Lady Godiva

This was Smithford Street, looking at the Barracks with The Magnet pub next door to the right.

Old negatives of Godiva parade on eBay. Probably 1929, not 1940.

I'd completely forgotten that during construction work for Cathedral Lanes our lovely Lady was moved temporarily to outside the Herbert -

Weird - for some reason I have no recollection of when she was there!

From the newspaper archive Rob, she was moved on the 6th November 1989 and returned almost exactly a year later on 7th November 1990.

Excellent, thank you Anne. That was a period when I rarely went into town, so I possibly missed it completely. We go a lot more nowadays, so we tend to notice a lot more of the changes.

I first saw her in about November 1991, so she hadn't been under the tent long.

Yes Rob we had left Coventry by then so rarely went into the City even when we visited Mum and Dad. We had a connection with Cathedral Lanes and would scrub out the Tarmac sign if I could !

We have just returned from a visit to Cov. and were able to introduce some friends of ours to Lady Godiva. They had never been to the city before so we went up Trinity Street from the Telegraph on Corporation to pay her a visit. They really liked the city centre with it's wide palazzo. We walked over to the Cathedral, which they'd heard about and were very moved and impressed by. They also found the new cathedral very interesting and spent quite a long time there too. We didn't have time to go to the Herbert Art Gallery but when we were seeing them back off to Evesham they were planning a return trip. It was wonderful to see them really appreciating the city. We ate at an Italian restaurant upstairs over the shops facing the statue and we all enjoyed the view down to Smithford Way. We walked down to the Coventry Theatre to spot the brick in the wall outside that commemorate my mum and dad, something we do whenever we visit. The Telegraph was a great place to stay if you didn't have a car and the room was very comfortable. The bar and restaurant were busy and a bit noisy but there were two groups who seemed to be part of company meetings staying there but nothing too intrusive. We ate at another Italian place across the road next to the Belgrade, beside a gym, which was also good. An early morning quick walk to Pool Meadow to catch the bus for Heathrow and lots to think about on the journey.