Spon Street

Heathite - any chance of a delve in the directories for me please to look for A Bates grocery shop in Spon Street, possibly post-war but pre Ring Road. I have had a request from a relative. Edited by member, 30th Mar 2021 9:46 am

Neil. 1957 Telephone Directory - 138 Spon Street

Hi, here's what I have found. The image is from 1935. Also from the 1937 directory, A Bates 138 Spon st, still a cooked meat dealer. Mrs N Bates 123 Leicester Causeway, grocer. Ernest Bates, a butcher, 156a Eagle st. O Bates, grocer, 5 East st William Bates, butcher, 13 Spon st. W F Bates, butcher, 8 Station st. In 1955 A Bates is a Turf Commissioner at 138 Spon st. In 1960 there is A Bates, grocer 138 Spon st.

I wonder if all those butchers called Bates were related? Thanks Heathite. I had a go searching the directories last week and it's a lot of hard work.

Hi Helen, et al, we'll see what Neil has to say. My approach with a search is to start with the resident alphabetic listing. Look up the surname and see if an address and a trade is given. I know most of the directories do not have this listing but Neil gave us a time-frame. The 1937 set does have a comprehensive set of lists, and it's a big changeover time for Coventry. Butcher Row about to disappear. Fortunately, the set of directories I have covers 1828 to 1972, but not all years.

Interesting to see the end building, since demolished.

Sadly the Plough Hotel was blown up during the bombing.

Big chunk of this video is of Spon Street - film starts at Belgrade Plaza and ends up at the Old Dyers Arms in Spon End

A very big thank you to you for your amazing videos. Loving them. Coventry is looking fantastic. Gilly