News

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 Takeover 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

Anyone who has visited Earlsdon recently will be fully aware that a number of properties on Earlsdon Street have stood empty for several or in some cases many months awaiting possible redevelopment, as shown on the right-hand side in the photograph below: Against this background of apparent stasis, however, at some point shortly after Christmas… Read more: Gone in an Instant, but not Forgotten …

Historian and CovSoc Committee member, David Fry, has been studying past editions of the Alfred Herbert Newsletter. These newsletters are much more than just a works newsletter and reveal a lot about the thinking in the city at the time they were written. The article below is extracted from 1956 editions of their Newsletter, looking… Read more: New Government and more new Coventry – 1950/51

The review of the Coventry Local Plan has taken another step forward this month. The Council’s Cabinet has given the go-ahead for public consultation on the revised plan. The consultation will take place between 15th January and 3rd March 2025. The consultation, which is known as a Regulation 19 consultation, is the final stage of… Read more: Local Plan Review Consultation

In this second article about Coventry’s cycle heritage, Peter James tells us about William Hillman. Peter writes…. William Hillman was born in Lewisham on 30th December 1847 the son of William a Cab master and his wife Mary Taylor. He was brought up at Lewis Grove in Lewisham with his five sisters. After moving to… Read more: The World’s largest manufacturer of cycles