LMS Route: Nuneaton to Coventry

Foleshill Station: lnwrf128a

Close up of image 'lnwrf128' showing Foleshill station's up platform passenger shelter with news agent kiosk, brick built gentlemen's toilets and two timber huts. The station was at the heart of a large industrial complex built in the first three decades of the 20th century. One was the Dunlop Rim and Wheel Company which claimed in 1933 that its works in Holbrook Lane were the largest of their type in Britain and employed over 1,400 people in the manufacture of cycle and motor-cycle rims, wheels of various kinds, pressings, and hub equipment. Another was Courtaulds which founded a factory for the production of rayon in Coventry in 1904 on Foleshill Road, near to railway and canal. In 1910 the factory employed 2,000 people and before the First World War broke out there were four spinning buildings and 3,000,000 lbs. of yarn a year were being produced. In 1925 a site in Chapel Lane was acquired for the production of cellulose-acetate yarn. The new works was opened in 1927. The Coventry factory was the headquarters of the yarn production, sales, research, and engineering activities of the firm, which by 1950 claimed to be the largest rayon manufacturing concern in the country. In 1941 the first nylon yarn made in this country was produced at Coventry and the company kept on growing so by the time the passenger services on the Nuneaton to Coventry line was closed there were approximately 6,000 Courtaulds' employees in the city. The chimney in the back ground was part of the Courtaulds complex located either side of Foleshill Road. The 164 foot high chimney stack was to remain in situ, albeit no longer part of the Courtaulds factory, until Lee Demolition dropped it to the ground on Sunday 8th March 2010.

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