Tile Hill

Bertiewoost, that has refreshed my memory, thanks. The shop next to the off licence was the bakers I was thinking of (Wimbush possibly), I had forgotten about the other one because my mother never used it. I am fairly sure the (wet) fish shop became the Co-op butchers and Frank Mills Clifton was the shop that sold the records along with TVs and radios. I think there was another electrical shop, that dealt more in appliances, next to the Co-op chemist and next to that, possibly, a shop that sold prams and baby stuff. I had completely forgotten about the dry cleaners and the barbers - "Smokey Joe" we called him because he always had a cigarette dangling from his mouth while administering the ubiquitous short back and sides. It has been many years since I was back there, but looking on Google, the shops, though changed, still seem to be thriving and the Post Office is in the same place.

That's probably no coincidence. Every £10 spent in a post office generates another £16 in the local economy. Where post offices have closed in Coventry it has had a devastating effect on nearby shops.

Sadly, post offices closing has this effect everywhere. Where I now live in rural Kent, the closure of the village post office has meant that many of the general stores, in which they were located, have also closed. Fortunately, our local store has kept going, but I know people who have to drive 10 miles for a Sunday newspaper through villages that have been left with nothing.

Hi Pallmall, it looks as if nothing is there for the convenience of the public any more, especially for those who no longer drive.

Anybody remember Mr Toogood? He had an old bus and delivered groceries around Tile Hill in the 1950's. He used to blow his horn and we would run out and see what he had on board before being shooed off the bus by our mums who wanted to shop with him. Some years later he had a mobile chip bus, ah the smell on a winters night!! When he dropped the chips into the hot fat the steam that came up filled the whole bus, you couldn't see 6 inches in front of you. I lived in Dunhill Ave, I remember the Ponderosa when it was all ponds and fields with Patsy the Shetland pony up the top near Broad Lane and the little farm on the corner of Jardine with his pigs. We used to go down Eastern Green Lane to the brook and get plums and pears from an old orchard by the brook that nobody seemed to own. The baker that came round Tile Hill had a big wicker basket,lovely bread. Our milkman for many years was the same bloke, curly headed fella rain, sun or snow he always turned up. Anybody in Tile Hill North remember Les the rent man? Nice guy imagine going around today with a big bag of money in Tile Hill!!!!! I live in sunny Australia now, come back now and again Back in Nov 2013 for a few weeks, love to meet with anyone from the old days Tom

Hi this is my first post on here. Does anyone know of A house that existed where Grendon Close is now. I have done some research into it and found out that it was called Hughendon and that it was either an Hotel or A home for pregnant women who were not married. Does anyone know anything else?

Hi Triumph All I can find out at the moment is that in 1911 it was lived in by Graham Ingleby Francis and his family who is the Francis in the Lea-Francis partnership.

Here is George Mason in the pub

My grandad and nan used to live in Torrington Ave in the fifties up to the seventies, we used to play in the fields opposite, which all the way up to the railway line, not a building or industrial estate in sight, lost my Davy Crockett gun somewhere in those fields lol, very happy days.

Hi skyblue, just trying to imagine which part of Torrington Avenue you mean. I believe you must mean on part of the Tile Hill South estate. As I'm a Canley kid we used to come under the bridge in Wolfe Road up to Torrington Ave. I remember that for a short period our playground were the footings of the houses before what was to become Gravel Hill Road. A bit later on my dad used to deliver bread in the area in a little electric van from the Co-op bakery just past the roundabout at Templar Avenue. To my recollection there was a petrol station around the bottom of Gravel Hill Road with a small shop sellings sweets - and paraffin heaters. My dad did a stint there too - but delivering paraffin (Aladdin Pink) in the Tile Hill and Canley areas. Then I seem to remember a tyre warehouse being built - I think it started as Goodyear tyres.

First real photo trip out on my scooter today since I got back to Coventry in December. Thought I'd go to Wolfe Road railway bridge and perhaps capture a picture of a train. What an obstacle course. The first image is of the pavment on Kele Road and the second in Wolfe Road. The gaps in the paving slabs in Kele Road would have swallowed one of the wheels on the scooter. Don't think either has had anything done since I left in 1962.

I came across this old house again recently which is situated in the fairly, recently developed Bluebell Walk, off Tile Hill Lane. I remember that the licencee of the Woodlands Public House resided there in the 1970-80s. I wonder if anyone could throw some light on it for me or maybe some one had a photograph of it that they may share. From my research I see that the Coventry City Council has noted it as a building of interest and dated it 1921-24. However, it is listed in the 1919/20 street directory as Wood Farm (unless I have the name of this wrong and that Wood Farm existed further down Tile Hill Lane). Having looked into the history of the house that I think is called Wood Farm I see it was owned by Herbert John Wright, the son of John and Sarah (Pearson) Wright of Hearsall Farm and Herbert worked on his Fathers farm until his mid 20s. John Wright had previously farmed at Tanyard Farm and before that Berkswell where his children were born. Herbert John Wright died at Fen End Farm, Kenilworth in 1966. The house looks like a typical farmhouse but has this crenelated building attached to it which I think is unusual.

This is the Bing birds eye view.

The house in Bluebell Walk From what I have heard the crennelated part of from an old pump-house.