IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Standish Close, COVENTRY, CV2 5NN

Stoke House was built over 200 years ago and occupies a secluded site, surrounded by mature trees. It was the birthplace of Colonel William Fitzthomas Wyley, a chemist, who became the Lord Mayor of Coventry in 1911; he bought the Charterhouse, made it his home and bequeathed it to the city. After use by a barrage balloon unit during the Second World War, Stoke House became a children's home, and later offices for social/children's services. A modern secure unit for young people was built in the grounds and was demolished in 2013. Property guardians were living in the house at that time, and there was a planning application to convert it into a care home. Behind the house was a cobbled courtyard with a stable block. https://www.coventrysociety.org.uk/news/article/planning-permission-sought-for-conversion-of-stoke-house.html

A blackthorn thicket prominently in flower. Oak, left, not yet in leaf.

It's probably Common Sedge, Carex nigra, but with this colouring it could be the common Glaucous or Carnation Sedge, Carex flacca. Stoke Floods is a local nature reserve. "The pool was formed when the Binley coal works caused the land to subside." (from Coventry City Council's Sowe Valley guide).

An old geograph revisited: Image The water level seemed very low on this occasion, though. Stoke Floods is a flash, a body of water created by mining subsidence, in this case by Binley Colliery, which closed in 1963. The pool is a local nature reserve and an important site for water birds; see the site of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust https://www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/StokeFloods .

The pair of barriers may be configured to allow people to pass on foot or with a pushchair or in a wheelchair, say, but not bikes, motor bikes and horses. The Sowe Valley footpath crosses the river here from east on the right, to west over the bridge. In the background is Vincent Wyles House in Attoxhall Road, Wyken (or is it Stoke?).

Two sorts of order – the straight lines of the path and the lighting; then the way that blackthorn grows – its phyllotaxis – to form a thicket. Access and impenetrability side by side. The route crosses the Sowe Valley footpath. This view is the reverse of Image

Stoke Floods is a nature reserve comprising a pool surrounded by reedbeds and scrub. The pool is a flash, a body of water occupying land that has subsided, in this case as a result of mine-workings at Binley Colliery.

The view is from the footbridge over the River Sowe near St Gregory's RC primary school. Blackthorn thickets are flowering white. This view is the reverse of Image

The view is roughly north from the footpath east of the footbridge over the River Sowe near St Gregory's RC primary school. The river is to the left.