"Just a note, in case any of your people
visit, that Royal Mail is closing Coton House at the end of January and
will remain empty until someone buys it. There will be security on the
site but no access to buildings or grounds. "
Coton as Photographed
recently
Sad to see the old place like this.29/08/11
A recent
Contact has given me a lead to his photographs of Coton House take
a look
HERE
Use
PayPal to
get Archive DVD
Click on
Logo
Alternatively
e-mail for details
COTON HOUSE FIRE !
CLICK BUTTON latest 19/03/11
The site now Includes recent Cotonians e-mails -
click here
Over 31,500
hits not bad for a niche interest site !!!!!!!
Recent Letter / email from Mick
McCoy -
click below
The following
announcement was issued by Converteam at Mill Road Rugby works :
"The British
Thomson Houston office block, Building 86, will be demolished
from Tuesday 15 April.2009
These prestigious offices were first opened in 1938, survived
bomb damage and numerous changes of company name, and are now
destined for the crusher.
Converteam's Central Facilities have, for many months, been
recycling items of interest from Building 86 and the latest
successful mission was to remove the British Thomson Houston
stonework from over the entrance for eventual re-use with the
relocated war memorial, preserving the heritage." The end of an era
!! Kind regards, Jim
McKay
Thanks to John Hyde for taking and sending in the Photograph.
The cost of running the website has
been bourn by me and to some extent funded from the sale of CD/DVD
The 2011 DVD has been updated and includes many new items sent to me by
old Cotonians.
Please help me keep the site going - cost of DVD £3.00
Alick Cross,
Ted Marsey,
Gordon Jennings,
Brian Hudson,
Grenville Hatton,
John Tippett, Mike Benge,
Dave Ratcliff, Pete Scullion,
Irfon Williams, Andy Anderson, Rodger Tilbury
ALL ABOVE LOST! if you don't let me know
your mail you miss out on contacts and news.
I have two tales - both about Coton
food.
The first is one I heard of, but
have not had authenticated. The fried eggs at breakfast 1958/9 where so
hard one could use then as shoe leather. Well it seems that things got
to head and in unison - and spontaneously 100 + eggs where pinned (using
drawing pins) to the wall of the OLD canteen. After which the eggs
improved.
Horse Meat Pie
During 1962/3 the
menu included a meat pie whose main constituent was Corned Beef, not to
bad - but somewhere in the cooking process things seemed to go
wrong because this could be smelt from the top of the drive (about 1/2 a
mile). leading to it being named "Horsemeat Pie" Again a spontaneous refusal to eat the said thing resulted in it
going off the menu.
Coton Radio
"BTW has anyone ever mentioned “Coton Radio” about 1963/4 it went on
the air broadcasting, using basic audio amps, through the earth and
neutral of the power sockets and anyone who connected a speaker to
the neutral and earth was able to receive the music and commentary,
usually Rugby songs (sport Rugby not place Rugby). I think it was
closed down when the warden picked it up on his TV, or someone a few
villages away picked it up. Not exactly certain what the reason was
but it only ran for a short while before being closed." ? That was
our pirate radio and I think it predated Radio
Caroline and Simon Dee in March 1964.(Bob Stewart (1963))
The website hit
rate is about 100+ / week
How many are established and how many are new I do not know.Judging by the recent "Finds" it is apparent that "coton house" is well
registered in the search engines -
put "Coton House" in Google - and see what I mean
Why not have a
mini reunion of your own - remember next stop the big apprenticeship in
the sky!
Famous words "This is not a
rehearsal"
The Data DVD is now
available - issue 4
cost of DVD £3.00
DVD content = 2000 + photo files and documents!
Again recent
input has been great !
KEEP them coming, what a history and record of those times.
Available
at £3.00 to cover costs
The archive has come in various forms, by e-mail, by hand and by post, if you
have photographs, documents or other memorabilia, but do not have the means to digitize them feel free to
send them to me, I will then scan and return - mail me - to make it complete I still need
more, especially from the years - pre 1959 and post 65 especially1967/8. Old Cotonians in the Rugby area who do not
have the facility to scan photos etc. We now have the use of a
state of the art photo scanner and a person who will do it for
you. Provided it adds to the archive, contact me
for the contact details
A REAL OLD FRIEND FOUND
Of late I have received requests for help in contacting Old Cotonians
Unless their name (both sought and seeker) appear on the list I can NOT
help.
