IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Wyken Croft, COVENTRY, CV2 1HQ

These housing blocks form part of the Manor Farm estate, designed by Coventry City Architect Donald Gibson and his team: see Image

On the left is the boundary to Manor Farmhouse Image The turning on the right is Broad Park Road Image

Leafy Henley Road east of the junction with Broad Park Road. To the right is a block of 12 flats, Wyatt House.

Typicalof the surrounding area, on Widdecombe Close off Henley Road.

Across the road is Manor Farmhouse, a Grade II listed early 17th-century farmhouse https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1076611?section=official-list-entry OpenStreetMap shows it as Manor 'Farmyard' and garden but nothing about it can be found. It should not be confused with a restaurant in Earlsdon. Manor Farm gives its name to an entire housing estate in this area.

It is a Grade II listed early 17th-century farmhouse https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1076611?section=official-list-entry It has given its name to an entire housing estate. It is clearly in use but its use is not known. Open Street Map shows it as Manor 'farmyard' and garden. Historic England shows it as Manor Farm Cottages.

The turning on the right is Logan Road. The chimney probably belongs to Broad Park House. A report from 2019 explains that the Centre there provides short breaks for young disabled children https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/short-breaks-disabled-children-set-17333222

They fit the description for crack willow, Salix fragilis, but willow species hybridise freely, according to the Woodland Trust site, with hybrid forms of crack willow and white willow, Salix alba, being especially common. It is mid-November and the leaves have turned a brilliant yellow.

Caradoc Hall on Caradoc Close is a 17 storey block of 129 homes, completed in 1969 by Truscon for the city of Coventry. Built as council housing, it was later used by Coventry University as student flats for about twenty years. More recently the building has been privately owned, with flats available for rent. See the Edinburgh University Tower Block site, which describes it as Manor Farm, Phase 3 https://www.towerblock.eca.ed.ac.uk/development/manor-farm-phase-iii . It is seen here from across the recreation ground by Hermes Crescent.

Hermes Crescent consists of a single curving road branching off into small streets of houses on footpaths, with garages and road access on separate spurs. This is the Radburn model of housing estate design, developed in the USA from 1929, and widely used in Coventry council housing estates of the 1960s. Hermes Crescent dates from this period and formed part of Manor Farm Phase 3, together with the tower block on Caradoc Close, visible in the distance (see Image]). The Crescent later fell on evil times, and pictures of boarded-up and burnt-out houses are not hard to find online. In the late 2010s it was 'regenerated' with extensive investment. Windows were replaced and insulating cladding fitted. See Jeremy & Caroline Gould, Coventry: The Making of a modern city 1939-73, pp93-98, at the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/coventry-making-of-modern-city-1939-73/#:~:text=This%20book%20aims%20to%20inform,Coventry's%20remarkable%20post%2Dwar%20heritage.