News from Earlsdon Park Village

This article was submitted too late for inclusion in the printed October issue of ECHO.


Here are a few things that have been happening so far in September and also what we have to come in October.


The brilliant Joey Linden brought his Freddy Mercury tribute act to the Village – he was fabulous and certainly had all the right moves! He sang all the Queen favourites, and his rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody was so good.


On Saturday 14 September the Village held a sales Open Day – this is where members of the public can come into the village and have a look around the facilities and apartments which we have available. This is a great opportunity for prospective residents to see how life at the Village is. To compliment the Open Day we held a Barbecue on our 2nd Floor Terrace area and a steel pan band (Tropikal Vizions) provided the entertainment. The sun shone and the food, atmosphere, company were fabulous. A good time was had by all those who attended.


We have Natalie Knight coming to the Village on Friday 27 September with her Karen Carpenter tribute – we have a few tickets available for this show. These are £10 per person and can be obtained from Elaine on 024 7771 8047.


The following events are due to take place in October:
1. Tuesday 1 October @ 8pm, Bistro Show featuring Anne Marie Marlow, this is a free show and the Bistro is open to non-residents.
2. Saturday 5 October @ 7.30pm, Saturday Night Dance with David & Hazel Lombard. Tickets cost £4 per person (these dance nights are extremely popular so it would be best to contact Elaine on 024 7771 8047 prior to the day to check availability).
3. Friday 11 October @ 8pm, Showtime with Countrified (a Country and Western Band). Ticket costs are £12 for non-residents and must be purchased in advance – please contact Elaine on 024 771 8047 prior to the day to check availability.
4. Tuesday 15 October @ 8pm, Bistro Show featuring Steve Cesari, this is a free show and the Bistro is open to non-residents.
5. Friday 18 October @ 7pm, Coventry Cambrian Society will visit the Village and will hold their Annual General Meeting followed by a talk by Ted Richards, entitled “Norman Biggs – Death by Poison: An Unfortunate End to a Welsh Sporting Legend”
6. Tuesday 22 October @ 8pm the Bavarian Boys join us to celebrate Octoberfest. This will be a themed night and food will be available along with music to sing and dance along to.
7. Friday 25 October @ 8pm , Showtime with Geo Bello (a Soul and Motown singer). Ticket costs are £12 for non-residents and must be purchased in advance – please contact Elaine on 024 7771 8047 prior to the day to check availability.
8. Tuesday 29 October @ 8pm, Bistro Show featuring Lucas Rush, this is a free show and the Bistro is open to non-residents.
9. Every Friday afternoon and Sunday evening we have a Bingo session at the Village – if you are interested in coming along, please give Elaine a call for further details.

Yoga and Tai Chi classes continue to take place on a weekly basis. Chair and Hatha Yoga takes place on Thursday mornings and Tai Chi takes place on a Friday morning. Costs per class are £5 per person, payable via Reception on the day. Please contact Reception on 024 7771 8040 for further information.

Classes run by Coventry Adult Education continue at the Village and include the following:


Crafts – Intermediate Embroidery Monday 10am Craft Room
Line Dancing for Beginners Monday 2.30pm Village Hall
Dance Fusion Monday 3.45pm Village Hall
Lyrical Contemporary Dance Monday 5pm Village Hall
Flamenco Dancing Monday 6.15pm Village Hall
Line Dancing for Improvers Tuesday 6.15pm Village Hall
Ballet Improvers Tuesday 7pm Village Hall
French Improvers Wednesday10am Craft Room
Art – Higher Acrylic Painting Wednesday 6.30pm Craft Room
Ballroom & Latin Thursday 7.45pm Village Hall

Anyone wishing to find out information / enroll (regarding classes for the Summer term commencing in April should contact www.coventry.gov.uk/adulted or 024 7697 5200.


We will be holding our Christmas Fayre this year on Saturday 30 November. If you are a local market trader and would like to join us on the day, then please give Elaine a call on 024 7771 8047. Please note that anyone wanting to join us MUST have public liability insurance.



Photo (supplied) BBQ on the terrace

11 Bus Stop Suspended

The number 11 bus service through Earlsdon is now being disrupted. This is the bus stop outside the library which was suspended earlier this week and, a reader has suggested, could remain closed until the school goes back after the summer holidays.

Hopefully it won’t be that long. There is a temporary stop outside Taylor’s butchers, a shorter walk than to/from Warwick Avenue. Once the work is done outside the library, the work crew will move across to the stop outside Elsie Jones House.

Councillor Toulson – surgery

The August issue of ECHO states that Sherbourne ward councillor Dave Toulson’s monthly surgeries at Earlsdon Park Village are open to the general public.

Due to a change of policy by EPV management, this is no longer the case but we were informed too late to change this. We are awaiting details of alternative venues in due course.

Cllr Toulson can be contacted by phone on 024 7697 1627 or email: dave.toulson@coventry.gov.uk

St. Andrew’s Open House

St. Andrew’s House is holding a strawberry tea and open house event on Saturday 20 July from 2-4pm.

There is no entry fee.

Cream teas available by donation, and stalls.

Viewings of the home will also be given without appointment during that time, to anyone interested in a place at St Andrew’s.

Election Results

Local election results have now been declared for all wards in the ECHO area with Labour wins all round. Councillors Tucker (Earlsdon), Innes (Whoberley) and Akhtar (St. Michael’s) all retained their seats for Labour, whilst Dave Toulson gained the seat in Sherbourne from the sitting Conservative, Cllr Ryan Simpson.

Coventry City Council elections – 2 May 2024 – Coventry City Council

Church Sale Completed

The Trustees of the recently closed Hearsall Baptist Church have made the following announcement today:

“…the Trustees are now in a position to announce that the sale of the premises in Queensland Avenue was finalized on Tuesday 30 April and the keys for the premises have been officially handed to the new owners.

The new owners are Genesis International Christian Centre who worship under the name MARPE Assembly of All Nations, who currently meet in a rented building in the Rowleys Green area of the City.

Both groups have a strong feeling that this sale was directed by God, as although we had been looking to redevelop the site for many years, we had always come across obstacles preventing our progress and MARPE had experienced the same thing, wanting to purchase a permanent home for many years but always being unable to do so until now.

The purchasers are a Christian church who are very keen to maintain the history of the buildings. Rooms will still be named after prominent figures in Hearsall’s history, i.e. Sydney Peirson, etc. and they have pledged that the star will still appear every Christmas on the Hearsall tower. The 1928 building will be used for its original purpose, as a Sunday school and a children’s tuition venue, attracting so many children that they will need four classrooms. Meals will regularly be prepared for the poor and homeless, and the church are committed to engaging with the local community.”

Chapelfields Walking Tour

Historian and true crime writer Adam Wood has been invited by the team at Warwick’s Institute of Engagement to take part in their 2024 Resonate Festival of Arts and Culture.
The programme is a series of events and exhibitions across Coventry and Warwickshire, and promotes local community, history and culture.

As part of this, on 22 May he will be leading a virtual walking tour of Chapelfields, with a technical team following him around as he describes the history and stories of the area, then finish at St Mary Magdalen Community Hall for a live panel discussion in front of an audience.

It’s a free event – around 35 people within the hall itself, plus unlimited viewers watching from home. The walking tour part will be shown on the screen in the Community Centre.

Adam hopes this will be of interest to all, and those 35 seats in the hall will be nabbed quickly for what promises to be an interesting discussion!

Book Here


Bring Back Banks!

One by one over the last decade the major banks, and Coventry Building Society, have closed their Earlsdon branches.

The Earlsdon 2.0 group have launched a campaign to create a banking hub to compensate for the loss of these facilities.

For an audio report from BBC CWR go to:

https://bbc.in/3W6WgAw

Farewell to Hearsall

The members and congregation of Hearsall Baptist Church today said a sad farewell to the church’s home of 96 years in Queensland Avenue.

Today’s Easter Sunday service is the last before they vacate the church, opened in 1961, and larger 1928 edifice known as the ‘schoolrooms’. The church has been at the heart of the Chapelfields community going back to the 1860s when the first chapel and Sunday School was opened in Lord Street.

Some of the congregation will attend the new Sherbourne Community Church based at the former Holyhead Road URC, others will move to other Baptist churches in the city or to other places of worship.

ECHO sends its best wishes to all of those people, wherever their individual journeys take them, and remembers also those pioneers before them who built the church, both spiritually and in terms of much of its physical fabric, and made it a major part of Chapelfields community life.