Henry Westrap was a watch manufacturer who originally conducted business in Spon End but later resided at Earlsdon Terrace. His home, ‘Earlsdon Villa’, sat at the top of what is now Mayfield Road, and its garden was landscaped with conifers and a monkey puzzle tree.
The 1861 Census records Westrap and his family living next door to James Walker, the watch case maker at ‘Woodlands’, illustrating the close-knit community of manufacturer families along what was then Earlsdon Lane.
His house, renamed ‘Holly Bank’, was later home to Thomas Inger Stevens, son of Thomas Stevens the inventor of the Stevengraph, and successor to his ribbon manufacturing business. Sadly ‘Holly Bank’ became a victim of post-war redevelopment.
Westrap’s daughter, who died tragically young, had married Cope Hoddell, son of prominent watch manufacturer James Hoddell, who was for a time a partner of Joseph Olorenshaw (1814–1863) of Oxford Terrace, Chapelfields. Henry Westrap’s grave of pink and white marble is in London Road Cemetery.