ny historic account of a town could never be considered complete without involving the memories of those who lived there. In these pages, I hope you will enjoy sharing the memories, anecdotes and photographs kindly sent in by visitors to this website, to whom I am immensely grateful.
If you have any memories or tales of old Coventry or any relevant photographs that you would like to see published here, please feel free to send them to me and I'll add them to these pages as soon as I can.
Coventry outings of Brian Rowstron's family
ur next instalment comes from Brian Rowstron who has lived in Australia since 1971. A big music fan, he was the founder and President of the 'Official Mike Batt Appreciation Society' (Australia). I'm very grateful for this - thanks to Brian, my ears have been opened to another wonderful branch of music.
The first photograph above was taken around 1924, and amongst the group of people about to take a trip on this charabanc, is his mother; on the far right, aged thirteen.
Transport is something we all take for granted these days but earlier in the twentieth century, of course, a day out like this was still a novelty and something to look forward to.
The next two photos involve not only Brian's family, but scenes which might be remembered by more senior Coventrians;
On the left in the 1920's can be seen his great uncle Tom Brown standing proudly outside his own pub; the New Star at 140 Much Park Street. This public house began life under the name "Old Mitre" and was listed in a journal as early as 1756. In 1884 the name was changed to the "New Star" and remained as such until c1959.
Below that photo is one taken in 2004. It can be seen that the building on the right has survived but beyond that, the 1930's visitor would be a little disorientated today. Smithford Street has disappeared and in place of its entrance is Broadgate House, a building somehow lacking the charm of its predecessors.
If the older photo had been taken with a wider lens, to the left would have appeared the National Provincial Bank, now known as the Nat-West, completed in 1930 and just visible in the lower photograph.
