# Copsewood Grange Golf Club Coventry April 2009



## sj9966 (Mar 29, 2009)

*Copsewood Grange Golf Club Coventry March 2009*

I drove past this place this morning and decided to pop back this afternoon with my camera.

HISTORY OF THE GRANGE BUILDING 

In 1840, Edward Goodall, a gentleman of Stoke, owned 78 acres of land known as Copsewood estate. A year later, Henry Brown, owned and occupied the estate with a house, outbuildings, pleasure grounds and buildings. Also listed were 10 different plantations, four Hosier needs, a Croft, Road Home Close, Knight's Close, Peartree Close, Middle Close, Far and Near Sour Dole, Rowley Mill, Moors, Big and Little Barn Close and Peartree Cockpit. The last, now part of the Grange golf course, partly derived from the popular pastime of cock fighting. 

A tollgate and gatehouse stood 300 yards on the Coventry side of the Binley bridge not far from the main entrance to the Grange. In November 1772 the toll keeper, Charles Pinchbeck, was robbed and murdered by John Howe of Brinklow and Thomas Farn of Church Lawford. They were both found guilty, a gallows was erected near the scene of the crime and they were hanged.

Mr A.B.Herbert, Mayor of Coventry in 1838, was living in Copsewood House in 1854.He was followed by Charles Dresser, silk merchant, who was Mayor of Coventry in 1857 and died in Copsewood House in 1862.

On 8th September 1870, Copsewood House was sold by auction at the King's Hotel. The old house was demolished and the present Copsewood Grange was erected on the site in 1872 by James Hart, ribbon manufacturer. The date 1870 is on the lodge at the entrance to the Grange with what seem to be Hart's initials carved in the stone. The estate buildings are said to have cost £5000. Hart's large factory, the Victoria Mills, was in Lancastrian yard in the Burges, the site now being part of the Debenham's complex below the Leofric Hotel. With the decline of the ribbon trade, both the Grange and the factory became known as Hart's Folly. The Grange was sold in 1879 to Mr Richard Moon M.D. of London and North eastern Railway, and he was living there when he was created a baronet. The estate now covered more than 200 acres and include the site of the old Biggin Hall. After Sir R. Moon, a Mrs Mellowdew and her two daughters lived at the Grange - Mellowdew Road is named after her.

Finally the Grange was bought by the GEC for use as a hostel and social centre for its first employees when the manufacture of telephone equipment was transferred from Salford, Lancashire, and was recognised as one of the best staff clubs and was also the clubhouse for the Marconi Golf Club.

The golf club is still in operation and has a new clubhouse, also the course has shrunk to a 9 hole course.

The building is completely trashed and there is not a lot left inside other than debris.

You can still see 2 of the original greens to the right of the building.



























A busy night many years ago





















The last of these that remains































The lodge building


----------



## Keep out! (Mar 29, 2009)

Yet another waste of what looks like a beautiful building.

This building deserves to be restored.


----------



## Goldie87 (Mar 29, 2009)

I like the look of that building, nice one


----------



## smileysal (Mar 29, 2009)

What a gorgeous building just left to rot.  I'm surprised this hasn't been kept by the golf club and turned into a hotel dealing with golfing holidays. Excellent pics mate, especially seeing the main room with the stage how it looks now, and the pic seeing how busy it looked in it's heyday.

Who owns the building now? and what on earth on they thinking about leaving it in this condition?

Cheers mate, excellent work,

 Sal


----------



## Foxylady (Mar 30, 2009)

Lovely building and some delightful details too. Love the arches with the peeling paint and that bit of wrought ironwork.
Seeing the old pic of the busy night reminds me of the film 'The Shining'! 
Cheers, sj.


----------



## channonwindmill (Mar 30, 2009)

Foxylady said:


> Seeing the old pic of the busy night reminds me of the film 'The Shining'!



I thought that too! Quite eerie. Great building though - deserves a better fate.


----------



## dave (Mar 31, 2009)

What a shame to see this lovely old building go like that and those snooker tables you pay an absolute fortune these days for a decent table.


----------



## Vintage (Mar 31, 2009)

smileysal said:


> What a gorgeous building just left to rot.  I'm surprised this hasn't been kept by the golf club and turned into a hotel dealing with golfing holidays. Excellent pics mate, especially seeing the main room with the stage how it looks now, and the pic seeing how busy it looked in it's heyday.
> 
> Who owns the building now? and what on earth on they thinking about leaving it in this condition?
> 
> ...



Yeah or even a nice hotel, Use some of the grounds to make a few nice gardens, do up the hall nice and you've a perfect place to host weddings etc.



dave said:


> What a shame to see this lovely old building go like that and those snooker tables you pay an absolute fortune these days for a decent table.



Yeah why would they just leave them snooker tables. I would love one of them!


----------



## Richard Davies (Mar 31, 2009)

I'm guessing that full sized snooker tables a very heavy & are very tricky to remove.


----------



## Foxylady (Mar 31, 2009)

Richard Davies said:


> I'm guessing that full sized snooker tables a very heavy & are very tricky to remove.



You're absolutely right, RD. They have to be dismantled to be moved. Underneath are huge weights and they have to be properly calibrated to get a fully level surface. Tis quite a feat! 
I would love one! No room in my flat though!


----------



## sj9966 (Apr 2, 2009)

Hi,

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Whilst browsing for more info on the building I came across an article in a free Coventry paper which you can see if you follow this link 

http://www.coventryobserver.co.uk/news71053.html

It may be that it will be well secured pretty soon.


----------



## spacepunk (Apr 2, 2009)

A great find there mate.


----------



## sj9966 (Apr 22, 2009)

Hi,

I payed this place another visit tonight but it has been well secured since my last visit possibly due to the article in the press, so I could not gain access.

There is a six foot fence all around it and all downstairs windows and doors have steel shuttering in place.

Taken from outside the fence.






The personalised date stone has been taken from the Lodge building!


----------



## borntobemild (Apr 24, 2009)

i'm amazed that the place has been allowed to go downhill. Coventry City Council don't have a good record for conservation generally. I used to play squash at the nearby sports club and actually went in the building a couple of times.


----------



## night crawler (Apr 24, 2009)

Richard Davies said:


> I'm guessing that full sized snooker tables a very heavy & are very tricky to remove.



Yes due to the fact they have slate beds then felt is used as a covering but like Foxy said they do have to be accurately aligned before covering. 
Is teh golf course still used.


----------



## Shades (Apr 30, 2009)

I lived there in 1976, it was a hall or residence for GEC Students upstairs, golf club downstairs.

I'm pretty sure that the B&W photo is of the Ballroom which was in the original 1930s social club building nearby which had at least twenty snooker tables. (The Grange had a billiards table in the club bar)

I understand that the sports club relocated to the Grange when the road was built through the golf course and that the social club did as well when the main building was demolished.

The Warden lived in the gatehouse cottage, it was very cozy!.


----------



## sj9966 (Apr 30, 2009)

Shades said:


> I lived there in 1976, it was a hall or residence for GEC Students upstairs, golf club downstairs.
> 
> I'm pretty sure that the B&W photo is of the Ballroom which was in the original 1930s social club building nearby which had at least twenty snooker tables. (The Grange had a billiards table in the club bar)
> 
> ...



Hi,

Thanks for the info, I dont suppose you have any old photos of the place from back then you could possibly scan and post up here


----------



## Krypton (May 1, 2009)

Love the flakey paintowork. Great Pics.


----------



## Shades (May 1, 2009)

sj9966 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for the info, I dont suppose you have any old photos of the place from back then you could possibly scan and post up here



Nothing of any consequence alas, mainly people shots. Possibly a slide or two of the exterior somewhere but I had a crap camera then (a 2nd hand Zenit B).

That top floor large room with the arches was an inserted floor, it was presumably double height with a perimeter gallery originally.

The skylight above was inner glazed with lightly frosted glass and someone (in a previous intake year) had bravely climbed in to the cavity in order to write *FESTER* in very large letters on the dust above the glass. I say bravely, because you had to get into the roof space then crawl through a tiny hole to do it. Hopefully they used planks!

We used to Urbex the roof space but we had to be careful because the caretaker had a live-in flat on the top floor. He was a decent sort though, those of us who did cellar bar duties used to stoke up the boilers for him in the evenings.


----------

