Charterhouse, London Road

Just a heads up for this article regarding a couple of open days

I see from watching the local news that the restoration of Charterhouse is now complete and I have to say in my opinion what a complete waste of ten million pounds it seems.

The cost reflects the nature of the restoration I'm afraid. The listed building rules would rather a building fall down than it be repaired in a way that doesn't match the original. I say original but just to restore something from a 1970s fix, that was made before a building was listed to an original feature, requires paperwork and agreements. It's supposed to ensure that bad repairs don't make a building worse and that all eras of change are left to show the true history of the building. That said, restoration done properly will extend the life of the building and its features. Skilled people cost.

I've been digging through old books for pictures of Coventry and came across something to mildly amuse those with a scatological sense of humour. Described thus - Hanging buttress * on the precinct walls on the remains of the Carthusian monastery without Coventry. This object is meant for a certain conveniency; it is splayed off roof-wise; it is supported by three corbels, through which particular matter descends, and a window gives light to its interior. Pictured front on and in profile in 1800 (left) and possibly captured again at some point in the next 50 years by Troughton (right) although it had a different roof. This assuming that they're the same one and there weren't others on the boundary wall - which is entirely possible. The full monastery wall enclosure was substantial and it seems reasonable that there might have been several. Troughton was sketching the wall running parallel with London Road, looking towards the bridge over the Sherbourne and the now long demolished Gatehouse to Charterhouse. The river seemed to pass much closer to the wall then than it does now, with various natural and man made diversions to the river changing its course rather than a build up of particular matter. I'm not sure whether the structure or any other still exist, though I suspect that they have long since gone because nobody mentions such a thing. I'm not 100% sure how close Troughton's sketch was to the corner in the wall but I mark roughly where I think the structure was. *When the book was published the inadvertent pun hanging buttress might have been as relevant then as it is today. Butt, short for buttock is another of those words that came to be more American than English, although the origin was probably here.

Nice one. Looking at it, it's hard to imagine the river ever having a different path but the maps show it was quite wiggly. I'm increasingly of the mind that the stretch directly in front of Charterhouse is suspiciously straight, which might explain why there was no wall completing the circuit around the grounds. On the left hand side, just shy of the shadow of the rail embankment are what was known as the Charterhouse Cottages. They sit on the remains of a water mill, demonstrating how completely the river was moved at that end. To the right one branch of the river once skirted the edge of the wall until the Charterhouse mill was removed and the branches were united into one channel, clear of the wall.

Hello. Can anyone point me in the direction of a map of the Charterhouse estate from round about 1850? Thanks for any help.

Hi Cupoftea, welcome to the forum. One option would be the Board of Health map from 1851 over at Coventry Atlas There may be other detailed maps of the estate but I don't know what there is available. The staff at Charterhouse may know or alternatively there might be something in the Coventry Collections based at the Herbert Art Gallery Archive.