Place:Stoke Heath, Warwickshire, England

Watchers
NameStoke Heath
Alt namesBarras Heathsource: neighbouring area
TypeCivil parish
Coordinates52.423°N 1.581°W
Located inWarwickshire, England     ( - 1928)
Also located inWest Midlands, England     (1974 - )
See alsoWyken, Warwickshire, Englandancient parish of which it was part
Knightlow Hundred, Warwickshire, Englandhundred in which it was located
Foleshill Rural, Warwickshire, Englandrural district in which it was situated 1894-1932
Coventry, Warwickshire, Englandcounty borough which absorbed it in 1928
Coventry (metropolitan borough), West Midlands, Englandmetropolitan borough covering the area since 1974
the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Stoke Heath is a residential area of Coventry, West Midlands, England. It is situated approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) to the northeast of the city centre. It borders Courthouse Green to the north, Wyken to the east and Stoke to the south with its western edge demarcated by the A444 road.

The area merited no special mention in medieval records and seems to have been open country and grazing land held by the manors of Wyken and Caludon until the late 17th century. The civil parish of Stoke Heath, created out of 74 acres (300,000 m2) in the west of Wyken in 1920, became part of Coventry in 1928. The city of Coventry's population expanded by 90,000 in 1928 due to significant boundary changes. Prior to that date, the district seems to have been referred to as Wyken Heath or Wyken Knob. A vague reference to a Stoke Common around 1700 being one of the first references.

Clay and sand for brickmaking were excavated in Stoke Heath in the early 19th century on sites close to the Coventry Canal. But the approaching First World War in 1914 would be a major catalyst in Stoke Heath's development. The district was built up between 1900 and 1920 and was closely tied into the need for munitions workers during the era of Anglo-German rivalry. During the First World War, Stoke Heath played host to a significant population of Belgian refugees.

The Morris Motors factory was the chief employer for many decades of the 20th century and at its height covered several acres in Blackberry Lane. The factory initially made copy Hotchkiss car engines, and then munitions during the second world war, before mass-producing engine components for the various incarnations of the Morris Motor Group and British Leyland. The factory met its demise during the recession of the early 1980s and was eventually demolished to make way for new housing at the end of the decade.

Due to its proximity to the Morris Engines motor works and numerous factories in Foleshill and Stoke, the area was badly bombed during the Coventry Blitz in November 1940, with dozens of the city's 568 known victims of that air raid being killed in the Stoke Heath area. The last bombs to fall on Coventry during World War II fell on Stoke Heath on 3 August 1942. Anecdotal evidence supports the raid falling on an area stretching from Nuffield Road to upper Valley Road, again aimed at the Morris Engines motor works.

The above is a condensation of the Wikipedia article.

Research tips

  • GENUKI main page for Warwickshire provides information on various topics covering the whole of the county, and also a link to a list of parishes. Under each parish there is a list of the settlements within it and brief description of each. This is a list of pre-1834 ancient or ecclesiastical parishes but there are suggestions as to how to find parishes set up since then. GENUKI provides references to other organizations who hold genealogical information for the local area. There is no guarantee that the website has been kept up to date and therefore the reader should check additional sources if possible.
  • Warwickshire and West Midland family history societies are listed in GENUKI.
  • The FamilyTree Wiki has a series of pages similar to those provided by GENUKI which may have been prepared at a later date and from more recent data. The wiki has a link to English Jurisdictions 1851. There is a list of all the parishes in existence at that date with maps indicating their boundaries. The website is very useful for finding the ecclesiastical individual parishes within large cities and towns.
  • A Vision of Britain through Time, Warwickshire, section "Units and Statistics" leads to analyses of population and organization of the county from about 1800 through 1974. There are pages available for all civil parishes, municipal boroughs and other administrative divisions. Descriptions provided are usually based on a gazetteer of 1870-72 which often provides brief notes on the economic basis of the settlement and significant occurences through its history.
  • The two maps below indicate the boundaries between parishes, etc., but for a more detailed view of a specific area try a map from this selection. The oldest series are very clear at the third magnification offered. Comparing the map details with the GENUKI details for the same area is well worthwhile.
This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Stoke Heath, Coventry. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.