We stayed in a hotel in Coventry last weekend. We were at the elegantly re-fitted former home of the Coventry Evening Telegraph, a purpose built structure, now a sensitively styled 1960’s hotel.

All around the hotel there are reminders of its past, not least of which are old front pages placed all around, even in the bathroom in our room. This one, being placed above the toilet was impossible for me to miss.

The piece recounts an accident in Marston Green, once a small village in my childhood – it even had a blacksmiths forge. The main railway line between Birmingham to Coventry and further, was sandwiched alongside the village and a municipal golf course on the other side of the tracks.

As you can read several carriages of an express train were derailed in the station. This occurred, according to the Coventry Evening Telegraph, in 1963. I was 16 by then. Prior to this, in my pre-teens, I would stand on the skeletal metal bridge over the rail line (pictured below) waiting for the steam engines to go through ,blasting steam and smoke upwards and shrouding me in that wonderful smell which has bewitched many a young boy. Sometimes, the driver would see me on the bridge and give a whistle as he went through. Such an exhilarating experience for a young lad.

All pictures copyright of the Coventry Evening Telegraph.

Should you be interested in staying at the Telegraph Coventry, you can find information via this link…

Telegraph Hotel Coventry.