Great Mistakes: Coventry's Lost Medieval Cathedral

You think you know Coventry's old cathedral? Think again! There was one that dwarfed the one you've taken photos of, but no one seems to talk about it!
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Most of the information is taken from the stellar volume Coventry: Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in the City and its Vicinity, ed. Monckton and Morris, British Archaeological Association Conference Transactions, Vol. 33, 2011.
thebaa.org/publication/covent...
Most of it is available on Google Books if you're tenacious enough
books.google.co.uk/books?id=-...
Particularly helpful were the essays by Richard Plant and the late Richard K. Morris on the cathedral church, Linda Monckton on St Michael (and a bit of Holy Trinity) and Coventry expert George Demidowicz on the priory site after the dissolution (this is where all of the plans come from).
The designs for the modern cathedral which all shoot past very quickly can be seen properly in this article, and also in the author's expanded book-length study: Louise Campbell, Coventry Cathedral: Art and Architecture in Post-war by Britain, 1996.
www.jstor.org/stable/1568577
Nearly all of my other specific information comes from the Pevsner Architectural Guides for Warwickshire, revised by Chris Pickford, 2016. Also of course, the Victoria County History for Warwickshire (can you believe the Wikipedia article for St John's Hospital claimed it was Knights Hospitaller? So if anything this project fixed that)

[@MrCoventry1986]

Being from coventry I loved seeing someone finally put an informative yet funny video such as this up. Great British humour and a keen eye. Well done. 👏

[@alexanderarmani6789]

a tip : watch movies on Kaldrostream. Been using them for watching a lot of movies recently.

[@aldencorbin3126]

@Alexander Armani yea, have been using Kaldrostream for since december myself =)

[@novianovioTV]

Yes he should have given Time Team a credit

[@christinetv10]

Fred Wilkes 1932-2009 worked on the building of the new cathedral, and also on St Michael's and the old priory cathedral. So he had the pride of having been the only stonemason known to have worked on all three cathedrals

[@mikekay6124]

I made my first visit to Coventry last week... I wish I'd seen this before I went. It is fascinating, and so well done.

[@mgcocasal]

My mum always grieved the loss of Coventry and it's medieval heart.

[@petermetz771]

Wonderful video! As an American with ancestors from Coventry it was great to walk the streets and learn some of its history.

[@nakinilerak]

Good grief! That city was positively lousy with spires and towers. Thanks for another weird and informative instalment!

[@thethe6232]

It is obviously noticeable that Coventrys medieval buildings and rich history was sacrificed for cheap concrete after the blitz and bulldozed away. After the war the city council had no interest in spending on expensive renovation and favoured going for a cheap and very non-cheerful city plan ! This tragic decision has had multiple negative repercussions for years to come. It opened the flood gates for some rather horrid looking high rise building to be built around the centre and the Council then decided in their wisdom to sell off all of its property assets to the University, which provoked another wave of cheap high rise monstrosity’s ! The decision made for Coventry have been criminal and in time there will most likely be an inquiry into it, followed by a reckoning .

[@dayglofreak81]

Where was the money to restore it to its pre-war glory?

[@andybowen1981]

What an absolutely brilliantly produced video. I visited Coventry for the first time this week and was interested in some of the city’s history. Hence why I’ve come across your video. Can I just say thank you for making such an entertaining, brilliantly, edited, funny, beautifully produced piece of work. The amount of work put into it is honestly astonishing. I’ve subbed to your channel, and I’m interested in looking at all the other things you produced. Thank you again.

[@patrickcaffrey8180]

Exactly what I needed to get my Gothic architecture fix in these trying times

[@reneharkamp4309]

Amsterdam, dear Sir ,....Fantastic Job ,...I enjoyed this very much. I lived for a decade, in Your Fantastic Country , had my narrowboat build at ,Colecraft,...the Rolls Royce , among barges, ... With the boat , 4 miles an hour..... Coaches and cars....GO insanely FAST... To absorb the History, and Geology in a Slow-Mo way ,... We , the missis and me ,...H.Q in Banbury...and Oxford,..Boy , like Bristol ,...❤ It's now begin April 2023 ...😢 I GOT A TALE TO TELL , OF THE ,EVENTS, ONE DAY AFTER ,the Hun , bombed Coventry.... From my O.A.P neighbour dear Mr Jones ,...( both of us into , listed buildings + doing them up.....me as lead, copper, zinc , en natural slate roof Plumber... and the Old Boy,... Was a carpenter,... His chisels and tools , were beyond belief ....so incredible.... He was a 4 - 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 , Joiner . A ,shrine,- worker, we call them here Worth his bodyweight in Gold ,...a most Humble & modest ❤ lovely person he was. Foto's he had.... Giant Beam- constructions ,...Skeleton , bridging ,Nave, and roofs Swallow-tails, galore....holes through the beams ,,...for the Pegs,... NOT A NAIL IS USED ,...if you know your onions.... 😊 Give him treetrunk ,.... and for your country cottage , he makes the window sils + tiny windows... and 2 or 3 outside , original , doors.....planks , you see.... ... THEY DON'T MAKE ' M LIKE MR JONES anymore, sad to say.... ,do it All,..building stores,...IKEA crap... I will do ,his , tale later.... Included one ,Kraut, ..D touring his Heinkel- Bomber ,..to Bomb Banbury in the night.... ,, clear weather, speck of 🌙 light , enough to follow ,glistening, - reflected waterways, lakes & rivers ,, ... He had , aviation- pals,....V.C 's & MC ' s .....O.A.P - boys ,... Pink Gin 🍸 drinkers , good Company, I say !.... Foto's enough..... ,,Hurricane,, & ,, Musquito,,-- pilots.... .....To Brave Men , like THEM 👍 ,... I enjoy Life ( 71 now )🎉🎉 in A FREE COUNTRY.

[@Paseosguiados]

Thank you for this very informative video, great edition!

[@vijaypalbains1585]

As a coventarian loved the video and learnt a lot

[@mukid1968]

Thanks for a great video - great job!

[@morgandude2]

Funny and brilliant! I didn't realise just how big that building was.😯

[@pigeon_the_brit565]

you should make more videos like this, its brilliant

[@willzyman247]

That was really good. Very educational and also surprisingly funny

[@AaronLaw92]

This is so good, you need to come back to visit Charterhouse once it has been restored and opened later this year.

[@annienoble4546]

Loved it, thank you

[@captaincrash9286]

The Whitefriars building was used as a workhouse from the early 19th century. It was run by a very liberal, progressive Board of Guardians who allowed the inmates parole walks to attend church on Sundays, a beer ration, arranged apprenticeships, and trained inmates in weaving. It was the workhouse Board who built the adjacent Gulson Road Hospital (in which I was born). The Hospital has, of course, recently been demolished and replaced by student accommodation. I lived nearby for many years (you can see one of my old homes in the aerial view at 8.56). Incidentally, 'Bablake' is pronounced with a short first 'a', as in 'bad'.

[@carolinehobday8813]

Brilliant 💙

[@BogushCh]

You're a natural! I too among the commentators am a Coventrian, by birth. I have also researched the city's urban-architectural, as well as social, histories (with article publications). Did you visit the circular Market? It's post-1940, of course, not mediaeval, but a vital oasis of how the city used to be and feel in the later 1960s and early-1970s: such fabulously unique people still ply their wares in it). The tower, surmounted by unique clock piece, however, was removed sometime after 1990: since at least Hale's foul antics, Cov' has continued to be a city of demolition, with the crescendo setting in, in waves, from the late-1930s right down to the present moment, greatly intensified through the wartime Blitz' so handy for the manic architect-planners of post-war British modernism). Thanks so much: your visual rendition of the Priory Cathedral is a wondrous piece of thought-imagination. What a shame you're not based in Cov' which desperately needs people who know their history and what they're talking about, while knowing how to respond to the coloured box and fad non-architecture that has banished any real hope of saving the city.

[@irinamedvedeva1287]

Thank you! Great video.

[@abradshaw5415]

love this!

[@novianovioTV]

Great. In Coventry for first time. It is so like Paris! A ring road and lots of historic buildings especially churches!

[@holydiver73]

Not including the aardvark/fowl and firkin/Hen and chicks, which was included twice. I’ve drank in 86 of those pubs shown over the years, many of them sadly long gone. With that sobering realisation, I’m off to call AA as I obviously need some help.

[@1975supermike]

10/10 brilliant video

[@poltergeistbingo9144]

You are hilarious, this is excellent. I had no idea you'd made videos (I should keep up). I'm supposed to be working but now I want to watch them all. And learn how to make videos.

[@andrewwigglesworth3030]

Bablake isn't pronounced "Babe-lake" ... heh, a lake full of babes :-D

[@tennysonfordblackbird2087]

Great film and found out a lot about our city and sadly whitefriars was cut off by the ring road and the Coventry Workhouse Dispensary was around there.

[@COVbadman79]

Great video

[@dorothyturcotte8139]

How wonderful to have so many medieval buildings in your city! Only sorry the printing went by so fast that I couldn't read it. And to my Canadian ears, the narrator mumbles. Still, a great video.

[@beecee2205]

damn fine work

[@jontalbot1]

If the cathedral were being rebuilt today it would be done properly. The proof is the tower of the cathedral at Bury St Edmunds, a millennium project, built entirely appropriately in stone in a late gothic style. Sir Frederick Gibberd’s modern cathedral in Coventry is a poor copy of one in Brasilia. He, along with Basil Spence was thought to be our leading postwar architect. Both were shockingly bad in my opinion

[@random-person1]

it is said that the windmill pub was the first purpose built building in the country. and before anyone says it isnt the oldest pub in the UK, im not claiming that.

[@MH-ms1dg]

20:08 that is a remarkable density of big churches right next to each other

[@scottnyc6572]

There’s that massive IKEA block again......lol. The once Great Span Gate:refer to prints

[@novianovioTV]

Spon not span

[@leomclaren338]

Wtf my city used to be sick

[@daveweiss5647]

My god... the modern architecture is horrific... what a loss.... why couldn't they try to rebuild it as it was....?

[@NickPenlee]

What is the name of the piece of music being played at 12:20?

[@stainedglassattitudes]

The Coventry Carol, the text regarding the Massacre of the Innocents, probably written early 16thc for a religious drama

[@NickPenlee]

@@stainedglassattitudes Oh, thank you so much for answering my query; a wonderful piece of music.

[@monicacall7532]

Post WWII English architecture leaves a lot to be desired-unless you’re into Brutalist concrete Soviet style buildings. The “new” Coventry Cathedral doesn’t

[@emmasayers7576]

Just wondering if the metal music is a Cov band?

[@stainedglassattitudes]

yeah the point when I did this is all the music I covered was from Coventry artists: The Primitives, The Specials, Cathedral and Bolt Thrower

[@Theflightsimbro]

I didn’t know this even though I am from Coventry

[@COVbadman79]

Ikea closed down now just a big horrible building left The downdraughts can be lethal next to it

[@ingridlinbohm7682]

You need a better camera because much of this is out of focus. Apart from that I enjoyed the video so thanks.

[@LJ7000]

Too harsh on the modern cathedral. Not much from the outside but has loads going on inside.

[@novianovioTV]

Indeed. It’s a great video but the narrator is clearly a snob for the gothic style (you can tell by the way he shortened perpendicular to ‘perp’. We should never allow our preconceptions to rule out close inspection. The new Cathedral is a triumph of modernism. And Inonly found that out by going in and looking round properly

[@ivancarter7564]

White fiars the source of the term ...."sent to Coventry".. I was christened in trinity church ...the THIRD cathedral was" unearthed" by" time team" some years ago but it can still be seen in the grave yard of trinity

[@andrewwigglesworth3030]

Time Team didn't "unearth" the Priory Cathedral, they worked on a burial (coffin and body) whilst the archæologists worked on the Cathedral ruins.

[@monicacall7532]

look remotely like the old one and that’s a shame.