A town in the county of Warwick, England.
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Coventry
Encyclopedia Britannica
COVENTRY, an ancient city and municipal and parliamentary borough of England, in the county of Warwick, 18 miles E.S.E.of Birmingham. It stands on a gentle eminence, and is watered by the Sherbourne and the Radford Brook, which unite within the town. Of its ancient fortifications two gates and some portions of the wall are still extant, and several of the older streets present a picturesque appearance, from the number of half-timbered houses projecting over the footways. In the course of the present century, and more especially since 1850, great improvements have been made in various quarters. The most remarkable buildings are the churches; and of theβe the oldest are St Michael’s, one of the finest specimens of Perpendicular architecture in England, with a beautiful steeple rising to a height of 303 feet; Holy Trinity Church, a cruciform structure in the Later English style, with a steeple at the intersection 237 feet high; and St John’s, or Bablake Church, which is nearly a parallelogram on the ground plan, but cruciform in the clerestory with a tower in the centre. All three have been restored under the direction of Sir G. Gilbert Scott. Christ Church only dates from 1832, but it is attached to the ancient spire of the Grey Friars’ Church. Of secular edifices the most interesting is St Mary’s Hall, erected by the united guilds in the early part of the 15th century. The principal chamber, situated above a fine crypt, is 76 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 34 feet high; its roof is of carved oak, and in the north end there is a large window of old stained glass, with a curious piece of tapestry beneath nearly as old as the building. In the treasury is preserved a valuable collection of ancient muniments. Among the other public buildings of the city may be ...mentioned the new corporate offices and police court, the county hall, the drapers’ hall, the hospital, the corn-exchange, the market hall, the self-supporting dispensary, the free library, the institute, the baths, the theatre, and the barracks. The cemetery is one of the most beautiful in the kingdom. The educational institutions include a well-endowed free grammar school, founded in the reign of Elizabeth, and held in the disused church of the hospital of St John, a school of art, seven endowed charity schools, and a county reformatory for girls; and among the charitable foundations, which are numerous and valuable, Bond’s hospital for old men and Ford’s hospital for old women are remarkable as fine specimens of ancient timber work. Coventry w as early celebrated for its manufactures, and had numerous guilds or trading companies. It was noted for its woollens in the 15 th century, and subsequently acquired such a reputation for its dyeing that the expression “as true as Coventry blue” became proverbial. The weaving of tammies, camlets, shalloons, &c., succeeded; but these branches of industry no longer exist. At present the staple trades are ribbon and trimming weaving, elastic web manufacturing, dyeing, and watchmaking; to which may be added the weaving of woollens, carpets, and carriage-lace, the spinning of cotton, the manufacture of sewing machines and bicycles, art metal-work, and ironfounding. The fairs are numerous and well attended. The borough returns two members to Parliament. In 1871 the population of the municipal borough was 37,670 (17,750 males, and 19,920 females), and of the parliamentary borough, which comprises an area of 6448 acres, 41,348.
Coventry derives its name (Conventre, or convent town), from a Benedictine priory, founded in 1043 by Earl Leofric and his wife Lady Godiva, who were afterwards buried within the priory church. According to a well-known popular tradition, exquisitely related in Tennyson’s poem, the inhabitants were freed from the earl’s excessive taxation by the romantic devotion of the lady, who rode through the streets of the city “clothed on with chastity,” and thus compelled her husband to keep his oath. A procession, instituted in the time of Charles II. in commemorative imitation of the event, continued for many years to be annually celebrated; and an effigy called Peeping Tom is still pointed out projecting from an upper window at the corner of Smithford Street, popularly reputed to represent an inquisitive tailor, who was struck blind for having peered at the lady as she passed, while every other eye was averted in thankful reverence. Carmelite, Franciscan, and Carthusian monasteries were early established in the city, which was not long in acquiring a high position in the country. Gosford Green, outside its eastern walls, was chosen in 1397 for that great wager of battle between the dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, which w as interrupted by Richard IL, and formed such an important episode in the tragic history of the time. During the Wars of the Roses the citizens adhered to the Lancastrian party, and were consequently rewarded by Henry VI., whose charter, constituting the city and certain adjacent villages a separate county, continued in force till 1842. In the course of the 15th century several Parliaments were held in the town; and in 1569 it afforded for a short time a prison-house to Mary, Queen of Soots. Daring the troubles of the commonwealth the citizens espoused the cause of the Parliament; and on the restoration of Charles II. their fortifications were dismantled as a penalty for their disloyalty. To the student of English literature Coventry has a special interest on account of its mystery-plays, full details in regard to which will be found in Thomas Sharp’s Dissertation, 1825. Various explanations of the popular phrase “to send to Coventy” have been suggested,—none of them particularly satisfactory. See Reader’s History of Coventry, 1810; B. Poole’s History of Coventry, 1869; and Sharp’s Antiquities of Coventry, el. by Fretton, 1871.
9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 6, p. 530
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