Reading the report of a Government Health Inspector, Mr Ranger, on conditions in Coventry in 1849, is like reading a horror story. The overcrowded houses, filthy streets and privies shared by up to six families explain why diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever and even smallpox were common, with typhoid and cholera not unknown. Coventry people therefore relished their summer evening and weekend trips into the surrounding countryside — particularly to the south-west, to Hearsall and Elsdon (Earlsdon), where the air was fresh and clean.
The most direct route from the city to Elsdon was via the Jetty from the Butts, near St Thomas’s Church. From 1838 this path was crossed first by a small bridge carrying the Birmingham railway line, then in 1850 by another carrying the Nuneaton line, before reaching Elsdon Lane (now Earlsdon Avenue South).
When Earlsdon was created in 1852, a water supply and drainage were laid on, but the city council refused to connect Earlsdon’s drainage to its own disposal system. Waste was simply drained into an open ditch alongside the Jetty, which soon became known as the ‘Earlsdon Nuisance’ — overwhelming in hot weather, and flooding across the path in wet weather.
By 1874, with Earlsdon’s population now numbering about 500, a local rate was raised and a small sewerage purification unit installed. By 1877 it was operational, eliminating most of the smell. When the estate was incorporated into the city in 1890, proper access was planned: the Jetty was to be replaced by a wider road suitable for all vehicles. The two railway bridges were rebuilt to accommodate it, and in 1898 the Mayor declared the new road — named Albany Road after the Duchess of Albany — well and truly open.
The top section of the old Jetty remains to this day, leading from the bottom of Newcombe Road up to Earlsdon Avenue North, emerging between the library and the school — a reminder of the days when Earlsdon folk enjoyed their rambles up to the open pastures of ‘Elsdon’.