Other Hillfields Trades and Industries 

Hillfields has had a very varied industrial history. There are separate pages on the car history and weaving history. This page covers some of the other firms and industries.

Some of the industries of Hillfields that you may not have heard of:

• Primrose Hill Park shows evidence of ancient quarrying activity. It is claimed that red sandstone for the city walls was quarried from here.

• Hillfields also had a brick industry.  A number of brickyards are shown in the vicinity of Days Lane on the 1851 Board of Health Map. This is perhaps not so surprising if it is remembered that Webster's Brickworks survives until today less than a mile away on Stoney Stanton Road, using the same geological materials. 

• The City Mill was a steam flour mill which was built opposite Swanswell Park in 1854. At the official opening 14 men climbed to the top of its 200 ft. chimney and had lunch there.  There was a serious fire at the premises in 1918, but they survived until 1968 when the mill closed and the building was demolished. The site is currently occupied by a Bus Garage. 

• Hillfields has had a significant role in relation to the public transport industry. The district was the home of the city's first tram depot on Stoney Stanton Road. This had its own power station. The depot was expanded to become the Harnall Lane Bus Garage. The bus garage closed in 1987, following the construction in 1986 of the new Wheatley Street Bus Garage, also in Hillfields.

• Although Spon End is the suburb of Coventry most associated with watch making, Hillfields must have had some craft workshops, because it is recorded that in 1861 the watchmaking shop belonging to Samuel Everitt in Queen Street was completely destroyed by fire. 

• Hillfields has been the home of many family trades. One such was a photography business run by the Tayler Brothers. 

Some more Famous Hillfields Firms and Industries

Bretts Stamping

Coventry Engineer ES Brett was responsible for the development of the drop forging process. This innovative process produced engineering components of a strength and precision that were not previously possible. The factory of Harnall Lane, opened in 1893, was well known for its large thumping noise which for many generation was heard by residents in a wide area around the factory.

Francis Skidmore 

Francis Skidmore was a Victorian master craftsman who was very much in demand in his day for his decorative ironwork. He was born in 1816 in Birmingham and moved to Coventry as a child. After starting work in his father’s jewelry business, he developed his skills with wrought iron, copper and bronze. His reputation grew at the Great Exhibition and commissions came in from around the world. One of his most striking projects was the decorative metalwork he made for the Albert Memorial in London.

Another famous project is the "Hereford Screen" a metal rood screen, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, which adorned Hereford Cathedral from 1863 until 1967. The screen has a timber, cast and wrought iron structure with intricate columns and arches decorated with brass and copper and upper panels embedded with quartz gems and mosaics. There are over 14,000 individual pieces.  It was built in five months during 1863. This magnificent screen has recently been refurbished and put on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Skidmore’s factory was in Alma Street in Hillfields, and a plaque commemorating this is being unveiled during the year 2000 by his great grand daughter Rita Kenderdine. Skidmore died in poverty in Eagle Street in 1896. Local examples of his work can be seen in Holy Trinity Church and St. Mary’s Guildhall.

Cycle Factories in Hillfields (not complete)

Hillfields was the home of many of Coventry's cycle factories at the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. Many of these companies went on to manufacture motorcycles and cars.

• Bayliss Thomas and Co.1879

• Britannia Cycle and Motor Co., 1929

• Challenge Cycle and Motor Co. 1911

• Coronet Cycle Co, 1896

• Excelsior Co.

• Humber and Co. 1890 

• New Beeston Cycle Co. 1896

• New Premier Cycle Co, 1898

• Premier Cycle Co. 1890

• Raglan Cycle and Anti-friction ball Co. Ltd. 1898

• Singer & Co. 1879. 

• Sparkbrook Manufacturing Co. Ltd. 1883

• Viking Cycle Co. Ltd. 1894.

Motor Cycle Factories in Hillfields (not complete)

The following lists some of the motor cycle works which it is believed were located in Hillfields. Many of these also manufactured bicycles and cars:

• Bayliss Thomas and Co.1879

• Humber and Co. 1890 (also made an electric tandem)

• Omega (1909)

• Montgomery Sidecar Works, Leicester Causeway. This factory was completely destroyed by fire in 1925.

• Coventry Victor (1919)

• Francis Barnett (1919)

• Lea Francis (1911)

• Premier (1908)

• Singer (1909)

• Sparkbrook (1912)

• Beeston (1898)

BTH (British Thompson Houston) 

BTH was an electrical components firm based at a number of premises in Hillfields. The firm occupied the factory previously vacated by the Humber Company in Lower Ford Street and also premises in Alma Street which had previously been occupied by Dunlop. The company made many different electrical components including magnetos, electric motors, headphones, loudspeakers, lamps, amplifiers and electrical windings

Recent correspondence in the Coventry Evening Telegraph has focused on the manufacture of cinema projectors at the Alma Street factory.  The company began manufacture of "talkie" equipment in 1929. In November of that year the Globe Cinema in Primrose Hill Street was re-fitted with the firm's sound equipment, this being the first complete British sound film apparatus produced. Between the 1930s and 1968 the company produced 35mm and 16 mm. sound film projectors.  In the 1951 Festival of Britain the company demonstrated an early 3-D film projector in a special cinema where the public viewed films through a special viewer with one red lens and one green one.. The Alexandra Cinema, which is close to the factory, was the first cinema in Coventry equipped for 3-D films. The company often tested out its equipment there. Later equipment manufactured by the company used polarised filters instead of red and green ones. Unfortunately the idea of 3-D cinema did not catch on. The company also developed film projectors that used film with a magnetic sound strip but this did not catch on either. 

 

BTH factory in Lower Ford Street	Headphone making c1924	Winding Department, c 1925

BTH was taken over by AEI and later by GEC. The Lower Ford  Street factory was closed and redeveloped and GEC built new premises in Alma Street which are now occupied by Lucas Aerospace.

The Godiva Engineering Company, Castle Street.