IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Goldcrest Walk, COVENTRY, CV4 8NF

Over Canley Brook, from Prior Deram Recreation Ground.

Nos. 1 and 2 Moat House cottages, no. 2 being the nearest, according to the small sign in the foreground. No. 1 was the birthplace in 1815 of Sir Henry Parkes, later to become Prime Minister of New South Wales. In the background are the rear of houses on Sir Henry Parkes Road. In 2010: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2110337 Timber frame and brick. Grade II listed.

At the end of Moat House Lane and facing woodland, a timber frame and brick building, dating from the 16th century, divided into two cottages, No. 1 and No. 2. No.1 was the birthplace, on 27 May 1815, of Sir Henry Parkes who went on to become Prime Minister of New South Wales, Australia. Grade II listed building. LBS no. 218537 Compare with 1978: http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/2111087

Suburban road and housing, off Charter Avenue.

New residences under construction on the former recreation ground, a small area of which has been retained as a playground. Viewed from the footpath alongside the Canley Brook.

At the junction with Sir Henry Parkes Road, with the local fire and police stations.

The western parapet of one of the two bridges carrying Fletchamstead Highway over the Canley Brook, stencilled with '249 70Q'. The direction of stream flow is north-eastward.

Just off the A45 Sir Henry Parkes Road leads directly to the campus of Warwick University. The side road from where the picture was taken is Centenary Road and is a residential road.

The Second World War led to large-scale destruction in Coventry, but also to large-scale migration of workers to the city and its engineering industries that were essential to the war effort. To address the housing shortage, the city council experimented with designing prefabricated metal-framed houses that could be built quickly using components mass-produced in the same factories. These houses were never put into production, however, as central government offered Coventry two thousand prefabricated houses instead. These were made by the British Iron & Steel Federation (BISF) and were called 'Type A' houses. They too used a prefabricated steel-framed system, to which panels of corrugated steel were attached, forming the outer walls of the upper storey. The design was by the architect Frederick Gibberd and the engineer Donovan Lee. Owing to labour shortages, Coventry never built most of these houses, but over two hundred were erected in Canley in the late 1940s and most are still in use. Often the steel walls have been covered with insulating cladding, but the two in the foreground of this photo still display the panels of corrugated steel, although the original windows and doors have been replaced. For more information see Coventry: The making of a modern city, 1939-73, by Jeremy Gould and Caroline Gould, pp83-84, available at the Historic England site https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/coventry-making-of-modern-city-1939-73/ . Connoisseurs of BISF houses will find many examples on Geograph: see for example Image], Image] and Image

Much of this locality has housing of this style - originally built as council housing in the 1950s. A pedestrian crossing has been added and the bus-stop altered since 2005: Image]