Holbrooks
Holbrooks is a residential area of Coventry, West Midlands, England. Holbrooks is also sometimes written as Holbrook's.
Most of the length of the four brooks which pass through the area, are covered or culverted, one culvert is adjacent to the recently built housing on Watery Lane. Another brook passes through and under the grounds of Parkgate School. The brooks then head off towards the river Sherbourne and the Sowe.
Holbooks is situated some three miles (5 km) north-west to the city centre, and was largely developed for private and council housing during the 1950s and to replace the many homes destroyed by air raids during the Second World War. Some areas are pre-war, Farm Close was built in the 1920s as local industry expanded. A lot of terraced houses were built in Holbrooks around the mid 1930s. One 1930s housing estates is locally known as 'The Dales', a somewhat tired housing estate close to the Ricoh arena,and separated from it by a railway line and a main road, the A444 Phoenix way.
The Dales estate was mostly built in 1936 and locally named because it consists of the following streets. Lauderdale Avenue, Kirkdale Avenue, Farndale Avenue, Glaisdale Avenue, Langdale Avenue and Bransdale Avenue. Although the houses on the left when entering Langdale Avenue were built slightly later in the early 1940s. The property known as number 8, Langdale Avenue was a dental surgery for many years. Today this estate is troubled by parking problems, a lack of green spaces and any play areas for children.
The 'Stadium' estate, at the rear of Lythalls Lane, is so called because the terraced houses and flats there, were built on the site of a former dog racing stadium. An area which was once a 'green space' used by local children and pet owners, where several flats and social housing were constructed during 2008-2009. Local children now have fewer places to play as various pockets of land are swallowed up to in-fill, although there is a large park on Holbook Lane, the area is of a large population.
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Parkland at ProLogis Park -
Railway through Holbrooks
Being so close to the Ricoh Arena (which was designed to have limited parking to promote bus travel and walking) a parking permit scheme is in place. A promised rail link and arena station has not materialised yet despite obvious advantages and the existing railway lines running alongside the car park. Many football fans leaving matches will continue to walk along the main A444 dual carriageway towards the M6, as there is no footway at all they risk being struck by fast moving vehicles, a more suitable car park would have seemed sensible then. Motorists visiting Holbrooks on 'match days' must display a visitors parking ticket of face fines, residents must display permits too. The Ricoh Arena was completed in 2005 and is the home of the city's professional football club although they do not own the ground. The arena also boasts a hotel, with 71 rooms, 46 of the rooms have a view of the pitch and 17 are 'mini suites' for people on a budget. One larger room boasts a 'raindance monsoon shower' and another comprises a four bedroomed suite with a 'waterfall bath feature'. The hotel is modern and of contemporary design. The arena is also a pop concert venue, a large casino and conference halls. Several acts including Bon Jovi and reformed Coventry band The Specials, have played at the arena. Many smaller events and conferencing take place there including the recent addition of a market at weekends. The arena has restaurant and bar facilities and a fitness gymnasium.
Another notable housing estate in Holbrooks is the area of Everdon Road. Built after the second world war, and accessed from either Beake Avenue or Holbrook Lane, this is a more spacious well designed housing estate with mostly three and four bedroomed houses with large rooms and tall roofs. Also several one bedroomed bungalows with the same tall roof design. Due to the spacious layout of the estate, more bungalows were recently built as 'infill' and in the future more development is likely. There are a number of four storey residential flats on Everdon Road too, some have open views across parkland. The shape of the Everdon estate forms a complete loop and includes a small row of shops with flats above. Everdon is regularly used by learner drivers to practice, due to there being many corners, curves and reversing opportunity, plus the road is quiet during the school day. Most houses face onto grassed areas, and the estate is bordered by the large Holbrook Park which is maintained by Coventry City Council.
Today Holbrooks has a diverse and large cultural mix which includes a large number of Polish people, there is now a Polish food store along Holbrook Lane near its junction with Hen lane. Holbrooks has one of the largest Tesco Superstores in Europe, the store has an entire aisle dedicated to foods imported from around the world.
Holbrooks is also a short distance from the former British Coal Keresley Colliery site which is now a large industrial estate of warehousing called Prologis Park. The large wheel from the winding tower was cut into two, and placed on Prologis Park as a reminder of the site's former activity, this stands in monument to the past.
Some occupiers who have used ProLogis Park include GEFCO and Terex Benford, Tesco (warehousing), Co-op, Exel Bridgestone, Mastercare, DHL Exel Supply Chain, Richard Austin Alloys, Inkfish and Domestic & General. Prologis park covers some 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land and includes a 'nature park' and arboreal area with two man-made lakes and some marshland where wildlife monitoring takes place.
Under Holbrooks (and the surrounding area) there are several mined coal seams at a depth range of 600-1500 meters down, these coal seams were excavated or extracted to the pit head at Keresley from 1917 and until its eventual closure in 1991, the site was then used as a homefire plant until its complete closure in the year 2000. In 1939 at its peak a million tons of coal was being extracted per year. Keresley coal was distributed via the railway line which still runs through Holbrooks and crosses Wheelwright Lane, the line was built in 1919. Today the line carries freight from Prologis Park, along the same route the coal had taken, crossing Wheelright Lane then running parallel with Winding House Lane, leaving Holbrooks over the cast iron bridge situated at the end of Hen Lane, onward towards Foleshill and on into Coventry.
The coal mining and town gas industry was a major source of employment for Holbrooks and Binley areas of Coventry. Mining in the Midlands is still undertaken on a neigbouring coal seam, and coal is still extracted from Daw Mill. Coal mining is far from over under the area, although the pit head at Keresley is a memory.