For those that grew up around Tile Hill check out an artist called Geroge Shaw, he's done lots of pieces on the area including the Black Prince and the Hawthorne Tree
Of Innocence | GEORGE SHAW'S TILE HILL
Me and all my brothers went to Templar’s , my mum was a cleaner there for 30 years . Proper infant/junior school. Shame they knocked it down for houses .I know the square root of bugger all about art, but his stuff looks brilliant to me. A load of those bits of Tile Hill still look exactly like this and haven’t changed since I used go to school round the corner at Templars, a very long time ago...
I remember the Plough had a heavy metal & rock music disco every Friday & Sunday night. It was run by Silk Disco which was Jim Twyneham who was the announcer at Highfield Road for years. Place was packed every night for these, it must have been a goldmine given the booze they used to sell.
We've probably met then. Part of our roundabout crawl back then including the Acorn, The Jolly Colliers, The Crown, the Miners Arms, and the Green Man.
Originally the Daimler Motor Hotel. Used to use it regularly when I worked at the Climax and at Jag Radford. Keith Fairbrother used to prop the bar when he wasn't propping for Cov, Warks, or England.
When and where did you work at Climax, so did I number one m/c shop, foreman Bill Bolton
I could see the back of the Green Man from our back garden (Pearson Avenue) before they built the houses between us. Used to scrump apples there as a kid, and drink there regularly from 1970 on.
Was number one shop at Widdrington Road?
Depending on when your lot went there I’d guess you know some of my mates from the area. They were all Templar’s boys in the 70s and then woodlands 80-85. Good lads. Shan’t mention names on here, but if you were there around then you’d know them.
Any of you taught By Mrs Cramp?
How old back then BSB
I was a regular attendee at Silk at the Plough. The place heaved most nights they were on and particularly when they hosted the London band Hackensack ! Man...they were loud ! When Silk had to move on, I think the next port of call was the Gosford on Humber Road in the back room then the pub on the High St previously mentioned on this thread. After that, Jim and Graham put on national touring bands at venues like the West End club and the Locarno where they got into some grief because of Hawkwinds topless dancer Stacia ! As you say, Jim was a true gentleman and who can forget those Sky blue suits prior to Wembley in 1987 ! Many, many happy memories of the nights in the Plough.
I never met him Houch but it was a bit sudden while he was abroad If I remember properly? I've worked with his lad Joe many times .
Joe's married to my mates sister and just to add to the small world her parents also had pubs and ran Generations!
I guess with the Coventry car industry to the south and coal mines to the north, Bedworth men had plenty of money to spend in the pubs until it all went tits up decades ago.
Gus McGrath
I was one of the soft lads in the offices by then. Had had enough of the shop floor and had applied for a job as a Technical Author. Initially we were right next to the canteen on Widd Rd. My seat afforded me a view of the canal and Cash's Lane. Later we were moved to some derelict old offices fronting Aldbourne Rd. It was the beginning of the end for the company, and the start of the redundancies, and I was one of the first to go! Started there (from Herberts Edgwick) in '77, and got the boot in '83. Ended up at Jag which was my last job before retirement.
I was the youngest of 5 brothers so slightly older . I left woodlands school in 79 . We lived Franklin Grove until the council moved us up Jobs lane next to the Star around 75 .
An amazing place full of worlds strangest and eccentric characters, stuck in a timeworp, belt driven machinery, no heating as such so an ice box in winter, no extraction. Had a director, Frank Cotton, a snobby Dickensen character who on a Monday morning would walk round the two machine shops with his trilby, dickie bow and a flower on his blazer wishing all a good morning using your surname, “morning Smith” “morning Brown” he knew all the names fucking arsehole pissed off with the prick I replied one day “morning Cotton” if looks could kill, he never wished me good morning again. Also place was full of unmarried war veterans probably the most racist arses ever, not just black or Asians, anybody not born and bred in Coventry area.
Fair enough, just a touch before then. Maybe it went downhill after you left then! (Woodlands certainly did around then when Thompson left and Hogarth took over).
Wasn’t that a fair description of a lot of manufacturing in the area in the 70s? Worked with a bloke who did an apprenticeship at Herbets in the 70s and some of the stuff that went on was hilarious, however you could see why they all closed down. Miracle anything ever actually got made, particularly on nights, where some used to take sleeping bags in with them so they got a good sleep.
I did my apprenticeship at Edgwick, Herberts, finishing it in '73, and going straight onto permanent nights for about three years. Never saw anyone with or in a sleeping bag, but yes, many took the piss somewhat. It was never a big nightshift as such, mostly concentrated around bays 1 to about 10 (of 30) of the shop floor, the hardening shop next to the canal, and the upstairs 'factory' area, and even those were sparsely populated and easy to monitor. Good laugh though, and better money than days.
15183 - This could be the NAAFI bar in Helmand province.
Maybe the story got embellished a little in the telling by my ex-colleague, although when I worked with him nothing would have surprised me. I did a brief stint of nights in a factory in the early 90s that was unsupervised for a while. It is fair to say there was a certain amount of ‘larking about’, including (but by no means limited to) rubber bung wars, gameboy Tetris tournaments, water fights (using the cleaning hoses located at various stations around the factory), large amounts of smoking the ’erb (or resin as it tended to be in them days), popping out for last orders, grabbing an hour’s kip in the canteen and ‘frisbee’ competitions using components that were supposed to be being treated in various ways.