Areas Covered:

Earlsdon Avenue North, Poplars Estate (Thomas Inger Stevens); Poplar Road, Upper Newcombe Road, Hearsall Common/Newland Building Estate (Bird & Crump); Coniston Road, Aston Road, Highlands Road

The early history of the northern part of Earlsdon Lane mirrors that of the southern section, although also leading to common land there was no gate guarding the entrance as could be found at its southern end. Even before the development of Earlsdon this rural area had experienced a reminder of the changing industrial landscape of England with the coming of the railway. In 1838 the London to Birmingham line opened. This had required the construction of a deep cutting dividing this section of Earlsdon Lane in two, but reconnecting with a brick bridge. This was celebrated in a contemporary painting (See below). By the early twentieth century the original narrow bridge caused the railway company some major expense. The lane at the time was unsuitable for housing development. Services such as drainage and sewerage needed a wider road. The first approaches were made to the Corporation in 1905 by the two principal developers in that area of Earlsdon. The Newcombe Estates Company from Market Harborough developing the land on the east side, and Thomas Inger Stevens, Chairman of the Earlsdon Syndicate, who was going it alone on the south west side. They both agreed to give up some of their land between the school and the railway bridge. In return the Corporation proposed to widen Earlsdon Lane to 45 feet and set out footpaths and install a surface water sewer. This was agreed and the work started within a year. Subsequently the bridge, which was previously only a little more than 15 foot wide, had been widened to 45 feet by 1910. So broad had it become that is still not obvious today to the casual driver that the bridge is there. Beyond the bridge, on the Chapelfields side, Earlsdon Lane had remained at the old narrow width. But within a year the developers of this side of the bridge, Messrs Bird & Crump and the Newcombe Estates Company, wanted the same standard of road up to Hearsall Common. Both firms agreed to give up some of their land and contribute to the costs of general road improvements which happened in 1911.

The Poplars Estate opposite Earlsdon School was the first estate to be developed in this northern section of the lane. It was named after a detached house that stood half way up Poplar Road on the left hand side. It was sold at auction in 1886 by the widow of Reverend Timothy Steward (a man of mystery, especially the church that he was a minister of!) and was described at the time as being of modern erection. It was sold at auction in 1904 for £2575 and bought by Thomas Stevens. The estate exactly fitted the grounds of the old house whose borders were described by the frontage of Earlsdon Lane from the railway bridge down to Earlsdon Street, then up Earlsdon Street to the rear gardens of Moor Street and along their boundary up to the railway line. Stevens soon laid out the roads known today as Poplar Road and Newcombe Road West. The naming of this latter road may have caused Stevens some annoyance, as although developed by him, on the advice of the authorities it took the name of the longer road on the opposite side of Earlsdon Lane, developed and named after his local rivals. He gave the name Poplar Crescent to the houses facing the bend from Earlsdon Lane into Earlsdon Street. His first sale was in 1905 of some land at the start of Earlsdon Street to the Co-operative Society, who later bought an adjoining plot of about 400 square yards in 1907. In June 1906 the plots facing Newcombe Road West were sold to the builder Charles Luck who operated from round the corner at 27 Moor Street. He also was responsible for the construction of many other houses in the Earlsdon area. The following month a large section of Poplar Road was sold to a young Foleshill builder Robert Ault on which he built more than 70 houses. He was a prolific builder in Coventry. Born in Exeter and only just out of his twenties when he built in Poplar Road, he was already firmly established in the Coventry construction industry. He had disappeared from the Coventry scene by 1909 but was replaced by his brother Bertram, who continued the family business until the 1930s. In January 1908 Stevens had completed the sale of the last parcel of land from the Poplars Estate having disposed of it all in less than four years. He was able to enjoy his success from his large home in Holly Bank only a few hundred yards back along Earlsdon Lane

Unlike most developers Messers Bird & Crump not only developed the infrastructure for their Hearsall Common Building Estate but built most of the houses. Their activities in this spot covered the period from 1910 when their estate plans were first submitted until 1915 when the last of the house plans were put forward for approval. They had bought the land in 1910 from the Fellowship of Dyers. Although both were born in Dudley, Arthur Crump still operated from there but by the time that construction had started Thomas Bird had settled into 57 Earlsdon Street with his new wife. Their plans for the layout of the site were relatively straightforward. But a few difficulties would always crop up in most developments. In this instance they were told to realign the roads they were laying out after their foreman ‘misinterpreted’ the plans, leading to a stiff letter from the City Engineer. Then there was an issue with the houses in Coniston Road that backed onto Hearsall Common. The Corporation felt that they should present a more pleasant prospect to the Common, and so they were forced to redesign the rear elevation to incorporate the sort of detailing that would normally only be found on the front of houses (See p.39). The builders’ architect expressed their panic that they night have to upgrade the whole house in a letter to the Corporation: ‘I am desired to express their request that the demand will not warrant the erection of a better class of house in this particular situation’!

At the start of the northern section of Earlsdon Lane two notable buildings in the life of the Earlsdon community were erected. The first was the new school in 1890 followed in 1913 by the library. With the Co-op, the City Arms in Earlsdon Street and the Baptist church on Albany Road, on the other three corners this encouraged some local wag to describe the junction as representing the four nations; education, co-operation, damnation and salvation.

Earlsdon Lane looking north from crossroads c1890s (Walker)
Earlsdon Lane looking north from the crossroadsc1909 (Anon)
This view bears comparison with the two on the cover. It is contemporary with the painting but is taken from the same direction as the later postcard. The rural feel of Earlsdon Lane is clearly shown a few years before Albany Road was built. It would make its entrance just behind the elm trees to the right, one of which would survive the widening of the lane and become a cause of concern between those who wanted it kept and those who were concerned at its dangerous position in the road. (See p.29). To the left of the pony and trap is the grounds of the ‘The Poplars’ which stretched as far as the railway bridge. This gentle bend into Earlsdon Street can also be seen in the picture below; Poplar Crescent was the name given to the houses that were built there. Just out of the picture above is where Poplar Road, also shown below, was to be built in 1906. The new larger school is shown on the right. The library and the Wesleyan Church have yet to be built on the two corners of Albany Road. The small roundabout was put up in 1899 as a ‘refuge’ in the middle of what had become a crossroads the year before, with the opening of Albany Road. It was to include a lamp standard that had been previously located at the side of the road.

Earlsdon New Library 1913 (Waterman)
Junior Home Reading Library, Earlsdon Library, Earlsdon Avenue North c1913 (OUP)
Earlsdon library was built as the result of a £10,000 donation by Andrew Carnegie in 1910 for three new libraries in Coventry, including ones at Foleshill and Stoke. Carnegie was a Scotsman who emigrated to America and made his fortune in the steel industry, ending up as one of the wealthiest people in the world. He provided money for 3000 libraries in America, Canada and the UK. The Carnegie money seemed to promote a certain profligacy in the build as despite being described as almost complete at the end of 1912 and work going on at night under ‘flare lamps’ in early 1913, it was not until Monday 20 October 1913 that it was opened by Mayor Colonel William Wyley. The public toilets that were built at the same time along the Albany side of the Library did not quite reflect this highbrow enterprise.

Schools, Earlsdon Avenue North c1907 (ER)
Earlsdon Schools, Earlsdon Avenue North c1924 (Athersych)
Earlsdon’s first school was established in 1882. Neither of the schools shown in the pictures was the first. That had been in Cromwell Street (Berkeley Road South) reusing an old silk weaving factory. The transfer to new and larger premises in Earlsdon Lane, shown above, took place in 1890, but within twenty years pressure of numbers required the single story building to be extended with the more substantial building shown below. The building was split up into a separate Infants School and an older Mixed School, hence the plural name. Within a few years even the extended school was not sufficient for the numbers of pupils coming from the estate being erected to the west of Albany Road, and in 1913 an additional school was opened in Centaur Road. Today Earlsdon School still serves the needs of the community but as a combined infant and junior school, returning to serving both sexes after a period between the 1920s and late 1970s where it had been for infants and junior girls only. Today a modern single storey extension hides the entrance shown in the later view. Other details of windows, railings and brickwork etc seem to keep faith with the architect’s vision. It’s a shame that the unusually ornate early telephone box is not with us now. A couple of modern ones still lurk just to the right of the recent photograph. The bollards most obviously seen in the view above marks the entrance to the Jetty that was the only route to the Butts for Victorian residents of Earlsdon before Albany Road was built.

Earlsdon Ave North, by Newcombe Road junction c1915 (Teesee)
Earlsdon Ave North, by The Clarence c1915 (Teesee)
Earlsdon Ave North, by Hearsall Common c1939 (Richards)
The two views above, taken on the same day, show the completed development of Earlsdon Lane into Earlsdon Avenue North. Its original bends have been evened out into a kerbed urban avenue. The view below is from a couple of decades on and the saplings have grown as well as the traffic increased. The road markings and street furniture that are so much part of the modern suburban streetscape have still not yet made much of an appearance. But the first evidence of the modern blight of street parking can be seen in the distance.

F E Ayre General Stores, 126, Newcombe Road c1913 (Anon)
F Rand, Grocer, 148 Earlsdon Ave North, Newcombe Road junction c1910 (Unknown)
With so many new residents having moved into the area during the first ten years of the twentieth century, Earlsdon was in desperate need of shopping facilities. Fortunately corner shops cropped up all over the most densely built housing that made up the Albany Building Estate. With most being custom made rather than speculatively built, they had their own idiosyncrasies, as the two different solutions shown here demonstrate. The most prized would be those that flanked the main roads that bordered these estates, like these two shops. Earlsdon Avenue South, in line with its higher status image, had no shops along its length and only a couple of corner shops in Mayfield Road. Most of the corner shops have now closed down but Ayres General Stores continues today as a butchers of long standing; John Taylor & Son. The same cannot be said for Rand, the grocery shop, on the opposite corner of the road, which has been converted into a domestic residence. Sometimes the shop would be run by the wife while the man worked elsewhere which was the case with the Sarah Baker who ran the shop above before Ayre took it on. F Rand was in fact Florence Rand and it is likely that it is one of her young sons Horatio or Jasper that is standing by the door.

Crown Bakery Coniston Road c 1913 (Anon)
This rather flattering view of the Crown Bakery was drawn soon after its construction in 1912. The proportions of the bakery itself has been considerably exaggerated, as was the way with these advertising postcards, to puff up the business. In reality the bakery and the cart shed were about the same size as the shop and house (which is on the left hand side of the buildings fronting the southern side of Coniston Road near its junction with Earlsdon Avenue South). The idea of having a steam oven was a good promotional point as it produced a superior golden brown loaf. It takes its name from the method used to heat the oven. Steel tubes containing water are heated until the steam rises to a temperature of 500º F. The bakery was known as the Sutton & Ross Crown Bakery and was more commonly known amongst the residents of Earlsdon as Sutton’s Bakery. In the early days deliveries would be by horse and cart, but were later mechanised. Competition was fierce in the area especially with Pails Bakery in nearby Craven Street. The possession of motorised transport would be a matter of great pride hence their use on a set of postcards from which the two shown have been taken. It is likely that the female driver starting the car in the snow was working during the First World War while the men were fighting in France. Sutton’s might have continued in Consiton Road if they had the space to build a larger bakery, but moved to new premises in Maudsley Road, Chapelfields in the late 1930s and continued in business there until the 1991.

Highland Road c1913 (Mills)
When this photograph was taken Highland Road had not been fully developed. Houses had been built along both sides of the road from Earlsdon Avenue (where the tree can be seen in the distance) to just behind where the photographer would have been standing. At the time the Highland General Grocery stores at 63 was the last building on the southern side, the only shop in the road. The road was laid out in 1910, building started in 1911 and by 1914 it was finished. The different styles of housing erected by A J Crump or TF Bird shows most distinctively in whether or not bay windows are used, and in their different styles.

Coniston Road 1910 sketch of improved backs (Building Plan 5535)
The architect’s sketch of the redesigned back of the houses (see page 32 for explanation) gives the lucky residents on that side of the road two frontages for the price of one! As part of the redesign they also had two lime trees planted in each garden. The long-sightedness of the stand taken by the City Engineer is not so easily seen by users of Hearsall Common today as the trees block the view of the houses.