My father, Ernest French, was born in Coventry in 1911 and, apart from a brief period during the war, lived there until my family moved to Kenilworth in 1957/8.
A wartime ...
Unfortunately, the war came in 1939 and, regrettably, I had to eventually leave J. C. Smith’s to work in a factory for war work. My mother was already working at ...
The Murder of Charles Pinchback and the subsequent bringing to justice of the two criminals who murdered him has been recorded in the Burial Register for the Parish of St ...
The Coventry Blitz was a series of bombing raids that took place on Coventry during World War Two. By far the most devastating of these attacks occurred on the evening of 14 November 1940. ...
On the A45 Fletchamstead Highway in Coventry is the Phantom Coach pub – one of my grandfather’s drinking places back in the 1930s. Curious as to how it got its ...
This almshouse was founded in 1529 by William Ford, a wool merchant, for five men and their wives. The Hospital came under threat after the Reformation, with the crown claiming ...
I married Ken Ashford on 23rd December 1939. He was a Coventry kid. We met at my Grandmother’s house. I moved to Coventry where we lived with Ken’s father and ...
Sunday school attendance dipped sharply after the Blitz when children were evacuated and never recovered to its former numbers of over 100. For several Sundays after the Blitz the Sunday ...
I do still go round Coventry city centre, which has changed a bit from my time as a student. The old fire station is still there, by Pool Meadow bus ...
After leaving school in 1983, I went to Coventry (Lanchester) Polytechnic, as it then was, at the start of the Michaelmas Term in 1983 to study a BTEC Higher National ...
A 500-mile cycling and walking network is being set up in the West Midlands and named the ‘Starley network’. This prompted me to investigate further: there’s a Starley statue I ...
During World War Two George, my husband, was in a reserved occupation tool-making for war factories. I was a housewife and we lived in Three Spires Avenue. Our son Glynn ...
During World War Two I was working as a radio engineer and had already seen many nights of air raids over Coventry.
Everywhere was lit up
The night of the Blitz, I ...
Home thoughts from abroad?
Well from the Isle of Wight actually and unlike the poem by Robert Browning, it was September rather than April, but apart from that……..
Anyway, it was in ...
Wanting something to pass the hours during this time? Try solving some of our jigsaw puzzles of photos on our website. We used Jigsaw Explorer to create these puzzles, and hope you ...
Cicely Lucas was, by this time, a fierce and outspoken suffragette, taking part in marches and attending meetings. As she ‘possessed the schoolmistress’s voice, a carrying rather than a shouting ...
Cicely (pronounced Size-ly) Lucas’s story is the fascinating record of a woman who overcame a troubled childhood, stood up for women’s rights, and achieved her ambition to become a teacher ...
At first glance, these may not look like much – just a couple of toy cars in, well, not bad condition, but not perfect. It’s funny how the small things ...
The postman’s just been, and in among them is a pile of model cars – I really must stop browsing auction sites! In this set, however, is an Alvis TD21 ...
Reassigned recreation land in 1927, Hearsall Common is the city’s most extensive common. Not that the cessation of pannage and commoners’ rights was ever recognised by Farmer Green. As a ...