Sign in with Facebook"My Home Town" Top 5 Page for this destination Coventry by Pete.Gibson
Coventry Travel Guide: 238 reviews and 406 photos
I've lived in Coventry for 6 years now and still have yet to see everthing, I live on the south of the city and we have wonderful parks and woods to walk in
The original name for Coventry is lost in the mists of time but some think in comes from the word Couaen (also spelt Cune) which refers to the meeting place of the waters, there has been many variations over the years Couintre, cofenteium, coventria, before ending up with the current spelling
An interesting note is Old English the letter V wasn?t used and early spellings used a U, which was in fact pronounced as a V
Coventry’s most famous couple
As late as 1920 the city was being described as one of the best preserved
mediaeval town in Europe, but within a dozen years the ancient streets were
beginning to be cleared. Car city could no longer support a mediaeval
street pattern and the Luftwaffe merely accelerated what had already begun.
On the 14 November 1940 Coventry was subjected to the single most
concentrated attack on a British city in WWII. Lasting 11hours the raid
damaged or destroyed 43,000 homes along with the great medieval church of St
Michael's ? the only British cathedral to be destroyed in WWII.
Between the wars Coventry had been the fastest growing urban centre in
Britain and the city that emerged from the rubble was central to the new
Labour government's vision of a brave new Britain, with the first
pedestrianised shopping centre in Europe and a higher rate of car and home
ownership than any other industrial city.
In the fifties they called it Britain's Detroit. Its engineering workers
enjoyed the first ?5 note in a peacetime blue collar wage packet and
immigrants flocked from the far corners of the British Isles and further
afield to share in its prosperity.
Its new cathedral, consecrated in 1962 and dedicated to the cause of
international peace and reconciliation, seemed to symbolise a prosperous and
outward-looking future for a city. But the spiral of history was about to
take another cruel twist. When the clouds of the recession, fuelled by an
oil crisis, began to gather at the beginning of the 1970s Coventry had
neither the diversified industrial base nor the firmly-rooted corporate
spirit to blow them away.
Its plight was brutally highlighted at the dawn of the 1980s with the
collapse of Alfred Herbert, once the world's biggest machine tool firm. As
machinery sales were held in a dead factory where thousands had worked it
was clear that once again Coventry was veering towards a slump.
A slump out of which Coventry is slowly emerging
Earl Leofric and Lady Godiva
Lady Godiva, (meaning Gods Gift) was wife to Earl Leofric and lived in Coventry in the early 11th century She is remembered nowadays for riding through the town naked on the back of a horse in a attempt to persuade her husband to lower taxes………… in fact this was very unlikely to have happened, firstly the town wasn’t much bigger than a hamlet in those days and secondly she owned most of the Town!!!
Modern Coventry or certainly post war Coventry became a boom town in the fifties with a large highly skilled workforce and a high demand for cars, Many of the countries famous motoring names came from here, however the decline was soon to follow during the seventies when lots of these famous names disappeared for ever
Sent to Coventry.
This widely used English saying means to ignore someone and not to speak to them
Its origin is believed to come from the 1640s during the English Civil War when Oliver Cromwell sent many Scottish royalists to be detained at St Johns, and whilst these prisoners exercised in the streets of Coventry They where completely Ignored by the strongly Parliemantian Coventry people
- Pros:A modern city with lots to offer
- Cons:Normal inner city problems late at night
- In a nutshell:Great place to live and work and play
Reviews (28)
Clay pipes
Off The Beaten Path
(9)
Clay pipes, were once very common in Europe peaking between 1850-1920 , But after the great war ,cigarettes became... more travel advice
Local History
Off The Beaten Path
(9)
Victorian Bottles, all the bottles I have dug up myself and all date from Victorian times 1880-1910, In those days... more travel advice
New Concert Venue
Things to Do
(14)
Watch Out!! Coventry now has a brand new concert venue which can match the best in the UK, the Ricoh Arena home of... more travel advice
The War Memorial
Things to Do
(14)
Built in 1927 and approx 90 foot high the Memorial was designed by the architect Tickner and was made from Portland... more travel advice
Pete.Gibson's Related Pages
Coventry Travel Guide
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Badges & Stats in Coventry
- 28 Reviews
- 76 Photos
- 1 Forum posts
- 34 Comments
- 14,819PageViews
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Comments (31)
Interesting page. You have given me a few ideas for my next visit. Cheers, Irene
Got a pleasant inside view from your Coventry page. Made a day trip there a few years back to see the old & new Cathedrals. We walked from the train station. Having spent 3 Christmas Days in England I was tickled by your summary of the holiday.
Looks like there is plenty to keep you busy in this little town. I love the old houses and the antique cars.
now I know how lovely and beautiful your home town is:) thanks for your pages!
Ha ha - remove the hat and you've got my Dad's DAILY 'local custom'!! ;-) Great page about Coventry-such a beautiful country!! Love those old bottles too... :-)
hi peter, i like your page..interesting. Wish to do the same as especially in your coventry site, I learned a lot, cheers!
Hi Peter, I hope you have some nice weather today. Enjoy your day and have a wonderful birthday :-)
Enjoyed your pics and tips. That is a big fish. Football ticket prices - wonder how much, expensive? SL
Interesting page. Best wishes.
Love the Xmas Blowout tip Pete! My little sis lived in Coventry briefly and is thinking of moving back. I'll definitely make time to go see her and visit some of your off the beaten track tips. Beth
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