Page 40 - ALG Issue 2 2025

WEST MIDLANDS
COVENTRY
SUMMERHOUSE
RESTORATION
Back in the mists of time Coventry was
a walled city. Like many other cities, by
the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
century, the city was very densely
developed at the centre.
Outside the city walls there was a ring of
small, rented gardens, as in the case of the
Stoney Road Garden Society’s site in the
Cheylesmore district in Coventry, located
to enable some of the city’s residents easy
access to their own small parcel of land for
rest and relaxation as well as the opportunity
to produce their own fresh produce. With
only four such sites remaining around
the country, the others being in St. Ann’s
Allotments (Nottingham), Guinea Gardens
(Birmingham) and Hill Close (Warwick), the
Coventry site is of historic value.
These particular individual pleasure
garden plots, created around 1853 and
still in use today, were each surrounded
by hedges of hawthorn, holly, box or
privet and were used to grow flowers,
fruit and vegetables. On many of the plots
are mature apple, plum and pear trees.
Originally there were in the region of one
hundred and thirty plots of various sizes
on the site which is nearly eleven acres in
total size but, with the loss of some land to
the railway installed at the beginning of the
twentieth century, and the loss of more land
for the location of semi-detached houses in
Stoney Road in the 1930s, the numbers are
now reduced to being in the region of one
hundred and three plots.
Seven of the Stoney Road plots still have
the summerhouses in various states of
repair/decay. Built in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth century, they are actually
marked on the 1913 Ordnance Survey
map of the area. Historic England listed
the summerhouses in 2001 describing
them as a “significant group of seven
summerhouses which survive from the
larger number of similar structures
shown on the late 19th century and early
20th century Ordnance Survey maps.”
Historic England’s Listing goes into
great detail describing the design and
ornamentation, with one retaining a
“panel of stained glass in the west façade.”
All are of different designs with another
having panelling and a fireplace, indicating,
perhaps, that at one time their owners
would stay overnight. Each summerhouse
was built to their owner’s personal
design with decorative bands of bricks,
moulded rosettes and many other features
to individual tastes. Thanks to Historic
England’s Register of Gardens of Special
Historic Interest, this List II site has received
a grant of £250,000 together with £20,000
from Coventry City Council to enable
three of the summerhouses to have their
windows, doors, walls restored, using lime
mortar and traditional building methods.
They are in the final stages of restoration
and should be ready for viewing by the
general public at specific dates soon, to be
advertised.
"this List II site has received a grant of £250,000"
40 | Issue 2 2025 | Allotment and Leisure Gardener