Sent to Coventry

A fair in the old cathedral ruins

On the night of 14 November 1940 the German Luftwaffe carried out a bombing raid on Coventry and dropped incendiary devices across the city. It was considered a legitimate target because of its concentration of engineering firms:  cars, bicycles, aeroplane engines and munitions factories.

There was a story that Britain knew the German bombers were on the way because messages sent by the coded Enigma machines had been intercepted and translated. It was not possible to stop the planes without letting the German government know that Bletchley Park, the UK government's signals base, had cracked the Enigma code and so Coventry was sacrificed. The story has been denied by some former Bletchley Park workers, but like the lady once said, they would say that, wouldn't they?

Inside the new cathedral

At the time Coventry city centre was a well preserved medieval town with many original buildings still surviving. Among them was the magnificent cathedral. Its lead-covered roof was a serious victim of the incendiary attack. As the metal was hit, it melted, burned and dripped through the timbers onto the floor below. This devastated the building, which was more or less leveled overnight. Only remnants of the walls, and the tall tower survived, mainly because the floors below the spire were stone and were impervious to the heat.

The charred cross

The following morning as workers sifted through the wreckage they found two burned timbers lying in the form of a cross in the wrecked nave. The two were fixed together and the whole thing raised up to act as a symbol of the city's resurrection. That cross still stands in the modern cathedral that lies alongside the remains of the original. Surviving medieval roof nails were also collected and formed, in threes, into smaller crosses. One stands on the old altar at the eastern end of the old building.

In a single night more than 4,300 homes were destroyed, two thirds of the buildings in the city were damaged and a third of the city's factories were wrecked, including the main Daimler production centre. More than 560 people, including nine police officers, were killed.  

Coventry has, over the years, become a symbol of peace and reconciliation. A new cathedral, designed by Basil Spence, was constructed in the 1950s alongside the ruins of the old church. It is rich with symbolism, not just because of the charred beams and nails. In the Chapel of Unity are hundreds of paper birds which represent the story of Sadako Sasaki who contracted leukemia after atom bombs were dropped on her home city of Hiroshima. She planned to fold 1,000 origami cranes but didn't finish them before she died.

Old Scarlett

You see Old Scarletts picture stand on hie
But at your feete tere doth his body lye.
His gravestone doth his age and death time show
His office by theis tokens you may know.
Second to none for strength and sturdye limm
A scarbabe mighty voice with visage grim.
Hee had interd two queenes within this place
And this townes house holders in his lives space
Twice over: but at length his one turne came
What hee for others did for him the same
Was done: No doubt his soule doth live for aye
In Heaven: though here his body clad in clay

Gravedigger Robert Scarlett served the city of Peterborough for most of his life, working at the Cathedral. He died in 1594, by which time he had buried two generations of residents. The average life expectancy at the time was around 45, but his outdoor work and regular exercise clearly did him good. He was 98 when his turn finally came.

His portrait is painted on the Cathedral wall and below it is the poem given above. The two "queenes" it mentions were Katherine of Aragon and Mary, Queen of Scots.

Thomas Gooding

If you visit Norwich Cathedral you'll find this cheerful chap along the nave wall.
The inscription says:

All you that do this place pass bye
Remember death for you must dye
as you are now even so was I
And as I am so that you be.

Thomas Gooding Here do staye
Waiting for Gods judgement daye

About 400 years ago Thomas was buried in the cathedral standing up - so he'd be able to get up faster on judgement day.

Norwich Cathedral

When we visit an Anglican cathedral in the UK we have fairly clear expectations of what we'll find inside: soaring arches, bright stained glass, intricate carvings and stone - lots of gleaming stone. We often forget that church interiors - and in particular cathedral interiors - weren't always like that.

Only a few churches still have traces of the rich decoration that once covered their walls and ceilings, but there are remarkable survivors at Norwich, where brightly coloured and complex designs are still visible.

These decorative remains date from the 12th century. It was a time when churches also had stories from the scriptures illustrated on the walls. Most of the populace would be unable to read, so the tales were painted for them to see for themselves.

Doom paintings were also common around this time. They depicted the Christian version of what is supposed will happen on Judgement Day, when the blessed will be taken to heaven to sit at the right hand of god and sinners will be condemned to hell.  Many doom paintings have vivid images of the daemons and tortures that await the unholy- a sure reason to behave according to church law!