Sent to Coventry

 Had I been a Royalist in the English Civil War and then captured I'd have literally been sent to Coventry for my punishment because at that time the city was a Parliamentarian stronghold. Thankfully here in 2022 I was able to visit of my own free will and I really did enjoy the time I spent there. Having known how badly it suffered from the bombing in WWII I wasn't really sure just how much of the pre war buildings would remain, but there's quite a few as it turned out even if some of the timber framed buildings have been moved from their original sites. The old and the new sit happily side by side. Sure it's got areas which are run down or not pretty on the eye, but I like that rawness and the energy of the new emerging wherever I looked. It's a vibrant place and I was completely in my element. Here's my little homage to it all with just a small selection of the many photos I took.

When even the park and ride bus stop and its tiles look like this Coventry was always going to be onto a winner with me wasn't it!

Being a bod who doesn't want to waste any of our precious time away [that's changed since I had to become self employed and lost my paid holidays!] I had looked up what was worth seeing beforehand. On the radar was Holy Trinity because of this incredible doom [meaning judgement] screen. It was painted between 1430-40 and is noted for its sophisticated artistic techniques. The halo above Christ is gold leaf covered with a red glaze and the blood is achieved by mixing different pigments which give a dry and wet effect. 

Dotted around the church were all the things I seek out....memento mori, woodwoses, greenmen. You name it it had it. However, I've chosen this rather tall chair instead. It's not the object itself, but the story that it tells which I liked. Walter Hook [a previous vicar] wanted to invite his friend, the Bishop of Ross, to the church which wouldn't normally have been a problem. In this instance though he was Scottish clergy and English Church law forbade them to step into a Cof E church. Hook circumvented the rules by having this chair built so that his friend could be carried in instead😆 Evidently not a chap to be defeated.

All the other photos below are just to give you a small flavour. I'll do a more detailed post about the cathedrals in an upcoming post.

Arilx