Butchers Row

[Blitzkid]

Butchers Row/New Buildings.

Butchers row ran from the old Cathedral Churchyard to The Mill Pool and then turned left down to the Burgess, and at the Mill Pool New Buildings turned right ran around the arc of the Mill Pool to Hale Street. butchers row was a small a few odd houses, but over time they got rid of some and built others but they became butchers to the city.

The soldiers at the Barracks in 1648 had to execute distress warrants on the Butchers who had levied on them to to supply meat for the men's rations. the Butchers not liking it, and un-just, the butches opposed and a soldier was killed, so the soldiers took the meat by force, and the leaders of the mob were imprisoned.

The rain ran from the hill top and Trinity Church ran down Priory street in torrents, the same from the old Cathedral ran down the church yard like a River so they built double guttering down the centre of the cobbles Butchers row into the mill pond.

No one can say, exactly when the bottom bit was called, little Butcher's row it may of been when the penny black stamp 1840 came in to force, or maybe when they built New Buildings or when the first Oat-Barley-Rye market was built, opposed to the corn Markets, I can find no trace.

One dark night a woman living in Silver Street, and feeling lonely, took her baby, walked round the Mill Pond to visit in-laws in New Buildings, situated at the back of the Golden Lion pub, after about an hour the woman left, when the husband arrived home, the house empty he guessed where she may of gone, but not there either fearing something had happened, neighbours helped to search, they found the woman in the pond, Drowned but no baby they dragged the pond but no luck, but next morning they found the baby alive on the roots of a tree at the side of the pond.

[rebbonk]

[Blitzkid]

In the early thirties life was still at a horses pace in the suburbs of Coventry, there were less people less traffic. In Butchers row it was mainly Handcarts and sack barrows, you could get everything you needed in the one street, scissors that cut, Knives that was sharp, you could buy a large wooden barrow or just a pencil from the same shop and get the same friendly greeting, and all the smells under your nose. There were fish, or aniseed, loose tea in a plywood box, lined with silver paper, or in silver packets, slabs of butter, cheese you could buy, an ounce if that's all you wanted, people bought freshness and sweetness, carbolic soap smell mingled with treacle smell, no one pushed you to buy more than you wanted, you could buy a six foot bath or just a tintack'.

There were angles and recesses, barrels and tubs on the pavement, huge balls of chalk to paint your ceiling and all the time the shop sellers were making humorous banter to one another. Above the street the tall medieval churches watched it all,, and offered peace and beauty, an intimidating unknown.

The churchyard, calm and stillness to the weary, Long before we used the word Tourism.

My Mothers favourite shop had a small bell above the doorway that tinkled merrily whenever the door was opened, the wall behind the counter, rows of glass jars, sweets, Jams, marmalade, peas and lentils, kiwi boot polish, camp coffee, black and brown shoe polish bootlaces, boxes of candles, sealing wax. barrels of cloth pegs, mousetraps. On the counter a large cheese on a marble slab, cut with wire, a delicious smell in the air. sweets in tall glass jars, money was the key factor so they would weigh to half an ounce, or to a halfpenny, Long days of childhood pleasure.

[Blitzkid]

There is a few things about the thirties, that still come back to me, early memories of the country the early lore, the home made remedies, the slipping of a key down your back for a nose bleed, the blue bag for a wasp or bee sting, home made cold cream from rose petals boiled down in lard. A simple poultice of of camomile and poppy heads for a toothache, the cool dock leaf for stings from a nettle A boiled onion to cure a cold, the common potato on a string draws uric acid from the body of Rheumatics, chickweed bruised and laid on the body to relieve rheumatism, raw potato placed on burns, lavender amongst clothes as disinfectant.

The strange mysterious Gipsies with there painted caravans, olive complexion, rings and ear ornaments and gaudy dresses.
When I think back the beautiful painting of the "The Lock" by Constable could have been the "Sherbourne" instead of the Stour. he also painted the Watermills so we can imagine what Pool Meadow once looked like.

Like old Coventry, I am the past, you can re-build the City, but you cannot re-build the Culture it once had-- No longer can you leave doors wide open, no longer can you walk through the city and feel comfortable, no longer can you feel the word mugged can be left out.

[rebbonk]

Great memories Blitzkid, please keep them coming. :thumbs-up:

Are there other areas of the city you can tell us about? Maybe you can tell us about how the suburbs grew?

[dutchman]

Butcher Row looking towards Broadgate:


Butcher Row looking towards Bull Ring viewed from the corner of Priory Row:

[dutchman]

There were fish, or aniseed, loose tea in a plywood box, lined with silver paper, or in silver packets, slabs of butter, cheese you could buy, an ounce if that's all you wanted.

There were still shops like that when I was growing up in the 1960s. There was one in Whitefriars Street where the owner would cut a packet of butter in half with a cheese wire and sell it separately as many of the locals did not have a fridge where they could keep a full packet fresh. The wire used to cut straight through the packaging!

[Blitzkid]

Thank-you dutchman, good to hear that you were a Coventry kid, I had visions of your father bringing you here.
I visited Utrecht in the 80's nice place.

[rebbonk]

... good to hear that you were a Coventry kid ...

Can we define what a Coventry kid is? I once got into a very heated discussion about this with someone claiming that to be a real Coventry kid you had to be born within the old city walls. That being the case, anyone born at Gulson Rd Hospital wouldn't qualify. - Over to you...

[Blitzkid]

Then I suppose it was the time you were born, in the 20/30's period, it was if you had been born within the city Boundaries. In my day there was no History channels like to day, no only the Coventry Boundary was important, to allow for the city expanding.