The Original Plans for the School

Following a request I made to Coventry City’s Record Office in 2006 I was sent a photo-copy of the building contract for the school along with several other documents. They were very revealing. The school originally planned was very different from the one that was eventually built - the classrooms were originally intended to be converted nissen huts! - The plans can be seen at the foot of the page. Below are the main points I gleaned from the documents:-

1) A tender for the “Conversion of Miners Hostel Keresley, Coventry, for use as Secondary School” was made in November 1947 by J, Gilmartin Ltd - for the sum of £22,419 12s 5d (what a strangely precise figure!) The work was to be completed in 32 weeks.

2) The tender was accepted in January 1948

3) A memo dated June 1948 notes that the director of Education was seeking sanction for a loan of £24,660 to cover the cost of the conversion.

4) September 1949 - Gilmartin revised his quote due to the rise in labour and material costs after a lapse of almost two years since submitting his original tender - the new price seems to have been £23,375.

[I suspect this long delay was due to the time it took the council to re-house the families that had moved in to the hostels' nissen huts.]

5) 16th December, 1949 - a memo notes a Compulsory Purchase Order for the site has not been completed as a “notice to enter” has not been served. (This was clearly done so by the end of the month.)

[This memo is some what puzzling as I believe the council was then, and had been for some time, charging rent payments on those persons occupying the nissen huts.]

6) The contract for the “Conversion for use as a Secondary School of Miners’ Hostel at Copthorne Road Keresley.” was signed on the 23rd January, 1950.

The contract work involved:-

“The demolition of the major portion of the administration block of the said hostel to provide playground space and the adaptation of a small portion of the administration block and of certain huts which have been in use as temporary housing accommodation to provide accommodation for ten classrooms together with two practical rooms and a staff block.

......Installation of a new heating system in the said administration block....

......adaptation of blocks numbers one two and three of the said hostel to provide a store kitchen and dining hall"

No specific time span was mentioned for the work to be completed beyond it being “within the shortest possible time”

7) 13th September 1952 - the bond of £2,337 Gilmartin had lodged on the signing of the contract was released - as the work by then had been “satisfactorily completed”

The contract was completed therefore a year and nine months after it had been signed - (a lot longer than the 32 weeks first envisaged for the work) - indeed the work wasn’t really completed until seven months after the school was opened as it was only in the following April that the hall was completed!

On the basis of these findings I think the following scenario probably occured:-

In 1947 the miners' hostel on Copthorne Road was becoming redundant as the “Bevan Boys” (see Before it was a school) which occupied it became “demobbed.” The city’s education department therefore commenced making plans to convert the hostel in to a school. Plans were made and tenders invited.

Whilst this was being done, however, the huts were occupied by “squatters”. The council accepted the situation as it helped to ameliorate to the city’s acute post war housing shortage. This meant, however, the conversion of the site had to be put on hold until the “squatters” could be rehoused. Work therefore didn’t start until 1950. Initially this work would have mostly involved demolition. Whilst this was going on there seems to have been a drastic change of plan. Copthorne was to be a purpose built school - albeit most of it would consist of temporary prefabricated wooden classrooms.

The documents I was sent copies of (file number is CCA/2/1/1/1678) are held by Coventry Archives which is presently based in John Sinclair House at the Canal Basin. This is a temporary location and they are due to move in the summer of 2008 to a permanent location next to the Herbert Museum. To ensure seeing the documents it is best to request them the day before by telephoning 024 7678 5164.

Paul Buttle, January, 2008

The Original 1949 Plans for the School

The original plan is about four foot wide so these images are much reduced. I've annotateded the plan as will be obvious if you click on to it to obtain a larger version. There were to be ten classrooms but not on the same axis as the ones eventually built. The entrance drive in to the school was not changed. The plans indicate the hostel bicycle sheds were to be retained though reduced in length. If they were movable I've little doubt they were the ones the school used. The caretaker's hut at the right hand edge of the plan is the one I believe which was retained and was used (at least in my time at the school) for domestic science puposes. Below is an aerial view of the site taken in 1948 with which the plans can be compared.

If you have any information or photographs of Copthorne School you think should go on this website please email buttlekeswick@hotmail.com or write to the address given on the Contact Page

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