Old Cathedral and Church of St Michael

After a bit of business in our city this morning, what better way for us to rest than to sit & listen to the eleven o'clock chime in our old cathedral. Pam is soaking in the sunshine & every chime with her eyes closed. In fact we were still there for the quarter past chime. Thank you all for your info regards the Trinity bells. I was once in a panto' where I was hearing bells, playing the part of a butler but I do not believe that I was imagining the extra bells, at the same time as the cathedral bells on the Heritage Sunday morning. It was only for a very short time though.

I was born in 1947, so I had no experience of what people had to cope with here. My parents lost their house in Radford during the following April blitz, but sat with Pam here this morning, I pictured the wet Friday morning following the destruction of our cathedral. My mum had often told me of her & my Aunt Molly, who also owned a business, walking in to the centre, to find just destruction as they picked their way through the rubble of what had been their shops. Like the spirit of Coventrians they were not the sort of people to be blasted out of their livelihoods. Within three days they had organised themselves, sharing what they could. So, even though I did not see the devastation the day after, I have so much to be proud of, being part of this community, albeit seventy years on.

I have a very biased enjoyment of the bells at Allesley Parish Church. My grandparents moved to the village around 1910 so my grandfather could ring the bells. Known as 'Old Jack' he rang until his death in the 1950s, being tower captain for much of the time. His eldest son 'Young Jack' was born in 1910 and by the age of nine was standing on a box learning to ring. Like his father he was bell captain for many years. He rang his beloved bells for almost 80 years and at his funeral in 2005 the box was produced from the tower whilst the hand bells were rung around his coffin. One downside of visiting the tower was to meet Frank Perrins who was my maths teacher at the Woodlands School. A frightening teacher who gave no sympathy to struggling pupils, his personality changed to that of a smiling happy man when he was ringing the bells. The pleasure of hearing the Allesley bells always produces a warm feeling and happy memories.

I first rang at Allesley before I had even moved to Coventry, I visited on a ringing tour in the area. In their post war heyday, the Allesley ringers were one of the best parish church bands in the Midlands, now unfortunately the band is not as strong. A few months ago two new bells were cast for Allesley tower. As you may know, the 3rd and 4th bells were not good bells - the 4th was worn out and was too weak tonally (having been cast in 1580 it was well used) and the third was quite a bad bell. The 4th has been kept in the tower and the 3rd has gone to Wales to augment a tower there, and the two new bells have taken their places within the set at Allesley. The reason I tell you this is that one of them was cast in memory of Frank Perrens.

Yesterday, I listened to the bells at lunchtime, decided to have a look at Kenilworth Castle (aboard the U17 on a Sunday) & when I returned at three in the afternoon, they were ringing again. It was lovely.

I bought these off ebay for the cathedral which are happy to accept them, as I know they only have limited photos of the old cathedral the bookshop once told me they only have one, I have never seen a photo of it with the coloured glass like this, perhaps some of you have already seen them on ebay but thought I would share them for the site. The Coventry Cathedral bells at Christmas - for Philip

I've not seen the second photo before, thanks for sharing.

You're welcome and kind of you to take time to look.

Thanks Morgana, I like the coloured one, it was a lovely cathedral, so sad it was destroyed.

Interesting to see that both are annotated as St Michael's Church, not the cathedral. That suggests they are Victorian, perhaps? As Barbinoz says, so sad it was destroyed; but when you think of all the destruction in two world wars, it seems almost insignificant. Perhaps some of you have read about the new book and film about the horses that died in WWI. But I wonder how many people realise how many died in WWII? There were almost 7 million horses used for military purposes in WWII (most by Russia and Germany) and I would bet the slaughter of them was worse than WWI; at Stalingrad 40,000 that had died of cold and starvation, and some shot, were used as food for the starving German troops. The really sad thing, in my view, about wars is that those who start them don't have to go out and do the fighting.

You're welcome Barbinoz, if you want to take a copy of it you're welcome to do so, yes such a shame it was destroyed I prefer this one to the new one more character dainty architecture.

Ha ha that fits then Keith I was wondering why it wasn't called the cathedral explains it doesn't it. Ahrr poor horse, I was born in the year of the horse and yes people seem to discard horses like young soldiers as cannon fodder as one chap said on history of Britain great programme, perhaps that is where they got that song from They shoot horses don't they, can't recall who sang it though.

Just checked - it wasn't dedicated as the cathedral until 1918. So they are probably from the Edwardian period.

Thank you for that Keith I shall tell the Cathedral when I get my daughter to take them down, by the way there was another old print of inside St Marys Hall where woman were sitting dressed in really old clothing, on ebay lovely n clear too

Yeah, but I only have so much space on the wall, and spending money.