Coventry Inspires
‘I’m sending you to Coventry,’ the Reservations girl said. ‘Much the same distance from the National Exhibition Centre.’
Unable to find accommodation in Coventry’s richer neighbour Birmingham for my visit to the NEC, I was now discovering Coventry’s compact city centre, and it was so interesting to see so many people were walking arm in arm. It seemed to me there might be something more about human kindness and belief here than just the city’s historical shifts in fortune I’d read about.
In the eighth century a nun called Osburg came to Cofa’s Tree as Coventry was originally known. Osburg introduced Christianity, and with pilgrims flooding to her faith, she became a saint in her lifetime. Three hundred years later a great Priory was founded in the heart of Coventry by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Godiver.
Godiva was socially revered and, independently of her husband, very rich. She personally owned Coventry and vast areas of other land. The Earl said he would abolish the local taxes that his wife and other landowners paid, if she would ride naked through the town. And she did it! Was it an extraordinary show of Middle Ages girl-power, or just a bid to save her taxes? It could well have been a real act of Christian protest on behalf of her people. What gossip her ride must have caused! People would have been scandalised – and fascinated!
When she died as one of the country’s wealthiest women, her estates were forfeited and Coventry passed to the Crown, but in life-size bronze and as the focal point now of Broadgate, Godiva still attracts attention with her lovely curves and flowing hair. Somehow I feel sure she was using her glamour in those few legendary minutes for real benevolence, as she rode out naked from the Priory.
In the narrow streets behind Marketway I discovered another mix of money and good heart in Greyfriars Lane. Named after William Ford and endowed to Coventry in his will, Ford’s Hospital, a medieval almshouse, is the nation’s most perfect example of timber-framed architecture. The dark pattern of timbers, pointed gables and delicate old tiles laid in herringbone design look almost stitched into place by the finest seamstress. Bomb damaged in 1940, it was lovingly put back together with all the original timbers.
Escaping religious persecution in fourteenth century France, Franciscan monks were welcomed into the heart of Coventry, bringing new techniques for weaving. Coventry cloth, a distinctive and glorious blue, could command high prices, and city status was confirmed with a splendid new cathedral. Coventry was now England’s third city after London and Bristol. But bureaucracy, corruption and political changes got in the way of the rekindled success. The Corporation overspent. The trades Guilds invented red tape and repressive, petty rules, and Henry VIII, changing the religious goal posts to marry Anne Boleyn, seized the cathedral and its land. The old priory was dismantled and its stone was re-used for other buildings.
Historically Coventry’s people have always had to work hard in competitive markets. In the industrial revolution when ribbon and silk trade workers went on strike over unfair wages, import tariffs altered and cheap ribbons from Europe flooded the market and later cheap watches and clocks from France and Switzerland wrecked another manufacturing base. Coventry’s cycle trade though was an immediate and secure success, with tens of thousands employed – and a new and pricier set of wheels had been invented. Motorcars were on the way!
Local man Harry Lawson, created the Daimler Motor Company in 1896, converting a cotton mill into the Motor Mill, the birthplace of the nation’s car industry. Lawson’s wheeling and dealing landed him in prison, but the Daimler car went from strength to strength, becoming a symbol of gracious luxury and a Royal favourite. Though the car industry was revolutionised, the Peugot-Citroen plant at Ryton on the outskirts of Coventry went on through the years until 2006. The London Taxi International company started up in Coventry making parts for Jaguar and Rolls-Royce. In the late 1940’s the company concentrated on building that comfortable and familiar black taxi shape that is recognised world-wide. In 2013 LTI was taken over by the Asia Cab Company but the taxis are still partly assembled at Coventry’s Anstey Park Plant.
Locals drove out in their cars to protest in the 1970’s at the idea of building the National Exhibition Centre but objections were overcome with the prospect of new employment. I caught the bus for the short journey from Coventry along the A45, past what the locals jokingly told me was ‘Malfunction Junction’ to the NEC which hosts conferences, entertainment, sport, trade fairs – and even Crufts Dog show. The employment promises were fulfilled and visitors and new business flow through the huge centre, and the adjacent International Airport. But I was warned, and visitors beware! The NEC is big! Comfortable shoes are essential, though parts of it are linked by moving walkways.
The Fair was an efficient display of modern British trade, but afterwards I noticed as I travelled back on the bus as we neared Coventry again, how efficient service became sincere concern as locals helped each other on and off, and talked easily to me. I should see their traffic free shopping precincts, they said. That was a new concept after the war and copied worldwide. Had I been to the Orchard Mall with its huge glass dome and great range of stores? What about the new 45,000-seater stadium home to Coventry City’s Football Club, and the cinemas, restaurants, nightclubs, and the 4000-seater arena at the Skydome? And the cathedral?
For eleven hours in November 1940 the night sky was lit by the fires of a blitzkrieg bombing raid which struck right into the heart of Coventry. I found it extraordinary standing inside the skeleton of the old cathedral. All that remains of hundreds of years of history is a fragile shell of ruined walls with narrow spires and hollow windows. Thinking about the heat and horror of the fire as it roared through the roof, and imagining the sound of breaking glass, and the sparks and splintering of falling timbers, I could hardly believe that surviving all that destruction, there are still delicate fragments of the original stained glass clinging to the mullions. That fearful night did not conquer this lovely building.
The bronze statue of architect Basil Spence holds up his plans as if saluting the spirit of the past. He used one surviving wall to connect the old cathedral to his new building, which is more a great hall than a conventional replacement. The colours of the stained glass windows by John Piper are forceful and vibrant, a celebration of height and light. A grand tapestry by Graham Sutherland dominates the nave, but The Gethsemane Chapel is surrounded by an illusion of twisted metal, and over the entrance, groups of angels and saints etched into the glass rise up together like victorious ghosts. Three great medieval nails salvaged from the fires shape the cross on the new high altar.
There is an historical and circular pattern of financial ups and downs in Coventry, but that has nurtured a great survival instinct, faith in the future, and genuine concern for each other in this community. The people have stuck together over the centuries, through good times and bad, determined to make a go of life. The old saying being sent to Coventry means being ignored or cut off. The reality here is very different.
For me one statue seems to represent the abiding strength of this city. Within the walls of the old cathedral two bronze figures comfort and support one another in an embrace, just like the people walk arm in arm, and the old cathedral reaches across to uphold the new. Coventry Inspires is the council’s motto, and experiencing the city’s spirit of community, I think it’s true.
ingénu/e magazine – Spring Issue 2018
felicityfair 