Lost Coventry views (photos wanted)

As some of you know I've been looking for an old image of Silver Street for some time because of a family connection. Seems this is one street that has no old views of..... Thought it might be an idea to list the areas/streets which seem to have been 'lost in time' and that we have no views of and are looking for.......... 1. Silver Street

Great idea for a topic Neil, like it. One famous old street that I've rarely seen any views of is West Orchard... anyone got any? The entrance between Smithford & Fleet Street is often seen, but none of the actual road itself.

Did you get the second drawing I sent you? It was by Sydney Bunney. I didn't post it on the site because it's from the recent book Impressions of a Graceful City.

Hi all, How strange that today, I was wandering around Silver St, (cordoned off by police yesterday after a stabbing incident in the early hours of Sunday morning), but also looking at the configuration of Fleet St around St Johns.

I would love to see photos or images of the Paradise area, I had a lot of relatives who lived there 100 years or so ago. My grandad's family lived in Old Yard but later moved to Webster Street. All photos they had were lost when their house was bombed in the war. Luckily no one was killed

Apologies Helen - yes I meant to pass on thanks - really interesting to see. I'm just amazed though that there's seemingly no photos around.............. I'll start a list Rob then get on the hunt! 1. Silver Street 2. West Orchard 3. Paradise

Hi Lorraine, Me too, my husband's grandparents lived in Webster Street, named the Gallamores.

Hi Neil Just dived into my box of Coventry goodies again and came across these. I think they are someone's copy of Troughton Sketches but will give you some idea of West Orchard. The picture also says it is West Orchard Alms Houses

Thanks Anne! That'll please Rob

Wow - very pleased indeed - thank you! The photograph is especially interesting, as I've seen very few taken in West Orchard ever - only a close-up of the Congregational Chapel there. The sketches are great too, but don't quite look like Troughton's sort of drawing. Neither of them are in the Mary Dormer Harris' 1906 Troughton sketches book (unless I haven't looked carefully enough), and the lines make them look a bit different. Still lovely to see such rare views though. You're very lucky having such a wonderful "box of Coventry goodies" though.... many of us will be envious!

Hi Annewiggy, You are providing us with great material on here I don't know if this is the link you have found already but there are references to those Troughton sketches on 'Coventry Collections' and you can email them for more information. Troughton's Sketches and Drawings

Hi Foxcote The site that Google took me to was National Archives which is a very interesting site for UK-wide documents. The Coventry collections site is wonderful, I have used it in the past. I found that in 1995 my parents had made a recording for a lady who was doing a paper on the workplace. We went to the Herbert to listen to it and they made a copy for me. I also found lots of documents that have made it possible to add information to my family tree including my ancestors living in Bastille Mill in 1659 and before.

I have just picked up a copy of Troughton's Sketches with 49 plates in it, more than the 34 mentioned in the archive. Also, there are no sketches of West Orchard that look like those in this thread. I had assumed that the pictures in the archive and those published in the book were the same, but now I wonder if they are perhaps a different collection. Incidentally, there is one rather poignant line in the book: "Coventry, had it been better preserved and early repaired, would surely have borne the look of an English Nuremberg"  Edited by member, 19th Oct 2013 1:47 pm

Pallmall, there are 34 folders, not sketches. If you look at Foxcote's link there are 100's of Troughton sketches and drawings. Yes, what an interesting city Coventry would have been if even half of it had been kept, and they can't blame the war for all the destruction.