Stays near Coundon, Coventry

Coundon is a largely residential suburb in the north-west of the city. It was one of the few villages now inside Coventry to be recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Holy Trinity Church held land here from at least the early fourteenth century. In 1410 and 1411 the settlement was split into Old, or Little, Coundon and New Coundon.

The industrial story arrived with bicycles. George Singer, of Singer and Co, built Coundon Court in 1891 on land that had been part of Coundon Farm. The Victorian Gothic house now stands within Coundon Court school, where it is known as the Old House.

Alvis followed in 1919 with its first factory on the Holyhead Road, making stationary engines and scooters before moving on to four-cylinder and six-cylinder cars on a 29-acre site. The works were badly hit in the Coventry Blitz, car production paused until 1946 and Alvis employed around 2,400 people at its peak. The site is now the Alvis Retail Park.

Mass house building in the 1920s and 1930s brought Coundon into the city: the parish was abolished on 1 April 1932 and merged with Coventry and Keresley. Landmarks from that era survive, among them the Holyhead pub, open since 1929. So does the Rialto on Moseley Avenue, whose ballroom outlived the Blitz that destroyed its cinema.

Stoke Lodge and Stoke House are about 4 miles by road from Coundon, Humber Hub about 4 miles and Sullivan Heights about 4 miles. Each is let as a whole house, so a family or a crew has its own kitchen, washing machine and parking for a stay of a few nights or a few months.