Flats by Park Wood, Charter Avenue, Canley

Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 7 Oct 2023

Canley forms part of the block of land, around 20,000 acres, that Coventry Corporation bought in 1926 from the Leigh family of Stoneleigh Abbey. From the 1940s it was developed with council housing, forming a linear estate extending east to west along Charter Avenue, and providing affordable housing amidst open spaces to industrial workers and their families. These four storey blocks of flats are typical of Coventry council housing from the 1950s and early 1960s. The adjoin Park Wood, one of the Stoneleigh Estate woods that was preserved by the city council. This juxtaposition of housing and woods, often council estates and ancient woodland, is very characteristic of the urban landscape of Canley and Tile Hill on the western edge of the city. Ruth Cherrington, a historian who grew up in Canley, charts the rise and fall of this industrial community in a three-part blog at the Municipal Dreams site: see https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2015/11/24/canley_estate_coventry/ , https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2015/12/01/the-canley-estate-coventry-building-the-community/ and https://municipaldreams.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/canley-today-not-a-reassuring-neighbourhood/ .

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