CWK205 (2009)

On Hearsall Common . . . T.W.Moore

Hearsall Common… a green and pleasant area of the city… you know, that’s where Coventry Freemen in the old days had permission by the council to graze their livestock with no charge. I’ve not seen any sheep, cows or horses grazing there in my lifetime but I have photographed a CCT Willowbrook Daimler Fleetline caught up in a parade of Elephants and Camels on the day the circus came to town.

But, there have been other occasions when I have been on Hearsall Common, to photograph bus crashes, the fog hangs over the common, and visibility can be poor, and has caused 4 CCT buses to collide head-on over the years.. The first crash I know of was in 1942, when a former Halifax C.T. Hoyal bodied open staircase AEC Regent 1, purchased by CCT in 1939 from AEC, No. 267 smashed head on into Daimler COA6 No181. Did you know CCT paid £25 each for the four ex Halifax AEC.s The Daimler COA6, 181, one of the 3 Park Royal bodied buses of 1937 of course, was repaired to continue its war service. Looking at the CET press cutting it’s clear to see what a ‘dead’ on full frontal smash it was.

Back on the common postwar, CCT Daimler CVA6 No.93 and CVD6 131 got tangled up in a smash, causing extensive damage, during a late Saturday afternoon in October 1955. My pictures taken at the scene show 2 front end crumpled buses. They were big repair jobs, the body structure and chassis frames got a real bending and I know the chassis side members of one of buses was sent to Rubery Owen in Birmingham to be straightened out. When repaired, 93 re-entered service with the rain strip around the front top deck painted maroon instead of cream it became the only Daimler CVA6 so treated and was instantly recognized.

I was sent to the common early one morning on 20th December 1956, when Guy 285 and Daimler CWG5 No. 318 smashed together in thick fog. Both buses were so extensively damaged around the cab area they looked withdrawal candidates, but both were repaired and re-entered service I honestly thought both of them would be withdrawn but after repair 318 went on until 1958 and 285 was withdrawn in 1959.

And then, when during the Easter fair weekend in the middle sixties I witnessed Daimler CVA6 No.10 running over a dog on the common....it was awful the dog died from injuries under the front offside wheel and the bus swerved onto the kerb at an alarming angle before it righted itself with many passengers on board who were on their way to the fair. If that bus had gone down it would have been a very serious incident and I had no camera with me.

Hearsall Common is also a very nice location to photograph buses, I remember some of Laurie Jahr’s very nice photographs he did on the common, and one of my favourite photo’s is of a CVG6, taken in cold and very frosty morning sunshine, its shape silhouetted against the sun and framed in winter branches.

Have members of the CWK 205 forum a tale of a Coventry location where they like to see the buses or any experiences they may have had when out photographing buses that could be an interest to other members? Let’s hear from you….. Can I say it again……LETS HEAR FROM YOU!

Picture 1. Elephants on the common

picture 2. Head-on crash

picture 3. 93 smash

picture 4. close up of 93

picture 5. 318 and 285 smash

Lastly, a fleetline in silhouette crossing the common

Way back to the 1960's, when my nan lived in Coventry Street.As a little lad, I would stay with her for a few days during the school holidays. If we were going 'into town' we would walk down Coventry St to the junction with Mercer Ave, and wait for the number 7 or number 1. while waiting for the bus, i would look at that Tower Block of flats on Barras Heath. I must have done that lots of times.

Forward to the late 80's, working in the accounts Dept' of Coventry Cable TV. A customer on the 9th floor of the said tower block had a problem. I was to go in there at last, 20plus years later. Sorting out his problem, I asked when I come back tomorrow, could I bring a camara with me and take some photos from his windows. He said it was ok. I went back the next day and used up half a film taking shots of Coventry.

I just had to get one of a bus at that stop, where I had stood all those years before with my Nan (who had passed away in 1985).
I was leaning out of his window to get this shot.

Hearsall Common itself is probably just how you remember it, big open space and the surfaced area at the Beechwood Avenue end for the fairs and circus, both of which make several visits during the year, though it has to be said the Crock fair is less than a shadow of it's former self. It used to be a highlight of the year to see the stalls stacked high with china and the stall holders competing with each other to offer the best deal, "I'm not asking £15, not £14, not £13,"etc, etc, each offer accompanied by a thump on the counter with an old table leg, and do you remember them throwing whole teasets across the stalls, never dropped a cup!!
What you would find different is no one way system. When exiting the city you crossed the common, forked left down Canley Road, swept right into Beechwood Avenue to a roundabout at the junction of TileHill Lane and Broad Lane, Some years back the inward to city carriageway was widened to allow 2 way traffic and a bus lane while the section from Canley Road/ Beechwood Ave to TH Lane was removed completely. The new section still has a roundabout at Broad lane but no longer into THLane, that section now runs through what was the Triumph factory to join the A45 at a huge roundabout, either known as Fatty Island due to it containing a McDonalds, Pizza Hut and KFC or Malfunction Junction because to circle it involves at least 5 seperate traffic lights!

Thank you Peter. The chap was most obliging in letting me take some photos of the City from his windows, however, when I had his window open and was waiting and waiting for a bus to pull-up at that stop, i'm sure he thought I was a bit bonkers!. The yard behind the shelter was still a bombsite/wasteland back in the 60's, so that had changed and it was the wrong kind of bus, but my memories are there.

Returning to Tom's theme of location. when it was announced during Dec '78, that service 7, along with others, were to be converted to OMO/AUTOFARE. I wanted to photograph the CVG6's during their finale on the '7', so I went to the terminuses at Brownshill Green, Sewall Highway, the City Centre, but one location was a must, and that was Coventry Street, I spent a few hours there.

due to a combination of the deterioration of the negative and the cheap negative scanner, the clarity is not brilliant, but a shot of 333 CRW turning out of Coventry St into Shakespeare St, a tight manoeuvre at the best of times, so a damn fool standing in the road taking photos would not help..sorry driver! 30/12/78.

Two points of note; [1] she carries no 'WM' logo on her nearside ? & [2] the front blinds show '7' & 'SEWALL HIGHWAY' while the blind on the side has 'ALLESLEY' , surely a tad confusing for any intending passengers waiting in Pool Meadow ?