Exploring the tunnels beneath city’s streets

I ASSUME there is more than one tunnel passing under Coventry. I remember Alfred Streeter Co Ltd of Godalming tunnelling from near the sewage works at Finham through to somewhere in the Stoke area. I believe this was the 11ft diameter storm water drainage scheme. It was around 1966 to 68 I think. It passed under the airport on the city side, there was access to the main working entrance somewhere near the church in Baginton and also opposite the Baginton Oak pub. Their were generators and compressors sited on the hill opposite the pub. I remember them catching fire one Saturday night. I lived in the village and was called out that night, I worked parttime for my father and his company had a contract to supply and maintain light and power to the workings. There was a narrow gauge railway laid in the tunnel to ferry workers, equipment and materials to the head. At some point somewhere beneath what is now JLR R&D, they hit running water which partially flooded the tunnel and it became necessary to instal a form of compression chamber to keep the pressure at the workings high enough to prevent water seeping in. Passing through that chamber was some experience; health and safety was somewhat secondary in those days. As a 17- or 18-year-old and still at school, I found the whole thing quite exciting. I seem to remember workers on that tunnel talking about the culverting of the River Sherbourne as the city centre was developed in the 50s and early 60s. Many of these men were of Irish descent and loved to talk about previous jobs, they worked their socks off and were great companions. I believe some might have settled locally.

I also remember an American man who was some kind of tunnelling expert, he always had a big cigar clamped between his lips and resided at the Hotel Leofric.

I hope this is of some interest. Stephen Bibby Market Harborough

Living in different, uncertain times

TO us, the conditions for dictators to flourish are found elsewhere, certainly not in the civilised western world where democratic systems hold everything together and idea of being ruled by a tyrant is just unthinkable. Or is it?

These conditions are usually brought about by issues that divide people and allow unscrupulous politicians or military to play one side against the other, leading to instability and uncertainty.

We are living in a world that is unrecognisable from even 20 years ago, a time when we thought growth and prosperity would be never ending.

We now know how wrong we were. The Western world has changed and uncertainty is now the new normal with Brexit, Catalonia, unrest in many European countries and division in the US, now run by an administration which could seriously threaten world peace.

When we convince ourselves that a better future lies in separation from what we have, it is usually through dissatisfaction, but it sure doesn’t guarantee a new world of prosperity and security. We should be very careful what we wish for. Bob Arnott Holbrooks

Do you know these facts about golf?

IT will be a surprise to many golfers to know that the word ‘golf’ means ‘Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden’.

Another interesting fact is that in 1890 Hugh Rotherham, secretary of the Coventry Gold Club, conceived the idea of standardising the number of strokes that a good golfer should take which he called the ground score. Ian Harris Radford