Coventry History...

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Re: Coventry History...

Postby Blitzkid » Wed Mar 15, 2023 5:58 pm

Domesday book says:

Warwickshire in 1066 consisted of two quite dissimilar sections; Arden ( in the north & west ) with isolated farms & hamlets & settlers still moving into the forest, Feldon ( in the south & east ) with compact villages supported by extensive cultivation or open lands from which dense oak woods had been cleared.

The holdings of Thorkell of Warwick and Robert de Beaumont, Count of Meulan, comprised three-quarters of the non-ecclesiastical property. Thorkell son of Alwin, Sheriff under Edward the Confessor, was one of the only two English men in the county to still be holding a baronial estate from the king after the Conquest. His descendants perpetuate the name of Arden today. Robert de Beaumont, having distinguished himself at the battle of Senlac, was rewarded on Williams’s march into the midlands in 1068 with vast Estates. He later became Earl of Leicester and by a ruse, acquired land in Leicestershire as well.

He survived every shift of Power, and died in 1118, one of the last of the Conquest generation. His brother Henry was invested with all the Thorkell lands when he became Earl of Warwick, a title which descended by marriage first to the Beauchamps and then to the Nevilles.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby Blitzkid » Sun Mar 19, 2023 12:24 pm

My family had narrow boats on Coventry canal before Queen Victoria became Queen.

There were only two Dockyards in the present Boundary of Coventry and My family owned them both, one built the narrow boats, and one repaired them. The wood came from Denmark with the curious name of Oddzock, or more likely it was a wood that could not be treated by Steam boxes that were used. Now each boat could deliver 25 Tons of goods, compare that with 12 wagons pulled by 48 horses, twelve men and twelve boys. If you google Coventry canal, the picture is not Coventry canal but Oxford canal, near the old Repair dockyard at Tusses Bridge and the three cottages on the towpath.

James Brindley was only Offered £150 per year to attend and advise for two months each year, but he never attended, so Coventry Navigation co sacked him.

Thomas Yeoman, another Canal Builder built Coventry Canal. Brindley had made many mistakes in the past, that cost boatman time and money, but Coventry delivering coal, each £100 share became worth £700 within a year of Opening.

The Oxford canal was built by a different firm and was 4/5 higher than Coventry, so they had to build a lock, at Sutton Stop, but the closing of of the last Wyken "pit" the Craven, caused many boat firms to end.

The Oxford canal near the lock was hit by the last bomb of a stick of four, the first hit my aunt's house (killing both aunt and and uncle) the water cascaded from the breech like Niagara Falls flooding the fields and Aldermans Green and narrowly coming up to the large gun-site that was supposed to guard the power-station.

In 1865 the canals were so crowded with boats trying to get in at the act, that the boats had to register at B'ham for work permits. During WW2 they tried to train women to work the boats but failed miserably, only a handful made the course.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby rebbonk » Sun Mar 19, 2023 12:38 pm

Interesting, Blitzkid. :thumbsup:

I'm always interested in the canals, I have several friends who live on them or have done in the past. An old school friend traced his family back to the canals, they were also involved with boatbuilding, I think their name was Skinner. - Not known to be related to Joe and his wife who lived at Sutton Stop.

There's a few videos on youtube about things like 'The Jam Hole Run' which a very good friend of mine gets very irate about. Apparently, it's "Jam 'Ole" and anything else is incorrect.

Any tales you'd care to share greatly received, especially anything of a ghostly/haunting type of theme. The Lock keeper's son at Sutton Stop once told a superb story about a drowning at the lock and it was now haunted. He even produced video 'evidence'. It was all absolute tosh but got him a few pints at the Greyhound from holiday boaters. I never did let on that I knew the truth. :lol:
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby Blitzkid » Mon Mar 20, 2023 3:29 pm

rebbonk, there were Hundreds of deaths on the canal, you ran across a plank six inch wide, a slip and you were in the water and often under the boat, you had little chance. There's a lot of photo's on google claiming to be Coventry canal, but they are Oxford canal, there was a great difference the Oxford canal was 4/5 inches higher, they had to build a lock between them.

My father new the Skinner family all his life, Joe Skinner was his lifelong friend, when Coventry made a fuss of him. He came to my father for advice, would not attend the dinner unless my parents were invited. I think my Father was his last customer in the late 40's and we had the last stabling for him.

It was the Oxford canal that was breached during the Blitz, one lone German plane, one stick of four bombs, the first was a direct on my aunts house the fourth a direct hit on the canal towpath, and whoosh, the water ran out.

At Tusses Bridge, where my father had placed the planks in, and I helped by running messages for the ARP that had headquarters in the stables of the Elephant and Castle inn. If you are familiar with the district, when they built Coventry canal it was called the Navigation company, they built a pub and stables on the Bedworth/Bulkington Road and another at Courthouse Green, this was the distance a horse or mule could travel pulling two boats in one day, both called Navigation pubs.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby rebbonk » Mon Mar 20, 2023 5:05 pm

I'm familiar with the Coventry canal as far as Marston Lane. I often used to walk along it with my late partner. I have friends that have lived along various parts between Longford and the basin and have a couple of friends living on moorings just past Sutton Stop, which as you say, is the Oxford canal.

If you look on google earth, you can still see evidence that two canals ran parallel from Sutton Stop into Longford due to (I believe) a dispute on canal fees. - Do you know/remember how these passed under Grange Rd, as I've only ever seen pictures of a single 'hump-backed' bridge?

From memory, the Navigation at Bell Green had some pretty good rock bands on in the early 70s? I think the site is now occupied by a 'mutual' clothing company.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby Blitzkid » Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:54 pm

rerbonk
The canals only ran parallel for about two hundred yards then the Oxford canal turned right to go round the cooling towers of the power station.

When the last of the Wyken (Craven) pits closed in 1927 then canal boats business of coal, closed so the Coventry canal from Sutton Stop lock to Bishop street Basin, was left derelict. Great reeds grew between the lock and grange road Bridge except under the bridge. Here the kids used to paddle and swim, but my school friend Chunky Finch from Grange Road jumped off the bridge (summer 1937/8) and was speared by an old bedstead that had been thrown in from the bridge. He died instantly.

Three houses over the Bridge was Blackhorse Road. Here lived another school friend, LES ALLEN boxer of some note. He was in the top three middleweights in the 1950s and when he was about 12-14 yrs I was his sparring partner. I would ride along the canal to his house and then we cycled on to a pub in Bedworth. Top of the trams the pub had a room that was Montgomery's Gym. A little further on In Blackhorse Road was the U.S camp in 1943-5.

Back to Coventry Canal, it lay derelict from 1927 to 1955 when it was cleaned by my father and a team of helpers. My father and family were transferred from Canal cottage Brinklow to Canal house New Inn bridge for this. The inland waterways where changed to the pleasure boats and my father was pensioned off.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby Blitzkid » Wed Mar 22, 2023 1:16 pm

Furthermore, the Navigation pub on Bedworth-Bulkington Road was the pub where a boatman took beer to his Horse on the Towpath. It got so drunk onetime that it toppled into the Canal.

When I started Gambling 1949 the House at the top of Bishop street was a plumbing wholesalers owned by Thomas Arthur. He also kept/trained racehorses so I went to work at Cartwright's timber merchants at the Basin, thought I might get a few tips. (foolish Idea) I lasted two weeks. Some time in the fifties, a fire engine was called to the wood yard. They drove the fire engine in between two stacks of timber, the wind changed and both stacks became a roaring fire, engine between.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby rebbonk » Wed Mar 22, 2023 1:23 pm

Thanks, Blitzkid. :thumbsup:
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby Blitzkid » Wed Mar 22, 2023 2:18 pm

Dutchman,--
Nearly all people believe that the Guns round Coventry were there to shoot down the enemy, but that was not the real intention. The Guns had only 15 seconds to hit the target by the Plotters(?) before it was out of aim of the Guns. The system was to keep the enemy planes as High as possible. The first thousand feet(?) or whatever it was by Barrage balloons. The space above was for the guns, to keep them higher, but with Coventry they only had to drop them to hit the target. It was one big bullseye, for the intention was to spread panic and lessen morale, promote a Vichy-style Gov't.

The only enemy Plane brought down by the Balloons was in a field near Withybrook. I went with friends after souvenirs but what I found was a torn-off thumb of one of the crew at the bottom off the hedgerow. To pick up and hold a man's torn-off thumb was a sinking feeling in the stomach no matter what he had done. I cannot really describe the feeling at the time.

The defence of Coventry caused three-times the damage to allied planes than enemy planes.
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Re: Coventry History...

Postby dutchman » Thu Mar 23, 2023 5:36 am

Interesting Blitzkid! :thumbsup:

Of course, the sound of the anti-aircraft guns opening up must have been a huge morale-booster to everyone sheltering from the bombing even if they couldn't actually hit anything.

I believe the guns were made in the former Morris engine works in Gosford Street but the evidence is purely circumstantial.
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