Priory Row

Different view of St Mary's Priory remains and old Blue Coat School

My mate Alan Denyer who looks after the Visit Coventry website has been asking me about the cellar under DE Collins as discussed earlier, and passed on this shot. Did we ever confirm what actually happened to them - were they filled in or just covered over? Anyone know?

I don't think that the wine cellars themselves were that old and as far as I know would have been demolished as they were right next to the new cathedral. However I get the impression that parts of the old cathedral were under/part of the wine cellars and were excavated as part of the preparation for the building. The north apse end of the old cathedral is still visible but I don't know if they were part of the wine cellar. What would have been the south side of the apse is now under a car park. So I don't know for sure but I doubt the cellars remain.

An article in the Telegraph June 1955 says they run up to Hill Top where they turn north for a short distance. They were to be sealed off at a point between the former wine shop and the restored Georgian house but a door will be installed so that they remain accessible. The future was to be discussed at the next month's meeting.

A picture of the wine cellar. The Georgian houses on Priory Row sat on the ruins of the old cathedral, they may all have had cellars built from the remains (up to the wine shop itself as that was at the end of the ruins). But were they all one cellar? The cellar under the rebuilt Georgian house remains and there is a door visible on the side but the wine cellar shown above could be gone.

Brilliant Helen, Anne and Rob as usual - Rob's library image here is fantastic - does anyone have or can get this to a better resolution so its readable at all?

I'm wrong, the cellars were all connected . I've got a map of them from Coventry - Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology by Linda Monkton and Richard Morris. I'll try and copy it. I'll also try and match up the pictures to the map. Might the magazine be on the site about old newspapers?

Sorry Helen, it is not on the newspaper archive site.

Thanks for looking Anne. It might be available to copy at the Herbert. This is a rough tracing of the cellar map overlaying the Fire Insurance map. The lines don't entirely match up but I suspect that they could be adjusted to get a better version. The cellar on the left, adjacent to Hill Top is the picture I posted looking to the left of the map. The top picture of the magazine is the entrance on the right of the map. The cellar on the bottom right of the magazine page has to be the back cellar under the County Benevolent Burial Society Offices looking to the right of the map. See the two big blocks either side of the central space. That leaves two long spaces that could be the other two pictures that are both the same cellar according to the magazine. Since there is no square pillar in the centre, it must be the other cellar under the front of the County Benevolent Burial Society Offices. The sketch looks like it is looking west (left side of the map) because I think I can see the arch at the end. Can't really see features in the photo so I don't know if it's looking the same way. Most of the cellar walls to the right of the Offices on the map look new and the doorway that Anne's record mentions is the entrance to the cellar under the Offices. It is still there. Those cellars seem to reuse parts of the old cathedral plus some modern (as in not medieval) brick walls. For personal property reasons I imagine that the west end cellars are now separated by partitions and I doubt that any of the newer east end cellars were kept. It's just possible to read most of the magazine text if you blow up the picture but it doesn't really say anything that interesting.

Thanks Helen - would you mind if I passed that information on to my friend Alan Denyer? He looks after the Visit Coventry website and has been looking at these. I will credit you and Rob.

Fine by me Neil. The proviso is that it's a rough sketch and I don't know for sure exactly where the wall lines actually fall, eg I would have thought that the cellars under the Offices would have followed the wall lines above, but...?

Bill Webb

A beautiful picture Prof. Please tell me it still looks the same.

I believe so Dream, though I don't get to Coventry often these days.

Pretty much Dreamtime, though not quite so artistic as Prof's picture, a quick copy from Google maps, the yellow lines are not there but I can't get rid of them.