St Nicholas Church, Radford Road

I was just wondering if anyone knew which church was there in 1948 as my nan and grandad were married there that year? She was originally from Ellys Road in Radford, Edna Barrett, and she married Alfred Pickering. I was looking at the church for my wedding and looked on here and found that the church would be no more, quite hurtful really.

Welcome to our forum nikki Sadly it's a very real sign of our times. You hear reports of such things all over the country. I agree with you, quite sad really. Good luck in finding another church for your wedding!

That's a very good question as according to "The Coventry We Have Lost" (Vol.1) St Nicholas was destroyed in 1940 and its replacement wasn't built until the 1950s!

That's really weird, maybe there was a community centre that took over the services for a while before the new church was built

Or perhaps Trinity Church. I was born in Radford. According to tradition St. Nicholas's Church, which lay in the suburb of Radford to the north-west of Coventry, may have been the church of the earliest settlement in the Coventry area. There is, however, no definite evidence of its existence before 1183-4 and for most of its history it was a dependent chapel of Holy Trinity Church. Holy Trinity itself came into existence some time between 1101 and1113 when it is first mentioned as a chapel claimed by the priory and apparently serving the Prior's Half - one of the two 'halves' into which Coventry was divided in the early 12th century. It is probable also that St. Michael's (later the other parish church of Coventry), though it is not referred to by name until after 1140, was built at about the same time as Holy Trinity for the tenants of the Earl's Half. The two chapels were separated from each other by the boundary between the halves, but lay very close together, in what was then one common graveyard belonging to the priory, and in approximately the same topographical relation - Holy Trinity to the north, nearer the cathedral and the other monastic buildings, and St. Michael's to the south, by the earls' castle - as when they were rebuilt, both on a much larger scale, in the 13th to 15th centuries Also the Scouts hut opposite the Radford Park was a chapel, also a school later to become the chapel on the corner of Villa Road.

My husband and myself were married in St. Nicholas Church in 1955 and it was the the temporary building then. In 1948 I was also confirmed there. I lived in Widdrington Rd and my husband to be lived in Dorset Rd. We knew Ellys Rd very well.

Hi Nikki, all services where held in the St Nicholas church hall, including weddings, until the new church was built. The church hall was opposite the Radford Hotel which sadly is also confined to history.

I'm shocked to see the church in the process of being destroyed. I sang in the choir there in the early 1960's. Can one get inside? I would like a last look.

Welcome to the forum oldcoventrian! It's a shame your first post has to be on such a sad topic I particularly get annoyed when I think that some scrap metal merchant is buying these memorial plaques for peanuts and just melting them down! I doubt anyone would get inside the church (legally) but I'll see if I can find out.

Yes, welcome indeed to the forum oldcoventrian - hope you find plenty to enjoy We are quite a friendly crowd really

Hi & hello. I have played for weddings, funerals as well as special choir events. Very sad.

Thank you all for your kind responses. Is the organ still in place, or has that been vandalised too? I hope to get in there somehow to see for myself.

Hello The short answer is that I don't know where the organ is. It was an odd organ to play because the console was so far away from the pipes. When ever I visited, I was always asked to play 'Bats in the belfry', a classic theatre organ favourite. The bats sounded as though they were in the belfry as all I heard was the echo.

Church destroyed in the blitz, November 1940. "The churches had suffered severely. Our daughter church of St. Nicholas Radford was completed obliterated by a heavy bomb, and the curate in charge of the fire guard ( the Rev. John Lister ) had been blinded. The young men composing the guard had been killed. I know of no tragedy of this most tragic night worse than this. But these young men died hero's deaths in discharge of a sacred duty. Let us honour the brave. Mr Lister is now at work again, but he lost the sight of one eye and the other is seriously affected." Rev G W Clitheroe, Vicar of Holy Trinity - "Coventry Under Fire November 1940 April 1941 2nd Edition" The book is dedicated to: "To the Revd. JOHN LISTER, priest assistant of St. Nicholas, Radford, who gave his sight ( now partly recovered ), and to his companions who gave their lives, in defence of our daughter church of St. Nicholas ; and to my Wife, whose faith and courage made the part we played possible. The names of Mr Lister's companions who died were: - Alec McArthur, Alan Hiscocks, Bernard Harbourne > Servers of the Altar Douglas Hill, Scout. "

Hello Forum Folk - New Lad here Although having 'lost my faith' I can still shed tears in seeing the images of my old parish church on this forum. Opposite the Savoy cinema there used to be a beautiful solid wooden lych gate with a tiled roof. I was a choirboy at St Nicholas 1947-1952 in the old wooden church hall and when my voice 'broke' I pumped the old pipe organ - behind which were 'mounds' of fag-ends left by previous pumpers! The church hall suffered with poor foundations and had to be fitted with large wooden props to make it safe. Meanwhile, an altar was placed in the Savoy ballroom and all services were conducted there; it seemed rather strange to walk past the ticket office without paying and then go upstairs! On Cubs/Scout/Guide church parades the main auditorium was used; dear old Mr Sharman, the church organist once pressed the wrong button and - halfway through a hymn the - organ - slowly - sank down into the stage ! And - there wasn't a glamorous ice-cream sales girl with a spotlight on her!