Upper Foleshill (New Inn Bridge to The Parting of the Heaths)

Yes I do remember John in assembly,who could forget?... I got barred from Dans shop. for interfering with the machines. I would lift the front end of the machine while someone else pushed packing under the front legs. The ball would stay in play for hours.

I don't think you were the only one, but away from that subject, do you remember Roy Elkin, he played football for Coventry Boys, he was picked to play for England Boys at Highfield Road, I went to watch that game. Point of the story is I worked met him when I worked at Albion Drop Forging in 1962

Arthur, my Dad worked at Albion Drop in the early 60s, he had a bad accident and lost some fingers. I used to take him some pieces and a flask when he worked a double shift. The place was like hell on earth.

Hi Walrus. Very interesting reading your thread about your Dad at Albion Drop Forging. You said that you used to take your Dad some "pieces" I am assuming that you meant sandwiches. This is what we called sandwiches when we were kids in Coventry, probably a shortening of "a piece of bread" Is this another Coventry only term? I read your message out to my wife, who does not come from Coventry, and she immediately asked me "what is a piece"

Yes Arthur the name Roy Elkin does sound familiar. I know you remember me as we have exchanged a couple of posts so you may recall that my main interest at school was cricket. I wanted to go to Broad St School as the main sporting interest there was rugby football and you may recall that physically I was more suited to that sport. About the drop forging, I remember a Bretts Stamping, Smiths Stamping and the Albion Drop. One of these was in Harnall Lane and another in Humber Ave but cannot remember where the third factory was.

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly after all these years but The Albion Drop was on Lockhurst Lane about where Endemere Rd is now. There's a small industrial estate on the site. There was a roadway from Lockhurst Lane as far as the railway line. The roadway was flanked by massive furnaces which heated steel ingots to white heat. These were transferred to the hammer forges which turned out countless thousands of con rods amongst other components. The men were on piece work so the pace was frantic. A hellish place.

I seem to remember Bretts Stamping ending up in Northey Road.

Was that Sterling Metals site Greg?

Albion Drop Forging was along Lockhurst Lane, I was on the inspection before I left to go to P&R Motors on the gear inspection.Yes I do remember, you were built like brick toilet.

I don`t think so, NC. I`m not 100% sure it was Bretts but I think it was.

My dad worked at Sterling Metals for over 40 years. For the majority of that time he worked in the furnaces in Northey Road, before Sterling Metals moved to Gypsy Lane Nuneaton.

I stand corrected. Thank you Tricia, I`ll finally have to recgnise that the brainbox is past its best .

Deviating from the original topic again but what the heck. Bretts Stamping was in Harnell Lane East along from the corner shop (The Bon Bon). There now is a road that leads onto a new estate built on the old Bretts factory site (Bretts Close) When I worked as a metallurgist in the Dunlop Laboratory (for 44 years) we bought lots of steel, brass & aluminium forgings from Bretts including a small outrigger wheel for a very famous VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) aircraft. When Bretts closed, all of the business was transferred to LMF (Light Metal Forgings) in Smethwick which later amalgamated with and became HDA (High Duty Aluminium) Forgings in Redditch. Together with HDA, Dunlop produced the tyreless solid aluminium wheels for Thrust SSC driven by Andy Green. Pleased to admit I was somewhat involved with production, choice and approval of materials & manufacturing & heat treatment processes. We had a presentation of the wheels to Richard Noble & Co on the Dunlop Sports field in Burnaby Road. It was on the same day (15th June 1996) that England played Scotland at football in a Euro qualifier (when Paul Gascoigne scored the memorable 2nd goal in England's 2-0 win) They put giant screens up for the soccer. I have some photos (somewhere) of Thrust SSC when it was on display at Dunlop and a poster signed by Richard Noble & Chief Designer Glynne Bowsher. (Andy Green couldn't make it on the day)

Jill's Barbecue stayed open quite late. As a young man, I occasionally missed the last bus (20 - Bedworth, 20A - Longford) from Broadgate, and would of necessity have to walk home to Longford. I recall that the street lights went off at 12 midnight, leaving alone the stars and (as available) the moon to guide a traveler. Approaching the northen-most reaches of the Foleshill Road, a surge of delight would go through the traveler as he spotted the lights of Jill's Barbecue, for the lights meant OPEN and OPEN meant Fleur-de Lys pies, steak and kidney division. Buying a pie (at the time of which I write - priced one shilling, I believe), always wrapped in clean paper, a person could go on his.her merry way, munching the pie in the rhythm of the walking. If the pie lasted only as far as the litter-box beside the bus stop on Longford Road opposite the top of Windmill Road, a person might be a little disappointed (though never by the taste ot the quality of the pie. Often, though, the pie - munch as a person might - lasted almost as far as Vinecote Road in Longford, so the traveler would have to wait until reaching the the litter-boxes in Longford to deposit the residue of the feast. I have never tasted their like since leaving Coventry, and for all that I am a dab hand at making beef and potato pies in the fall and winter months, the has been nary a one of these pies that could compete with a Fleur de Lys. I know there were Fleur de Lys chicken pies, but - growing up in a home that boasted a chicken run in the back garden, a home that regularly stank with the awful smell caused by the "drawing" of dead chickens, slaughtered chickens, I cannot to this day eat chicken, indeed - any fowl. But Jill's Barbecue!? Oh, my. UNEDITED