The Pictorial Guide to Coventry Cathedral [antikvár]

THE STORY OF THECOVENTRY CATHEDRALBy The Provost, The Veiy Reverend H. C. N. WilliamsSACRED indeed is the 'ground upon which Coventry Cathedral is built. Hard by the west wall of the new cathedral are visible the bases of somé of the massive but-tresses which supported the great medieval cathedral. Joined to the new cathedral by the great porch is the I4th-century parish church of St. Michael, which in 1918 became the second cathedral. Hence the third cathedral stands as a massive link between the first and the second a symbol of the indestructibility of the faith which it expresses.Medieval Coventry was small, en-closed by a wall. Within this wall were many churches. The greatest was the Church of St. Mary's Bene-dictine Monastery, built in 1043. This church, when enlarged in the I3th century, was similar to and in fact larger than the present Lichfield Cathedral. Lady Godiva, wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, supported its foundation with considerable wealth. Further ruins of its walls are visible in Priory Row, to the west of the new cathedral.Holy Trinity and St. Michael's churches were built in the I4th century. Their proximity to one another and to the priory itself is witness both to the prodigality of church-building at that time, and to the extent to which status was defended by those who claimed it. Holy Trinity was apparently built for the tenants of the prior's half of the town, and St. Michael's for the tenants of the earl's half of the town. An accident of history has, appro-priately, named the roadway separa-ting these t-wo ancient churches "Cuckoo Lane". Now, however, Holy Trinity is the great parish church in the centre of the city, and its work and the cathedral's are en-tirely and happily complementary.The third of the famous "Three Spires" is the ancient Christ Church near Greyfriars Green, but only the spire now remains.As is evident from the building which must have taken place in the I4th and I5th centuries, of which these churches were brilliant andPage 3The Cross of Nails, the story of which is told on page 8.beautiful examples, Coventry was prosperous. It was indeed the prin-cipal markét town of the Midlands, and it soon developed crafts for which it became world-famous ribbon-making, leather and glass work, watch-making, and latterly every conceivable sort of mechanical device, from the smallest precision tool to guided missiles and aircraft.The trading activities of the medieval town were organised into guilds. These were as ancient and as hon-ourable as the City of London guilds. Many had their own chapels in St. Michael's, namely the Smiths, the Dyers, the Cappers, the Grocers. Of these, only the Cappers retains its meeting place in the cathedral in the Cappers' Room. This is on the south side of the Ruins and was beautifully restored after the war.It is of interest that this room served as the British BroadcastingCorporation's broadcasting studio in the cathedral for a year before the present permanent studio in the undercroft of the new cathedral was occupied. Coventry was the first, and is still the only, cathedral to have a broadcasting studio within it.The history of the diocese of Coventry dates from 1100 when it provided, in the great monastic church of St. Mary, one of the episcopal seats of the vast diocese of Coventry and Lichfield which extended from the Ribble to the Thames. St. Mary's Cathedral, being within the Benedictine monastery, together with the churches of the Greyfriars and Whitefriars, was destroyed soon after the suppression of the monasteries and guilds by Henry VIII in 1538. The centre of the diocese moved then to Lichfield, whose bishop held jurisdiction over Coventry until 1836, when the diocese of Worcester incorporated the area of the later diocese of Coventry. It was in 1918 that Coventry once again became the centre of its own diocese. The city's genius for invention made it a natural centre for the motor and aircraft industries, and the de-mands of the first world war upon its industries caused its population to develop rapidly. It was in acknow-ledgment of the growth of its population, with the consequent demands upon its church life, that in 1918 the diocese was recreated, and the ancient parish church of St. Michael was made the cathedral.Enough remains of this famous church to appreciate the beauty of its proportions. From the I4th century to the end of the 15Ü1 the great church of St. Michael benefited both by the wealth of Coventry benefac-tors, and by the richness of con-temporary architecture. The noble west tower was built between 1373 and 1394, when the choir and apse were alsó built. The erection of the nave and inner aisles occupied the next half-century, during which the spire was added to the tower. The spire was completed in 1433.The beautiful cathedral church was reduced to ruins in one air raidContinued on page 8