GENUKI: Coventry, Warwickshire - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

COVENTRY - Extract from National Gazetteer, 1868

[Description(s) from The National Gazetteer (1868)]

"COVENTRY, comprises the parishes of Holy Trinity and St. Michael, it is a manufacturing town, municipal and parliamentary borough, in the hundred of Knightlow, in the county of Warwick, situated in 52° 24' N. hat. and 1° 30' W. long. It formed until recently a city and county of itself, but the see is now incorporated in the diocese of Worcester, of which it forms an archdeaconry; and the county of the city is incorporated in the county of Warwickshire, to which previously it only nominally belonged, having exercised a separate jurisdiction from 1451 till 1842, when an Act of Parliament was passed for that purpose. In the following year an Order in Council was issued dividing Warwickshire into the two divisions of Warwick and Coventry.
The town of Coventry is built on rising ground, on the right bank of the river Sherbourne, which here unites with the Radfordbrook. The London and North-Western railway, and the Holyhead road, both pass through the town; the distance from the metropolis being by the former 94 miles, by the latter 91. Two branch lines leave the main line at this point: one to join the Trent Valley line at Nuneaton, the other the Great Western at Leamington. There is also a canal, constructed in 1790, passing through Marston Bridge, Nuneaton, Atherstone, and Tamworth, joining the Grand Junction canal at Fradley Heath. Its length is 324 miles, and it has 14 locks, rising 96 feet.
The city takes its name, which was anciently Conventre, from the fact of its having been built around a convent, of which St. Osburg was abbess, and which was destroyed in 1016 by the Danes. On its site Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and his celebrated wife Godiva, built a Benedictine abbey to the Virgin, St. Peter, and St. Osburg, endowing it with half the town and twenty-four manors. Both he and his lady were buried there. Her name will always be associated with Coventry, by reason of the story of her narrated by Matthew of Westminster.
After the Conquest Coventry became part of the possessions of the earls of Chester. In 1102 Robert de Limesey, Bishop of Lichfield, removed his see here from Chester, and the city was the seat of the bishoprics of Coventry and Lichfield till the former was attached to Worcester. Henry V., when Prince of Wales, was taken up in this city for riotous conduct. Two parliaments have been held here: one by Henry IV. is 1404, and another by Henry VI. in 1458, known as "Parliamentum Diabolicum", when Richard Duke of York, and the earls of Warwick, March, and Salisbury were attainted.
The meeting between Henry IV., then Duke of Hereford, and the Duke of Norfolk, to decide their quarrel by wager of battle, took place here. Mary Queen of Scots was confined here for a time, in 1566. In the parliamentary wars Coventry took up arms against the king, and was garrisoned by his opponents in 1642, for which offence Charles II. destroyed the walls, which had stood since the reign of Edward II. The pageants and mysteries periodically exhibited from a very early period have always been famous, and many of our sovereigns have been among the spectators.
A procession, representing Godiva, was instituted in 1677, and continues to be exhibited on Trinity Friday. Descriptions of this and of the many curious mysteries performed here will be found in Thomas Sharpe's "Dissertation on the Pageants at Coventry, 1825", and W. Reader's "Pageant of the Company of Sheremen and Tailors in Coventry".
The local government is vested in a corporation, consisting of a mayor, 9 aldermen, and 30 councillors, with the style of the "mayor, bailiffs, and commonalty of the city of Coventry". The assizes axe held here, and it is the head of a County Court district, and of a Poor-law Union. It is a polling-place for North Warwickshire, and has returned two members to parliament from the time of Henry VI., and occasionally from the reign of Edward I. to that monarch. Under the Reform Act the parliamentary limits are more extensive than the municipal, the former, according to the census of 1861, comprised 9,154 houses, inhabited by a population of 41,647; while the municipal borough contained 8,991 houses, with 40,936 persons.
The borough obtained three Acts of Parliament, in 1790, 1842, and 1844, to regulate the paving, lighting, cleansing, and water supply, and for the construction of a cemetery, and other improvements. In the older districts the streets are irregular and narrow, the houses having gable roofs and projecting upper stories, but the modern streets are well built, paved, and lighted with gas. There are several fine specimens of ancient architecture in addition to the churches. St. Mary's, or the Guild, hall, is a Gothic budding of the 15th century, with a fine timbered roof, and curious carved furniture. In the hall is a piece of tapestry of the year 1450, containing portraits of Henry VI., his queen, and others.
The county-hall is a handsome stone building, erected in 1785, where the assizes are held. The Drapers' hall, used for public meetings and balls, was built in the present century. Before the Reformation there was a cathedral at Coventry, where the bishops of Coventry and Lichfield formerly held their seat. After the dissolution of the priory of Coventry, the Act of Parliament (33 Henry VIII.) made the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield the sole chapter for the bishop, and by an Order in Council, dated 22nd December, 1836, the archdeaconry of Covent was transferred from the diocese of Lichfield to that of Worcester.
The town of Coventry is divided into two parishes. The living of St. Michael's is a vicarage in the diocese of Worcester, value £300, in the patronage of the crown. St. John's is a rectory*, value £180, in the patronage of the mayor and corporation, and is held by the master of the grammar school. There are likewise the following district churches: Christ Church, a curacy, value £175, in the patronage of the vicar; St. Thomas, a perpetual curacy, value £160, in the patronage of the crown and bishop alternately; Holy Trinity, a vicarage*, value £650, in the patronage of the lord chancellor; St. Peter's, a perpetual curacy*, value £170, in the patronage of the Vicar of Holy Trinity; and Kerealey and Coundon, a perpetual curacy, value £100, in the patronage of the bishop.
Some of these churches are remarkable for their beauty. St. Michael's, the largest, has a spire of 303 feet in height, of very just proportions. The length of the church is 300 feet, the breadth 104 feet. The ornamentation of the pillars and arches, and the carving of the old oak roof are admired. A church was built here in 1133, and given to the Benedictines by the Earl of Chester, but the present structure was begun in 1372, and completed in about twenty years from that date.
Trinity is neither so lofty nor so elegant; the spire measures only 237 feet. A handsome coloured window was presented to this church by the Earl of Shrewsbury in 1834. Christ Church was added, by Rickman, to the tower and spire of the ancient Grey Friars' church, in the year 1832. St. John's was founded by the Merchant's Guild, temp. Edward III.
There are several other churches, but of less note, besides places of worship for the Independents, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, Baptists, Quakers, Unitarians, and Roman Catholics. The chapel of the last named is a very handsome modern Gothic building. The charitable institutions are very numerous; among them may be mentioned Sir Thomas White's charity, the Bablake hospitals for men and boys, Ford's hospital, and others. The chief schools are the free school, founded by John Hales in the reign of Henry VIII., which has fellowships at St. John's College, Oxford, and Catherine Hall, Cambridge; the Bablake school for 50 boys under eleven; the Balker, Billing, and Crow's school, for 50 boys; the blue-coat girls', school, where 40 are received; Bailey's, for 40 boys; Southern and Craner's, for 30 or 40 children; and Fairfax for 40 boys.
There are also British and National schools, Sunday schools connected with the various places of worship, a school of design, and a mechanics' institute. The Grey Friars' Hospital contains some very ancient carved oak. The chief manufactures are ribbon weaving and clock and watch making; the former was introduced about 1730, and gave employment to a large number of hands until the alteration of the duties on foreign silks in 1861, in accordance with the French treaty, when many were thrown out of employment. Prior to this, cloth, cloth caps, and blue thread were the staple articles.
There are also one or two iron foundries, and manufactories for trimmings, carriages, stockings, and lace. Nearly 1,300 acres of land around the city are common land. The greater quantity; about 1,000 acres, is called Lammas and Michaelmas lands, and freemen have the exclusive right of pasturing their cattle thereon from Lammas Day to Candlemas over the Lammas land, and from Michaelmas to Candlemas over the Michaelmas land. No building is as yet permitted on these lands, but it is expected that they will before long be covered with houses, as the population is increasing and the town has no room to expand its area.
A company was formed in 1863 by the mayor and other influential persons for the improvement of these and other waste lands, under the title of the "Coventry Experimental Sewage Association", by which it is proposed, in imitation of Edinburgh, Watford, and other places, where the experiment has been successfully tried, to apply the sewage of the town, in the form of liquid manure, by means of pipes, steam engines, and other appliances.
Besides the ancient buildings already mentioned, there is not much to interest the antiquary. The ancient market-cross, which was 57 feet high, has been taken down. A small portion of the Charterhouse, founded by Lord Zouch, 1381, and the cellar of the convent founded by Leofric, are still to be seen. Two newspapers are published here, the Coventry Herald and the Coventry Standard. The Coventrys, of Croome Court, derive their title of earl from this city. The market is held on Friday, and fairs from the 21st to the 23rd April, 16th to 18th August, 21st to 23rd October, and on Corpus Christi Day. Annual races take place in March."