area between the trees lining the A45 on one side, and the lane on the other. Those cylindrical concrete blocks all had 2" or 3" diameter holes through their centres, presumably to make them easier to handle by passing a steel rod through them. Or maybe just to crane them. Even a gang of us kids could not budge one of them a fraction of an inch. We tried. We were right little devils. Normal behaviour for those of us who grew up in the real world. We were not snowflakes (fig) glued to mobile phones! The whole area is completely overgrown and has been for many years. I suspect the concrete blocks are still there, underneath the foliage. I cannot see any reason to go to the trouble of moving them. Next time I'm near my old house, I'll have a walk and check out the blocks. But it may be some time before I go back there!

Yes that's the one I think google maps has the 'Devil's Dungeon' pin slightly off it's a little further from Beechwood Ave than the pin shows. I love how it's listed on the map like a real tourist spot when in reality it's just a dusty dip in the woods hahaha

Having said that- Devil's Dungeon has spawned some of the best UK BMX racers/ riders. Trevor Robinson and John Atkins, a couple of the best cycle-cross/ BMX riders in the UK, both started off in Devil's Dungeon. The Dungeon was also home to the Mick Ives' Coventry BMX Club when they didn't have a track in 1983. The Club took off in no small part due to the popularity of the movie 'ET' which featured BMX's.

Although the one we used to play in, nearer the Milk Bar, was called Devil's Dungeons by all, my dad said that wasn't the real Devil's Dungeons, but the one nearer Beechwood Avenue where he used to play was the real DD. I think he was right - officially there is only one DD. There is only one on the map. The "pit" we used is not annotated - the map merely shows trees.

As an addendum to this - The houses all around Woodland Avenue/Stoneleigh Avenue were all built in 1925 - it was a development known as Styvechale Village Garden. I think the land where the 'Dungeon' and all that estate is was originally part of the golf course looking at earlier maps. I've added previously in I think the Earlsdon thread that many properties in that area had bomb shelters and there was one very sad direct hit to a house further north in Beechwood Avenue which killed an entire family so its probably from that the urban myth that it was a bomb crater derived.

Interesting that it was called a village. Back in the day, Earlsdon was referred to, often with snob value, as the village. A colleague of my father was moving into Coventry. When asked where, he said he was going to move into "the village". My father had to ask where he meant. He meant Earlsdon. My father grew up in Broomfield Road and had never heard it referred to as the village. I suppose it was one day. Birmingham started as a village. Düsseldorf is a big industrial city, bigger than Coventry. Thorpe in English is Dorf in German (th is usually a d in German), so I guess Düsseldorf started as a village.

We used to play in the Dungeons on our bikes a lot, mainly the much smaller one nearer the Milk bar. There was always plenty of evidence of a lot of courting going on in the woods. Even as a kid I had my doubts about the big one next the Kenilworth Rd. being a bomb crater. The Germans didn't have a bomb big enough to make a crater that large. Last time I looked many years ago the smaller one was completely overgrown.