by Spuffler » Mon Feb 27, 2012 4:41 pm
I have some very vague memories of Thomas Street and the surrounding area, but it's worth relating a GEC story! When televisions were being made at Spon St works, one guy decided he would steal one - bit by bit. All went well, until he got to the last item - the tube. He realised it was too big to get out of the gate, but having done some recces, decided on a 'cunning plan'! There was one point on the wall that was hidden from the view of the gatemen. He put the tube in a sack, attached a rope, and proceeded to lower it down over the wall, then walked smartly towards the gate. Just as he got there, a couple of Thomas Street urchins walked up to the gatemen, carrying the sack with the tube in it, and, "Look, mister, what just came over your wall!" The teller of the tale didn't know if he ever did get a tube out...!
Having said that I don't remember much of Thomas Street, I do clearly remember the old courts in Spon Street, when there were people still living in them. There was on in particular that sticks in my memory, not all that far from the Holyhead Road junction, and on the same side as Holyhead Road. Low cottages surrounding a cobbled yard, with a cast-iron lift pump in the middle of it. The cottages were a bit like Nos 48-52 Thomas Street in style. I think it was a shame that they were branded slums and demolished; preserving at least one would have been a great window on the history of Coventry! Do you have any photos of the courts?