Ruins with a story to tell, Coventry Cathedral and the nearby secret medieval world to discover.
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A day’s wandering around this area of Coventry will present you with hundreds of years of history to discover. You will be able to visit the ruins of the 14th and 15th century church of St Michael that became a cathedral in 1918. Sadly, this cathedral was destroyed in a bombing raid in World War Two but today it stands out as a symbol of reconciliation. Adjacent to it, is its stunning replacement, completed in 1962 to a very “modern” design. About 160 metres away or a two minute walk according to google, is Holy Trinity church with its amazing Medieval “Doom Painting” which some people believe is the best one in Britain. In the opposite direction and only one minute away, is the wonderful and free Herbert Art Gallery and Museum” with a fine collection of artefacts from the locality as well as excellent coffee, great value food and toilets!
Below; filling visitors with “awe and wonder”, looking down the nave of the “new cathedral”.
Below; medieval “awe and wonder”, the doom painting in Holy Trinity Church.
Below; an exhibit from the Herbert Art gallery and Museum. Here is a medieval choir stall and bench with misericords. There were four monasteries and friaries in Medieval Coventry: the Benedictine Priory; Whitefriars; Greyfriars; and the Charterhouse.
The Cathedral ruins.
Below: The view you get when you enter the ruins from the modern cathedral and look down the nave. Despite the devastation to the roof, the tower remained unscathed in the bombing raid of 1940.
Below: Looking from the tower end.
Below: The sanctuary where there is a replica of the “Charred Cross” and the “Altar of reconciliation”. After the raid, two burnt oak roof beams had fallen to form a cross on the floor. They were discovered by the Cathedral’s stonemason and are now on display inside the modern cathedral. An altar was built from the rubble and a replica cross was erected (see the white arrow). In 1948, the words “Father Forgive were added, (See the red arrow)
Below: The actual cross.
Below: Some beautiful examples of perpendicular windows.
Below: Two photos of medieval glass from the windows of the original windows that are on display in the modern cathedral.
Below: More perpendicular windows with the porch to the modern cathedral behind them.
Below: The view opposite the photo above. On the far left in grey marble is Jacob Epstein’s portrayal of Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate.
Below: The bronze effigy of Bishop Yeatman-Biggs, the first bishop of the new cathedral. On the bishop’s hat known a a mitre is a “fylfot cross”. This is a similar shape to the Nazi Swastika and another ancient shape known as the “gammadion'“which is a mirror image of the fylfot cross. They all date hundreds of years before the Nazi Swastika and symbolise the opposite of the fascist creed. They have been used by various religions, especially by the Christian faith but also by non religious people. A close examination of Roman mosaics will often reveal several examples of these shapes.
Below; Six photos of Green Man sculptures and an impressive Green Woman. Most of these can be found on the outside walls of the ruins.
The modern cathedral
Below: As you walk up to the entrance of the modern cathedral designed by Basil Spence, you will notice Jacob Epstein’s Archangel Michael confronting the Devil. It was Spence’s idea to keep the ruins of the original cathedral and physically link it to the new.
Below: A closeup of the Archangel and the Devil.
Below: As you arrive at the door, you come across the “West Screen”. It consists of 90 glass panels with 66 engraved saints, flying angels, figures from the Old and New Testaments as well as Mary holding the baby Jesus. You can see them from the outside but I think the best view is when you go inside and turn around to see them with natural light flooding through. In the two images below I have used “Lightroom” software to improve the images which are in the shadows.
Below: The nave looking along to Jesus risen from the dead and the High Altar.
Below: The Baptistry window. It consists of 198 small windows and is 26 metres high and 17 metres wide.
Below: The bottom section of the Baptistry Window and the font in which babies are “baptised” aka “christened”. It was shipped from a hillside near Bethlehem in 1960. It was donated by the Jordan Government as a symbol of the cooperation between Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Below: Looking down the nave towards the entrance. The nave windows cannot be seen from the entrance and their colourful beauty is only revealed when standing at the altar end of the building.
Below: A close up of the massive tapestry portraying risen Christ by Graham Sutherland. On the left and to a certain extent , on the right are wooden structures illustrating the “Crown of Thorns” placed on Jesus’ head.
The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
Below: This museum houses all kinds of historical artefacts from a range of historical periods. Here is a statue of King Henry VI that was once on “The Coventry Cross”.
Below: At the top of the photo is a helmet called a “Salet” dating from around 1460 and was used in the “Wars of the roses”. Below the Salet is a set of stocks. People committing minor offences such as being drunk and disorderly would have their feet locked in the stocks and be on public display. The punishment could simply be embarrassment or to be pelted with something rotten.
Below: A set of arrowheads and archers equipment. Number one was a fire arrowhead which would have a tar covered piece of cloth attached to it and set alight. The next three arrow heads would be bodkins, specifically designed to pierce chain mail (number 5 is a tiny piece of mail). Number 3 was called a swallowtail arrowhead which was used against horses! Number 4 was a crossbow bolt that could pierce armour. On the right was a tab and bracer to protect an archers fingers and arm when shooting. It was the law that all men over 16 had to practise archery and fathers to teach it to their sons. This is how England had enough skilled archers to defeat the French at the battles of Crecy and Agincourt.
Below: St George, the patron saint of England. He was adopted all around the world as a patron saint and represents good fighting evil, ie the dragon. Contrary to popular misunderstandings, he was not English and never visited England. He was an officer in the Roman army and was an ethnic Greek born in Cappadocia in Anatolia, Turkey. He was born in about 280 AD, a long time before "knights in shining armour" using lances whilst on horseback. Unfortunately therefore, he couldn't have killed a dragon in the manner that he is usually portrayed. There is no mention of a dragon in the earliest records of his life known as hagiographies. He was, however, a Christian and, as a consequence, sentenced to death on April 23rd 303 AD for refusing to recant his Christian faith.
Below: A misericord and an explanation of how it was used. You can still find misericords in churches and cathedrals today. There are even a few in Westminster Abbey in London.
Below: Monastic seals. These authenticated documents, ie they guaranteed they were official documents.
Holy Trinity Church Coventry
If you are interested in History, you must see this.
It is debatable which is the best doom painting in Britain but it is not debatable that the doom painting at Holy Trinity Church Coventry is one of the best. The Art Historian and documentary maker, Graham Andrew Dixon wrote on his website,
“The picture must be counted one of the most important discoveries to have been made in the field of medieval art.” He adds, “it is a vigorously scary depiction of the moment when the Last Trump shall sound, painted in a crude but bold style and teeming with fascinating and unusual detail. It is hard to think of a more potent relic of English fifteenth-century dread.”
Why were doom paintings created? The simple answer is to re-enforce the word of God. Pope Gregory (540-604 AD) wrote:
“A picture is displayed in churches in order that those who do not know letters may at least be ready seeing on the walls what they are unable to read in books”.
Doom paintings focus on the last judgement when Jesus comes back to earth, trumpets sound to summons the souls of the dead to rise out of their graves and he decides whether they should go to heaven or hell! Heaven is always depicted as a beautiful and blissful, whereas Hell is shown as the place of one’s worst nightmares.
Click here to see our full posts on the Coventry Doom Painting.
Essential Information
Getting there, opening times etc;
https://www.coventrycathedral.org.uk/visit/visit-coventry-cathedral/find-us
Opening times for Holy Trinity;
The church is usually open for visitors and private prayer: Wednesday to Saturday, 11.00am to 3.00pm and Sunday, 12.30pm (after the morning services) until 4.30pm. Our welcome team should be around to greet you and take any questions at these times.
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A day’s wandering around this area of Coventry will present you with hundreds of years of history to discover. You will be able to visit the ruins of the 14th and 15th century church of St Michael that became a cathedral in 1918 as well as the new one next door.. About 160 metres away or a two minute walk, is Holy Trinity church with its amazing Medieval “Doom Painting” which some people believe is the best one in Britain. One minute away, is the wonderful and free Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.