In the 1830s a traveller approaching Coventry from Birmingham would journey through fields for a long time after crossing the present city boundary at Allesley; he would meet the edge of the town at Spon End, and from there to the other edge on the Leicester road at Gosford Green was little more than a mile. In the other direction the town was even narrower; it stretched from Swanswell to the boundary of the Park at Cheylesmore. The new suburb of Hillfields, whose construction began in the 1830s, was at first separated by several fields from the main part of the town. In Coventry lived some 30,000 people, most of whom depended upon the manufacture of silk-ribbons and watches. After 1832 over 3,500 men had votes, which made Coventry into one of the most popular borough constituencies.