Coventry Pubs

This is from a 1953 CET

Hi Rob, I phrased that wrong. A better way would be to say that it expanded to the east when it was rebuilt and to the south in modern times, so the modern footprint didn't fit the earliest maps. The wall with a doorway to the east (left when viewed from the street) was always a passage but the original building extended over it. Without stepping through the maps, it was very hard to understand the scale of the old buildings compared to the modern. So it was listed as number 79 but originally it was possibly number 80, with 79 being its neighbour, though numbering was a bit willy-nilly. A comparison. Look how small the original building was, compared to its replacement. Post copied from topic Gosford Street on 21st Aug 2024 3:31 pm

Hi Anne, that is a picture from the Market Place, with the Spread Eagle on the right at the corner of West Orchard. There was a Peacock but it was number 1 Cross Cheaping, at the other end of Market Place and it became the City Arms. While the pub histories are essential to working out the old city, there are many traps built into the information... and I've fallen into most of them

Sorry Helen I was getting a bit confused, with you saying it was moved I thought the whole building had been moved sometime in the past ! Silly me ! May be lack of blood, just been for my annual blood tests although they had a job to find any, had to have 2 nurses to have a go. The second one was a great big young man with a pony tail, which was a but frightening but in fact he was very gentle.

The Peacock on Cross Cheaping vanished as a name before it appeared in Gosford Street, so it did move There are conflicting details about where on Market Place it was too, so it may at some point have been in the building later dubbed the Spread Eagle. The records have tended to be bunched together as one building, when in fact there was a lot of change. I also got the impression that the Spread Eagle hadn't started at the corner of Market Place and West Orchard. Once again you've given me something to think about.

The first useful map is the 1850 BoH map, which I've simplified below. At #1 was the Spread Eagle, #3 is the City Arms, #4 is the Women's Market and #5 is the watch house. They're all joined by a lane called Market Place. However it is said that the Woman's Market was built in the yard of the Peacock, next to the watch house, which looks more like it was in the yard of the Spread Eagle, albeit joined to the yard of the City Arms. Ann's picture is labelled the Peacock, although I know the same image is supposed to show the Spread Eagle. Could both be right? Somewhere I got the impression that the Spread Eagle had started out further west on West Orchard because it was said to be next to the passage to the Leather Hall. It did end up in that location, in a new building just before the iron framed market hall was built, but by that time the Leather Hall had gone. Had it started out there in an old building in need of demolition? Did it move to #1 after the Peacock moved to #3 on Cross Cheaping? Confused? Welcome to my world.

From the pub histories. In 1756 6 soldiers were billeted at the Spread Eagle. It states that the stocks were nearby but this was true of both locations in West Orchard as there were stocks on the bridge over the river at the west end (at least in 1819) as well as in the market. In the same year 4 soldiers were billeted at the Peacock. Suggesting that the two inns existed at the same time, although the Peacock seems to have been much older (1310). In 1641 the Peacock was in Cross Cheaping leased to John Lax. Stocks were often located at the same place water was collected from conduits or pumps. Executions were also connected to them - especially the conduit on Smithford Street, next to where the post office was built. There was a pump next to the City Arms but the early conduit was further down Cross Cheaping. Near the corner with Ironmonger Row. Earlier still the conduit was near the corner of West Orchard and was something of a hazard to traffic. In 1865 the Spread Eagle on the corner of the market was demolished and it moved to its final location at 26 West Orchard, which did sit next to the passageway that went to the spot where the Leather hall had been before they demolished it. The hall was in ruins by 1736, so if I can find the reference to the passage way it will be interesting to see when it was referring to. So far, I can't find a reference to say that the Peacock was on West Orchard. I have found the earliest reference to number 26 in 1738 which has it owned by John Gilbert and rented to John Fisher a currier. So it doesn't look like the Spread Eagle started life at number 26 and it seems to have always been on the corner of the market, which was created in 1719.