The Courthauld factory produced rayon (artificial silk), which was one of Coventry's commercial successes of the 20th Century. This was thanks to its workforce at the time, many who came from Bell Green. One former worker desrcibes his work: "We took sheets of wood pulp and cut them to fit in vats of caustic soda. When they were soaked, the sheets were run through a kneading machine to make particles which we mixed further with other chemicals to make cellulose xanthate. When this was mixed further, it gave a solution that could be spinned through deniers into acid baths to produce a strong pliable thread. We looped the thread over 'godets' and ran it into boxes to spin the fibres into pure unbleached rayon, which the spinners then 'doffed' and gave to the women finishers to reel up and get it ready for customers."

This description shows how men mainly operated the machines, while women were employed in packaging and finishing. The placement of men on the machines ensured skills and knowledge of continuity of production was maintained because women usually left work when they married.

You can also find details of typical local employment and employers for Coventry and Nuneaton, showing trades or occupations of times past, among the lists of names at this link:
http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/WAR/west/index.html#index

Many of the more local work would have involved many Bell Green former residents.

Eaves & Washbourne
One former local business is featured as a case study in the book, The Small Business Casebook by Sue Birley ISBN 0-333-26099-6 1979 published by McMillan Publishers. It explains the trials and tribulations for owners Stan Eaves and Ron Washbourne of their business Eaves & Washbourne which was on Deedmore Road and was formed from Coventry Gauge and Tools Ltd which they started in a stable in 1964. At its peak, their business turned over £100,000 per year and it attracted finance from the DTI of £300k. The book explains how a joint venture with one U.S. company through a UK based sales agent almost spelt disaster for the company but which they eventually were able to work through. They had also been engaged by a U.S. subsidiary of J.Lamb under lisence to manufacture percision gears and parts. The former site of the factory is believed to be one of the units in the Alpha Industrial Park on Deedmore Road, Bell Green.

Mining and minerals in Bell Green
According to information from the British Coal Board, mining operations in Bell Green ended around 1912 and were over 150 meters below ground, following a seam of coal near Wood End, passing under Cherrybrook Way and past Riley Square towards Coventry. Before that, mining had declined since the start of the nineteenth century because in 1831, it was reported that there was only 30 miners left in the district of Foleshill, which at that time included Bell Green. The practice by that time was that outcrops of coal were mined mainly as surface mines in Little Heath, Longford and Bell Green in the 17th and 18th centuries, which was cheaper. 1776 had also seen the introduction of water pumps which allowed better extraction methods and was a boost to the amount of coal that could be mined. Coal was initially mined as early as 1275 in nearby Nuneaton, according to land records and the coal deposits were then followed across towards Bell Green. By 1610, there was two main mines in Foleshill providing some employment for locals, which was joined by weaving in 1627 as another developing industry. It is thought that the mining of coal was also done by the Romans and used for production methods or in under floor heating systems.
See Mines of Warwickshire 1896 at:
http://www.tidza.demon.co.uk/1896-49.htm

The Craven Colliery
Was situated on Henley Road, around where the industrial units are today as you go from Bell Green to Walsgrave-On-Sowe. A local pub, the Craven Arms has jad along association with the colliery where many local miners drank.

Coal Mining around Bell Green.
When coal mining first began industrially in North Coventry (then Warwickshire), mining as an industrial practice was not new having been established in Bronze Age times circa 1900BC. In fact, it is said that bronze mining in Britain was the first industrial revolution which laid the foundations for various types of mineral mining, including coal.

Bell Green village was the focal point of a series of coal mines and collieries that ran from Nuneaton towards Allesey in the North of Coventry and down along the East of Coventry, taking in Bedworth, down to the Craven and Alexandra Collieries in the area of Walsgrave. Seams of coal close to the surface were easier to mine but ground engineering problems caused deeper extraction to be fraught with difficulties, danger and often caused financial losses. Modern economists believe that older mining operations in themselves hardly produced a profit but the sales of coal and other by-products, was to a viable market.

A report covering the period 1677-8 for example, was produced by surveyor Richard Smedley for Sir Thomas Aston of Nuneaton. It showed a loss of £170-15s-11d ‘since the last flood’ and shows how flooding was a constant risk to deeper mining operations. In the report, it was also stated that drainage operations were costing up to £30 per week at peak flooding times. Two local mine owners, Sir Richard Newdigate and Thomas Coventry, encountered similar difficulties when they set up a joint venture in 1684 to extract coal in Nuneaton Common. They invested about £3,000 at the time but by five years later, Coventry had pulled out followed by Newdigate due to mounting losses. Eventually, their mine was leased out for ten years and tried out new diggings, but reported how the Griff and Hawkesbury pits were almost exhausted.

Sir Richard tried to take a managed approach to mining, by investigating new working methods such as pacing the mines into units, improving flood protection and writing a ‘method statement’ on how a 24 horse gin could work day and night. He also tried out a water wheel ‘81/2 yards in diameter’ which was turned by water forced through a 3 inch pipe. In summer time, this failed however. A ‘three-shaft’ idea was also tried out which involved one deepest pit to drain in water, then a deep coal pit, flanked by a secondary ‘basset’ pit about half the depth of the coal pit. This idea tried to allow for the slope of seam to enable the ‘long wall’ method of mining so that the widest possible face of seam could be exploited to increase production. Essentially, the upper end of the seam was worked from the basset pit, the long wall then progressing along the longest width of the seam, ideally diagonally. Later in the 1700’s, gunpowder was tried out as well as the recruitment of miners from Shropshire. With new mining techniques being tried out, skilled men or women were often difficult to find.

More Mining Information
Sites showing ‘Bell Pits’ used for coal mining.
http://www.pontypoolglynpits.co.uk/bell_pits.htm

http://www.mroe.freeserve.co.uk/bellpit.htm

Early Historical Coal Mining Methods
http://www.pitwork.net/history1.htm#Bell

Local Collieries in 1880’s
http://www.cmhrc.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/list80.htm#WARWICKSHIRE

Local Operational Mines 1896
http://www.tidza.demon.co.uk/1896-49.htm