Stays near Chapelfields, Coventry

Chapelfields, sometimes written Chapel Fields, lies about a mile and a half west of Coventry city centre. Coundon borders it to the north, Earlsdon to the south, Spon End to the east and Whoberley to the west. It is mainly residential, with small and medium terraced houses and gardens.

The modern suburb began in 1847 as an extension of Spon, built to house the watchmaking trade that Coventry was then famous for. The original streets, Craven Street, Mount Street, Lord Street and Duke Street with parts of Allesley Old Road and Hearsall Lane, now form a conservation area because of that watchmaking link.

Long before the watchmakers, part of the area held a leper hospital founded in 1168 by Hugh de Kevelioc, the fifth Earl of Chester, for William D'Auney, a knight who caught the disease on crusade with him.

The streets west of Mount Street came in the early twentieth century. Sir Thomas White's Road was built in 1908 and carried the tram route to Broadgate. A quirk of that section is a set of restrictive covenants still forbidding the use of houses as fried fish shops. Pubs have always done well here and several are still trading.

Stoke Lodge and Stoke House are about 3 miles by road from Chapelfields, Humber Hub about 4 miles and Sullivan Heights about 4 miles. All four are on the far side of the city centre, so they suit a stay that needs space and parking more than a walk to the door.