IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Chaffinch Road, COVENTRY, CV4 8NG

New housing occupies the eastern end of the former recreation ground, with the western end retained as a playground and small green space.

Construction work on the former recreation ground south of Prior Deram Walk.

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.

Recently built housing on the former recreation ground adjacent to Prior Deram Walk. In 2017: Image

Across Prior Deram Recreation Ground. Not much recreation is taking place today.

Looking towards the site of what was Sir Henry Parkes primary school and, in the distance, houses on Charter Avenue. In the foreground is the embankment of the A45. Sir Henry Parkes school and Alderman Harris school on Charter Avenue merged and became the Charter school on a new site in Mitchell Avenue.

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

Show houses and sales office in place in the "White Willow Park" development on the former Sir Henry Parkes school site.

Over Canley Brook, from Prior Deram Recreation Ground.

The multicoloured elephant from David McKee's series of picture books forms the subject of this pastel-shaded mural on the gable end of the library facing onto Prior Deram Walk.