People who grew up in post-war Coventry and have memories of the health centre on Jardine Crescent are being invited to share their stories at an event in Tile Hill this weekend.

The free local history event run by researchers at the University of Warwick aims to collect first-hand experiences of the ground-breaking health centre from the people growing up in the area.

The Story of our Streets, at St Oswald’s Church, Tile Hill on Saturday, 6 July, will unravel the development of Jardine Crescent and a number of other addresses in Coventry. The event will include presentations from researchers at Warwick as well as exhibitions of local women’s suffrage networks, posters charting the history of different parts of Coventry and archival films and images from the reconstruction of Coventry.

The aim is to gather first hand stories about the area from people who lived there.

Ed DeVane a PhD researcher from the University of Warwick’s Centre for the History of Medicine will be leading the day.

He said: “100 years ago this year, Parliament passed The Housing, Town Planning Act, a law that would both form and transform life in Britain. This little-remembered law is widely seen as the beginning of modern council house building in twentieth-century Britain.

“Now a team of historians from the University of Warwick are bringing this history to the streets of Coventry. They hope to collect new memories and perspectives on present day challenges in housing, planning and community-building from people who experienced this era first-hand.

“Coventry is fascinating because its redevelopment overlaps exactly with the launch of the NHS. The health centre on Jardine Crescent was one of the very first in Britain to be built as the focal point of a brand new council housing development. Community health resources were previously a voluntary arrangement often run out of people’s front rooms. Now the new medical facility mixed this with doctors available on the state. It was ground breaking.”

“Real life stories from this time can help us begin to understand the value of health centres to the community. So if you have memories of the Jardine Crescent health centre we would love to hear your story.”

'Story of our Streets' is a pilot project run by staff and students at the University of Warwick exploring the deep roots of issues such as cuts to public expenditure, housing shortages, and political uncertainty.

The event will be at St Oswald’s Church, Tile Hill on Saturday 6 July 2019 between 11:30 and 14:30. A free lunch and refreshments will also be available to those who register online at www.tiny.cc/storyofmystreet.

 

ENDS

For press information, contact:

Andrea Cullis

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University of Warwick

E: a.cullis@warwick.ac.uk

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