Windmill Road School

Thanks, Derrick. 48 it is then, I always had 47 in mind. Great photo by the way. Nice to see a pic of Maureen and Dave.

Helen F, I'm confused. A man named ELD was Coventry mayor 19th c. (fact) A man named ELD was a miller at Foleshill Watermill 19th c. (McGrory) A man named ELD sketched a windmill. Are they related? You also say windmills were found near watermills - all the windmills I know are on high ground!

The sketch was most probably drawn by George Eld's daughter, who, I believe, was an artist. She drew beautiful sketches of the city gates, too.

The mayor and the mill owner were the same as far as I can tell. I don't know who painted the picture. I doubt many of the wind and water mills were co located but I've seen two on maps. I don't know where the Eld windmill was exactly and was guessing that it was somewhere near Windmill Road. Follow the line of the road to the east and you get to Foleshill (water) Mill. There are streams, the mill race for the water mill and the River Sowe nearby. Mayor Eld may have owned the land as well as two mills. But for all I know, Windmill Road may have just had a great view of a windmill on a nearby hill. Off topic - one of the windiest places I know of with no good reason to be, is the car park of Morrisons at Binley. Edited by member, 17th May 2019 11:11 am

According to "The Coventry we have lost" website, the windmill would have stood by where Recreation Rd is now. Also, windmills are usually on low lying flat areas, ie Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Holland, because of the unbroken air flow, whereas on a hill provides a lot of air turbulence. Most airports are also in a flat region for the same reason.

Thanks scrutiny. There's nothing on the landscape by 1888 to indicate it had ever been there.

Scrutiny, thank heavens for that!!

scrutiny, hi. Yes, in flat country they have no choice, but Windmill Road was surrounded by Wood End, Bell Green, the Wolfe, Foxford, in fact the Sowe, it was in a vale. Here in Sussex there are about ten windmills, all on hills. My great grandad and family were here in the mid 19th century, and surrounded Windmill Lane. In fact they still do, most of them in the cemetery in the lane, and I can't remember one painting or mention of a windmill. Just seemed strange to me, but hey, we're all guessing.

George Eld went bankrupt as a miller in 1838. This advert is from 1839. There is also a reference in Coventry Collections “ George Eld of Coventry to Joseph Perkins of Exhall farmer for £45, of land then or late in Church Field & on which a WINDMILL then stood, containing 2 acres 29 perches” Edited by member, 18th May 2019 1:56 pm

The mill is marked at the bottom of this 1886 map, the Windmill is mentioned in Coventry Collections as early as the 1500's. Isaac Falconbridge is a Miller at Mill House in 1901 but it is classed as Hall Green.

Annewiggy, Thank you, I'm really pleased that I was wrong, for that could be loss of memory, but all round good for me. Aldermans Green Road was always an ugly name for me, how much nicer was Parrotts Grove, that conjured up gaily coloured birds (than name) at one end, and a water and windmill at the other end. I can only tell you how it felt. To be connected to fields, streams, mills and animals. Near the end of the road on the left, a stile ran down to the 'Slough' pool, on the right a cobbled asphalt cartway ran off the main road. A deep rut ran down where endless rain over the years had seeped the soil away. On the right a hedgerow, and the blossom of the hawthorn, turning from white to cerise, ran down to the mill and river, the undergrowth a mass of flowers, birds in and out of the hedge in a constant traffic. Then came the flour dusty mill with giant old grinding wheels. Near the corner outside lay years old discarded grinding wheels. A small pathway to the left that led to Windmill Road. On the left of that old cart track were the old buildings of the dairy and the once cottagers building and old looms, and then the centuries old mill house, with its oak beams, oak staircase and stone fireplace. From May onwards swifts vortexed around the house, into the pathway with its trees and shrubbery along the small river bank no more than a brook, I liked waiting and watching. Now comes a kingfisher, flying equally between river and sky, a neon-turquoise flash, the bird of mythology. A dipper sits on a boulder, he has seen me, he starts his dipping to show off his white front, to tell me I have been seen. I cannot surprise him. with one beat of his wings he glides downstream where the water is more shallow. The sight of it all brings great joy to me. By end of March all birds have burst out singing, a skylark flutters up over the meadow, a woodpecker drumming in a dead tree. The primrose blossoms, you can smell it. The frog spawn in the ditch starts to hatch 'polliwogs'. From now until October the fields and hedgerows will be a riot of colour, and this small corner so uplifting to my life. Remembrance of those times still vividly lingers in my mind.

I wish there was telepathic TV Kaga when you describe these things. I'm not sure Kaga that you're wrong, the whole of the area is on a modest hill as you rise from city to get there. Windmill road itself climbs from the water mill and it would have originally been more apparent as the original road was much lower than the modern one. Excellent detective work Anne as always. If Eld owned all the land in that area, even though the mills weren't next to each other, they could be listed as if they were. Eld may have owned much of the land that is now Longford Park. The watermill is definitely where Ann's map shows it but I'm not so sure about the windmill. Recreation Road could have been where a mill was sited as scrutiny suggests. The Sowe is a little further north than the end of Recreation Road, that might explain the water in the painting. Alternatively it could just be a pond that vanished before the maps were drawn. There is no sign of a church or a field associated with it.