Old Cathedral and Church of St Michael

And at night, when lit, those windows would have been wonderful walking along Bayley Lane. Most of the windows by your day Kaga were replacements. Even the tracery changed in design and each window became less standard in design. They used a lot more colour and the figures were more realistic in some ways but less natural somehow. The originals however were excellent semi cartoons, catching real emotions and human irregularities. John Thornton was a true artist in my opinion. A lot of the lower widows lost their stained glass altogether during the various anti Catholic drives. Catholic imagery was deemed too fabulist and disrespectful of God. The pre war versions replaced mostly plain, diamond paned windows. Only the windows at the very top, the clerestory, kept a decent amount of in situ medieval glass. Partly because it was often secular in nature (representing one of the trades or a wealthy Coventry citizen) and partly because it was hard to get up there. Religious extremism thwarted because it was too much effort to erect scaffolding and ladders. Tributes to real people more acceptable than mythical creatures. How very British.

Helen, I chose MR's photo because it was sunny, and that was the only time the colours in the cathedral slanted through those windows. None of us kids were interested in the windows, only the colours that moved across the church, for they were unusual to us. Everything was B and W to us, no coloured photos, no coloured adverts, I don't think this forum has a colour shot of the interior.

No, there aren't any colour photos of the windows as far as I know, but there are a few paintings (see topic on the Old St Michael's). In theory a lot of the glass still exists as they have found where it was stored during the war. One of the Universities is trying to piece it back together but from what I've seen they've started with the oldest glass, which is also the hardest to sort out.

Annewiggy, Is it worth looking for the service of George V in the cathedral, died 20 Jan 1936? I think the first radio broadcast to people outside the church?

This image from c.1936 has recently appeared on FB

Thanks MR, just shows what a beautiful Cathedral we have lost. The colour just adds atmosphere!

Another one has shown up

Morgana's postcard #21 in Old Cathedral

Hi Prof, I don't think that was colour photography but a tinted black and white photo. I don't know for sure that any of the pre war stuff was genuine colour. Some post cards are tinted better than others. There are some good photos of certain windows and the colour could be guessed at but until they sort the glass out, we'll not know for sure. For me, the glass I'd want to know about was the very early stuff that mostly wasn't photographed because it was already muddled by constant repairs. I doubt that I'll find out much. If I ever get that far, I'll probably fake windows in the style of John Thornton. I've even got a yen to make gargoyles out of friends and relatives. Do you think anybody would be up for being a stone head gurning from the roof?

Helen, I don't think anyone can look at anything pre-war and say for certain, only church stuff can tell us and they could be suspect, Coventry was quite religious in those days, if you weren't for it you didn't oppose it, you ignored it to keep the peace. Now I think they were small individual chairs, for often you could not sit, but stand, like King George's funeral, and chairs could be stored or moved easy, by Sunday School kids, some schools also. The glass we didn't know much about, you must remember there was little technology in those days, no one was going to challenge the colour of a painting, or what we (kids) were told. Only the colours that danced across the floor. And my God, what religious tales we were told, couldn't happen today, except I saw a woman on telly going into church, said the virus won't enter God's church.

Some details can be worked out from early images eg I now know that the original window tracery was a lot less varied than it was by the time of the war and that quite a few had clear, diamond paned glass after the Reformation but there are lots of things that are impossible to unravel.

Helen. Before the blitz, the Cathedral had an oak wooden ceiling with lead coating. There was a Benchmark on the south (Bayley Lane side) of the tower on St Michael's Church, 296.04 feet. This Benchmark is two-feet five inches above the ground. Thus taking the height of the tower and spire above this mark at 300 feet, the weather-cock stands at 596 feet above sea level. It is said that the keyhole of Corley Church is level with this. The Coventry canal footpath is level at 304 feet, London Road Cemetery between 40 to 70 feet above the bed of the river Sherbourne near the Charterhouse.

That's a very useful bit of information Kaga. I wondered why the BM number was higher than the road surface. Those marks were dotted round the city. They would have allowed the surveyors to use them to work out the other height marks. Thanks.

It speaks for itself!

Prof, There is something about that particular picture that draws me to keep looking at it. If only those walls could speak. I have never viewed it in that light before. Thank you.