Why this city? Well, it has had a chequered history, being the most heavily fortified city in its time, the best preserved Mediaeval City, Motor City, and now the City of Peace and Reconciliation. It is also my home city although I was born outside of the city limits at the time. Don’t think that I am biased towards it on that last count. I have always seen it as an ugly, grimy city, but it’s history and success is irrefutable.
In early years, it was a weaving centre, and has been again in later times, it ‘housed’ Royalist soldiers captured during the English Civil War, defended against a huge attack by Royalists in 1642, became a centre for watch and clock manufacturers and subsequently sewing machines which required the type of skills watchmakers had.
It then turned to bicycles, the first bicycle as we know it being produced by the Starley family. engines, motorcycles, cars, buses, military vehicles, and aircraft. Want to see the list? You should..
http://www.micma.co.uk/themarques.php
The coachbuilders and painters hand-painted every Coventry City Council bus until the services were taken over by West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive (a merger when Coventry was taken out of Warwickshire and unceremoniously linked with Birmingham), and even after the merger were responsible for the ‘rolling’ ads where the entire surface of the bus would be used for a company ad.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and this website has pictures galore..
http://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/main/main.php
By the time you have been through the two links, you will see why I have included Coventry in the ‘Best of British’
A few memories of my own..
Up to the age of five, I lived in close proximity to the Standard-Triumph motor works, and well remember the new Standard Pennants, Eights and Triumph TR’s being driven out of the gates.
After that, the family moved just outside of the city limits, and the ride to junior school was made on a Manchester style Daimler CVG6. Bus #333 (now preserved) was my favourite, and the trip each way cost 3d (that’s the old money).
Around the age of ten, I used to go into town on Saturdays, meet up with friends to see the Saturday morning picture shows at the Empire Cinema or sit in the Wimpy Bar on Cross Cheaping or maybe the Mushroom Cafe in Lower Precinct, or maybe take a bus out to Forum Bowl on the Walsgrave Road.
By 1970, I had left school and was a member of the motorcycle fraternity. Coventry Ring Road was being constructed, and we were all itching to try it out. Not a road for the faint of heart, the Ring Road intersections were something of a lottery, but exciting for a teenager of course.
A quick tour..
The traffic lights were not at the intersections of Foleshill Road and Gulson Road originally. You just had to take your chances..
I lost touch with Coventry after 1989. The centre was changing, and I didn’t feel as if it was my city any longer. Twenty two years on and I have a hankering to go back and see what they have done. Funny how you don’t miss anything until it’s gone.
