Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The old weighbridge office at Coventry
.
After Cash's Lane Bridge is a bank of impressive houses. These are Cash's Hundred
Houses, although only 48 were actually built, of which 37 remain. They were owned by
Joseph Cash, of woven nametapes fame. Built in 1857, workers' families lived on the first
two floors and work was undertaken on the top floor. A lineshaft ran the length of the build-
ing and for 70 years provided power to assist individual workers to be competitive with fact-
ory looms.
Priestly's Bridge precedes the former Coventry Ordnance Works. When it was built in
1906 it was the largest workshop in Europe measuring 300m x 60m, and housed two huge
lathes that made 380mm guns during the First World War. Two ferries operated across the
canal for workers.
Hawkesbury Junction was built in 1802. It is also known as the Sutton Stop after the first
lock keeper, whose family operated the lock from 1807 to 1876. There is a 150mm rise stop
lock where the Oxford Canal enters. A southward-pointing spur shows the original proximity
of the Oxford to the Coventry down to Longford.
Between the Second World War and 1970 this was the site of a Salvation Army mission
for boat people at one of the busiest points on the canal network. The Greyhound had stables
and is still popular. Now this is a landscaped conservation area and includes the Sowe Valley
Footpath and Centenary Way.
The route becomes much busier as it forms part of a route from the Oxford Canal to the
north-west, which avoids Birmingham's built-up areas, part of the Warwickshire Ring.
