Hillfields

After a bit of Googling, I think it's "Stanatitis Debility" - Stanatitis appears to be some kind of virus, and each instance I've found refers to "Vesicular Stanatitis", where Vesicles are small, fluid-filled sacs that can appear on skin.

This reference seems appropriate - stomatitis. Page 72 refers to fatality.

It does look like 3 tees rather than ells. It might take an old medical dictionary to work out exactly what it referred to. Diseases had a variety of names before they were pinned down (eg my Mum warned us against sitting on cold surfaces or we'd get chincough - which we all, including Mum, assumed was piles. Only it turned out to be hooping cough). What would we do without the internet?

At the turn of the twentieth century, a deep brook passed by the large pool of Swanswell, upon the borders of Coventry of the old city and the new town - Hillfields as it was called for a long time. The low ground immediately surrounding the pool was covered in extensive osier and reed beds, a favourite resort and breeding place of all kinds of water fowl. Wild duck, widgeon, dipper and water hen were constant visitors enlivened by the sounds of warblers that abounded. The water itself teemed with fish - pike, perch, roach, tench and eels, afforded sport for anglers. Before the new town of Hillfields encroached on it, the water was bordered with fine old pollards (pruned trees), willows that grew on the edge right up into Hillfiields, and clusters of tall elms, chestnuts and maples. There was a path that bounded the pool, led across the fields to Harnall Lane, which was a mile long where it ended at Stoke at Swan Lane. It was a beautiful, rugged place, so narrow in parts that farm carts almost touched either side. Ferns abounded in rich profusion, toadflax, horehound, in a secluded place like this, hundreds of birds, butterflies and wild flowers - bluebells, primrose and cranes bill (geranium). The highest part of Hillfields was Primrose Hill, from which a path runs across two fields into Swan Lane, named for its mass of primroses. This hill was beautifully wooded with stately elms, maples, and oaks, smaller white birch and then pines - thirty, forty feet high, romantic, wild and so beautiful, enlivened by the rich songs. The home of the nightingale, blackbird, finches etc - such beauty. Among these stately trees, the mansion called Primrose Hill House. Around 1850 they built Swanswell pool and had filled it by November.

Very atmospheric Kaga. The picture below shows the mound/hill at Primrose Hill Park. This is the map at least 50 years earlier. The mound above doesn't look big enough to fit the map details but I assume that the path winding round was very narrow. An ornamental feature of the gardens that wasn't meant to speed access to the top. The mound is still there but the area is very changed, partly due to mining and partly due to reconstructive landscaping. Obviously the Swanswell Pool is much older than the modifications made in 1850. The mill there was very ancient and the area to the south of it was crossed by channels created by the monks. I assume that they were essential for drainage. Even before the wall was built the area was semi protected by the marshy ground. Most if not all of the city's gatehouses had wooden piles driven deep into the mud to help support the weight of the stones. Godiva and Leofric were very generous to give half the city to the Church but they kept the best bit for themselves.

My memories of Primrose Hill are from the late 1960s/early 1970s. Opposing football hooligans would fight to take the hill from each other as they walked back to town after a City match - the police usually won in the end, usually after one or both sets of hooligans had made a tactical withdrawal! It was nicknamed "Pork Chop Hill" after the 1959 Korean War film starring Gregory Peck.

Helen, Primrose Hill - one part of the hill had been quarried very extensively to a great depth for the valuable sandstone it contained, the stone used in the construction of the city walls and gates about six hundred years ago. The sides of the excavations were terraced in all directions under the shade of the trees.

The terracing and sandstone quarry isn't apparent on the 1850 map other than a small quarry on what was later to become Nicholls Street. By 1888 the quarry features are there. There were several quarries around the city, so no one quarry was needed to provide massive quantities. So while it's possible the terracing was missed off the earlier map it looks like it was mostly a later endeavour. By your time Kaga, it would have looked pretty old.

Not my time Helen. J Gutteridge about 1820.