Wood End, Coventry

Hall green Methodist Church

Wood End is an area in the north of the city of Coventry, England. Wood End is surrounded by the districts of Bell Green, Alderman's Green, Potters Green and Henley Green.

To the south of Wood End is the Manor Farm estate, which along with Henley Green and Deedmore, make up the four areas marked for redevelopment in the New Deal for Communities programme.[1] Along with Walsgrave and Potters Green, these six areas make up the Henley ward.[1]

Wood End was built by the city council in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to rehouse families from inner city slum clearances as well as people moving into the city to work in the city's then-booming car industry. However, by the 1980s, Wood End was soon recognised as one of the worst districts of Coventry, with some of the city's highest levels of crime and unemployment. £34million was invested on improving the estate between 1987 and 2002, with many homes being refurbished and some being demolished, as well as new community projects being launched, but crime rates remained high and Wood End was unable to shake off its unwanted reputation.[2]

Many of the homes are now owned by the Whitefriars Housing Group, a housing trust which took over the running and management of Coventry's council houses in 2000.

In April 2004, it was announced that Wood End, along with three other neighbouring districts, was to be extensively redeveloped. The outline plans stated that a large percentage of the estate's homes would be demolished and replaced with new homes to which existing tenants would be entitled to live.[3]

It was reported on the 6 July 2006 Coventry Evening Telegraph that the Severn Trent water company had revealed that the Wood End area is inaccessible without a police escort, even for emergencies, due to earlier attacks on employees. It was also revealed that Wood End is the only estate in the region which has a danger warning;[4][5] there has been civil unrest on several occasions.

On the weekend of 16/17 May 1992, rioting began on the estate and spread across the city to the Willenhall and Hillfields districts.[6] Wood End already had a reputation for violence by this time; the Live and Let Live pub on the estate was known locally as the Live and Let Die due to its regular violent incidents. It has since been closed and demolished.[7]Unemployment on the estate was reported to have peaked at nearly 50% (approximately five times the national average) at this time.[8]

On 18 June 2009, around 30 people set fire to rubbish and debris around Ashorne Close and then threw missiles at police and firefighters.[9]

References

  1. 1 2 "About Henley ward". Coventry City Council. Archived from the original on 6 April 2013. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Water engineers 'feared attacks' - Coventry Telegraph
  5. ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/6236900.stm
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Shoker, Sandish (2009-09-24). "Teen guilty of taking part in Wood End riot". Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-05-06.

Coordinates: 52°26′20″N 1°27′58″W / 52.439°N 1.466°W / 52.439; -1.466

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