IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Abbey Road, COVENTRY, CV3 4BD

This pond is marked as a Fish Pond on the Whitley Abbey estate on the OS Six Inch Map, 1885-1915 series. It is roughly reverse-S-shaped. The big house at Whitley was a manor house that was renamed 'Whitley Abbey' in the 19th century, though there was never a monastery here. It housed Belgian refugees during the First World War, then fell into decay. Coventry City Council built a school on the site in the 1950s; the school can be seen beyond the pond. See the Coventry Society site on Whitley https://www.coventrysociety.org.uk/coventry-neighbourhoods/whitley/ .

Whitley Abbey Primary School is ahead. The school out-of-shot left is signed at the Ashington Grove entrance as Alice Stevens School, which was a special needs mixed secondary school. It is not listed as a Coventry school. It appears to have been absorbed into the Riverbank Academy on Princethorpe Way, Binley. The buildings here are unlabelled on current mapping and are assumed to be closed. It's interesting how the schools are set among mature oak and beech trees – presumably in the parkland of the former Whitley Abbey.

Trees from the Whitley Abbey estate now stand by a 21st century road that serves business parks on the southern edge of Coventry. There is a fine mature oak in the centre; the tree in the distance at the far right, perhaps a common lime, has balls of mistletoe growing on its branches. Pond and school lie beyond. On the school, the long-vanished big house and the abbey that never was, see Image

Alice Stevens School is no longer listed as a Coventry school. It was a mixed secondary school for students with special needs. It appears to have been absorbed into the Riverbank Academy in Binley, part of a Multi-academy trust. It is assumed that these buildings are empty. Seen through the fence from a path behind the southern leg of Ashington Grove. The path runs between Whitley Grove and the western leg of Ashington Grove.

Beyond the fence an area of the business park is still being developed. Mature trees were once in the grounds of Whitley Abbey. A "Can I help you?" situation developed here. There was anxiety about car number plates being photographed by the agents of competitors of Jaguar Land Rover, in order to identify visitors to JLR's engineering R&D centre nearby.

The blue sign left of centre advertises industrial and office accommodation. Interesting mature trees in the distance around Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School, built on the site of Whitley Abbey.

Behind the fence, right, is the former Alice Stevens School, presumed closed: Image

The fence is to the Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School site. The road, now a cycle route to Whitley and Willenhall, may once have connected a housing estate to a works (Armstrong-Whitworth?) on the site of the present Jaguar Land Rover Engineering Centre. The woodland could have been part of the Whitley Abbey estate.