News

The Council’s Cabinet has given the go-ahead for the construction and operation of a test track for Coventry’s Very Light Rail on public roads in the city centre. Very Light Rail (VLR) is a West Midlands project to develop a cheaper form of tram and track, that can be used on roads without the need… Read more: VLR Pilot to Go Ahead

CovSoc founder member, Paul Maddocks, reviews a book by one of Coventry’s best known history writers. Paul writes….. I am very happy to have received from Dave McGrory a copy of his latest Coventry book which has come out this week. It is called ‘Coventry at Work’ with a subtitle ‘people and industries through the… Read more: Coventry at Work

Stories in the local media about the closure of Ager’s shop in Coventry are somewhat exaggerated. Charles Ager’s shoe shop on Corporation Street is one of the oldest family owned businesses in the city. The store has announced that it is closing its children’s shoe department. Reports on the BBC state that many people took… Read more: Ager’s Closing Children’s Department

The Coventry Society had a talk about the history and future of Coventry’s cycling infrastructure by Andrew Saffrey on 8th January. Andrew is the Council’s Active Travel Innovation Manager and has been in post for just over a year. Andrew explained the history of cycling infrastructure in Coventry and elsewhere in England. Coventry was early… Read more: Reinventing the Wheel

CovSoc member and historian Peter James, tells us the story of John Gulson, one of Coventry’s best known philanthropists. Peter writes….. John Gulson Senior was a leather worker who lived with his wife Elizabeth at 150 Spon Street. Their son John Junior was born there on 23rd October 1813, he and his three sisters lived… Read more: John Gulson 1813 – 1904

A planning application has been submitted to redevelop the site of the Allesley Hotel on Birmingham Road in Allesley. The application is for permission for the demolition of the former Allesley Hotel and the construction of 62 residential dwellings, with access from Birmingham Road. The applicant is Avant Homes West Midlands and this is their… Read more: Allesley Hotel Site to be Re-developed for Housing

On 10th January 2025, the National Trust (NT) took over management of Coventry’s historic Charterhouse, which will re-open in the Spring. The Historic Coventry Trust was responsible for the restoration of this 14th Century former monastery off London Road at a total cost of £11.9 million. The Trust will take over the day-to-day running of… Read more: National Trust Take Over Charterhouse

CovSoc founder member Paul Maddocks tells us the story of Coventry’s second cathedral and its first bishop since the reformation, now memorialised in its ruins. Paul writes…. The bronze sculpture on the tomb of Bishop H. W. Yeatman–Biggs was one of the few surviving artefacts after the firebombing of the Cathedral in the Coventry Blitz… Read more: The Bishop with Swastikas on his Hat

Illegal parking at Brittania Square has been stopped after campaigning by Coventry Society members and reporting by the Coventry Observer. The Coventry Society congratulates the City Council for taking action after illegal parking got out of hand in the square in front of the Brittania Hotel on the corner of Priory Street and Fairfax Street.… Read more: Council Stops Illegal Parking at the Britannia Hotel

Coventry City Council’s Cabinet have approved plans to modernise the city’s streetlights. The project will replace the lanterns on 29,500 lighting columns in the city with modern LED ones. The new lamps will use only half the energy of the current ones, and will last four times as long. It is also possible to dim… Read more: Street Lighting to be Modernised