Old Cathedral and Church of St Michael

In May 45 I believe the Sunday service was transferred to the Memorial Park - emotions ran high in a crowd of thousands of people assembled for the service. So I was told. I wasn't in Coventry at the time.

Interesting photo from 1949

The year I was born! Weren't we lucky that there was a piece of land adjacent on which to build the new Cathedral. Was it an old churchyard?

Mostly, although it also extends over the remains of some big houses on Priory Row and their gardens. It was built just at the end of St Mary's ruins.

Once again looking for one thing and come across this interesting article. December 1940, Coventry Telegraph

That's fantastic Anne, a super find! I wonder where that "window-head" is now?

Can anyone tell me if the searchlights that used to search for enemy planes were directed on to the spire of the Cathedral on 8th May 1945 to celebrate that it was still standing, after it had almost been lost in the firestorm of the blitz?

That's what I wondered Rob!

Rob, Neil, it's probably the sole surviving clerestory window tracery (the upper level of windows), which is still in situ I believe. When you enter from the west end door, it's up on your left.

Would that be one of these? Photographed in 2013

Good photos MR. It's the first of the pictures. It often goes unnoticed, hidden in the trees on one side and almost invisible at the angle you see it from the inside.

Did that window in MR's photo not survive the blitz Helen? This picture below shows it still in-situ the next day - unless, of course, it was "swapped out" at a later date? I've not seen or heard anything to suggest that, though, and the matching remaining yellow glass still resides in the header section and the lower portion below the transom line. I was thinking though - wouldn't that header make a wonderful garden feature!

Yes, you're right Rob. I couldn't really see the wording in the article properly but on second glance it looks like it was in someone's garden. I suppose it must have been saved from a repair of the Cathedral's windows when they refurbished in the 1800s. It was the comments about it being a potential template for a rebuild that triggered my thought that it was the one that survived in situ. It also looks like it's at tree canopy height but it's just an optical illusion. Potentially it may have had to be demolished and rebuilt if that area was particularly fragile after the bombing but it looks original. Not all of what stands in the cathedral today is original, in stone or design.

Yes, it would be interesting to see a diagram, or otherwise, pointing out the non-original parts of the cathedral ruins, because not all are obvious. I wonder if The Herbert has something? Back to that window head though - I'd love to know where that is now? Not broken up and discarded I hope!

Here are coloured images of the stained glass pieces put into storage before the war and recovered from the cathedral after the bombing.