Books on Coventry

I met a contingent of the Women's Research Group at the Council House on the Heritage Weekend. Unfortunately I couldn't stop and explore because I already had a list of places to look at. It looks like they've got a fair collection of stuff.

I don't know if this book - Coventry: Thursday, 14 November 1940 - has been mentioned before but it is excellent, and used, very cheap. Post copied from topic The Blitz - 14th November 1940 on 9th Nov 2019 3:14 pm

Rather than begin a new topic for one item, I thought I'd make use of this one for an item that's not directly about Coventry and, strictly speaking, not even a book! I have been given a large manuscript typed by J. B. Shelton all about the village of his birth, Kirkby Woodhouse, which is between Mansfield and Nottingham. If anyone has any interest in this place, please let me know and I'll arrange for you to have it, which also contains a few photos.

Interesting to see J B Shelton in the earlier ones as well - I knew he lived there. Has anyone read or got a copy of his book. They are selling for over £100 on the web! Now that is a laugh!!

Book about Shelton Which book are you looking for?

Very pleased, picked up a copy of "Coventry, Echoes of the past", by Frank Roden, yesterday for £8 at Coleshill Antiques and Collectors Fair.

Covkidd. The first page of that book you can read on here, it says Churchill knew the raid was coming, we all knew the raid was coming, we had two in October so we fully expected another. Now all these books, to me, say much the same thing which is obvious and they are all aftermath of the raid and hearsay. Not one I have read tells you what Coventry felt before the raid. Now a few weeks ago somewhere on this forum we were told that a Coventry man wrote about his feelings to the Telegraph and the bombing before the raid - surely this is the real story, a guy's feelings of what he saw coming, same as most of us, not when it is all over. A BBC reporter said some unkind words about the state of the people, at the same time on the same page he showed an 11 year old girl bravely going to school the next morning - to me two complete contrasts. Can't decide whether to buy the book or not.

Hi all, As all serious Coventry history enthusiasts know, Benjamin Poole's 1869 History & Antiquities of Coventry is a must have. They come up on eBay every now and again, but usually for silly money - many hundreds of pounds. I was extremely lucky a couple of years ago to get a very early print, leather bound, with a "buy-it-now" of £85 - the seller obviously didn't realise its true value! Anyway, an 1870 copy has come onto eBay for £49.50 - and even has a "make offer" option! I hope one of our deserving members can get this..... https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114152163775 Good luck!

Blimey.... 15 minutes later and it's gone! I really do hope it was one of you?

'Twas I. Thanks for the link, Rob, it certainly looks like a good read. I'm hoping to fill in an awful lot of gaps in my knowledge of my home city. The image of Butcher Row on the Ebay listing was the clincher as it coincides pretty well with the Nathaniel Troughton drawing I mentioned in a post earlier today.

That's great news, I'm so glad it went to one of "us"! It certainly is a great read - there are whole chapters dedicated to each of our ancient buildings, schools & institutions - year-by-year happenings - general history, and much, much more. Plus, of course, many super illustrations - many of which I've included in my image collection.

There are numerous editions online of what I assume is the same book at Google Books and the Internet Archive. The earliest is from 1810.

For some reason, back in the 1800s, nearly all Coventry history books were unimaginatively titled History and Antiquities of Coventry, or some near variation of. The early one, from 1810, will probably be William Reader's book, which I have a slightly battered version of! Benjamin Poole wrote three such histories - a small one in 1847, a slightly larger one in 1852, and then his huge, seminal 424 page tome in 1869, which became virtually an encyclopaedia referenced by all serious historians for well over a century. The one bought by our fortunate member the other day was this last version, and checking on the abebooks.co.uk site, it's probably worth more like £400! The illustrations alone (there are about 60 of them) are worth that, so 50 quid was a real bargain.

Rob, But are you sure they got it right? You have a topic, George Eliot, but she never saw Coventry until she was thirteen, and at that age was far more intellectual than her classmates. Four years later she leaves school, five years later, now in her twenties, she moves into Coventry. For nine years she looks after her father, as soon as he dies, she leaves leaves Coventry for good. Four years at school, nine years with her ill father, returns for a month, rows with brother lasting forty years, non-speaking. She has one article printed in the local paper, everything else was written and printed elsewhere. She was feminist minded, friends with them, and to me the first murmurings of the later suffragette movement.