Old Cathedral and Church of St Michael

Heres a fascinating view from the tower looking down towards Priory Street pre-Poly/Uni and New Street. Some lovely buildings on Priory Street that did last the war but not the developers.

dutchman, I seem to remember a large sign at the foot of the Cathedral spire, saying 'Dangerous, you enter this spire at your own risk' 1949 time. Could that have been possible

Well, I risked it a few times then Kaga, cost me 6d a time it did, used to count the steps and my friend did too, and we would see if we had the same number when we got to the top.

The last time I climbed the spire, there was no charge, no yellow lines, in fact there was no one about at all, and it was quiet dark.

Hi all Can anyone help with info regards these engravings? Any info please?

I have gone to Coventry stadium for many years and many are starting to tell me that the rubble from the Cathedral when it was bombed after the war was taken to Brandon/Coventry stadium, has anyone you know heard of this could it possibly be true? look forward to hearing from you

I heard it was taken to the place where Coventry Zoo used to be.

Hi Dancing and Flapdoodle By 1948 the rubble was cleared from the cathedral ruins. A portion of the rubble was pushed into a small underground room in the cathedral (which has been uncovered recently) & assumedly a large amount of the rubble was broken up and used as a hard-core over the cathedral's damaged floor (including memorial stones) and covered in concrete and flagstones (depth: 50cm to 1 metre) [Coventry Telegraph]. However pinnacles and stones thought to be from the ruins were taken to the War Memorial Park where they can be found today near the cenotaph. There was a lot of rubble and debris created but I don't know if there would be enough to warrant transporting it elsewhere - but it's possible. Luke.

I have read that the terracing at Coventry Stadium was constructed using precast concrete blocks because cement was in short supply and needed for house building. The concrete blocks were presumably wartime production for some other purpose, possibly made by Longford Concrete. When the stadium is demolished for housing it will be interesting to see what hardcore was used under the terraces. It could well be rubble from the bombing because there would have been a quite an urgent need to get the streets clear so any convenient dumping ground on the outskirts of the city would have been used. Like thousands of other speedway and stock car fans I don't want to see Coventry Stadium close, but it is in the hands of property developers who purchased it so they could build houses on the derelict unused site. It is already derelict and by the end of this year will be unused.

According to this site, St Chad's Church was built out of remains of the old cathedral

My recollection is that St. Chads is a concrete building. Maybe timber or fixtures and fittings were salvaged from the old cathedral?

A bit more research today confirms that St. Chads is indeed constructed out of 'no fines' concrete. It is one of three churches commissioned in 1954 for the new housing estates which were springing up - the others are St. Oswald's at Tile Hill and St John the Divine at Willenhall. The connections to the cathedral are that the new churches had Sir Basil Spence as their architect; the building costs came from the War Damage Commission; and the font and foundation stone at St. Chads were carved by Ralph Beyer who decorated the nave walls in the new cathedral. Apparently by using concrete the diocese was able to afford all three churches rather than just one conventional brick building. 'No Fines' concrete was used for lots of the houses in Wood End, Willenhall, and Tile Hill in the early 1950's because it was cheap and it was quick. Having been brought up in a 'no fines' house I can vouch that they were very cold in winter.

After our forum breakfast meet this morning Helen and I visited the old cathedral. Noticed the statues on the east face of tower so took these individual images.

How interesting Pix, thank you but I am intrigued but the one with the anchor, although they all carry the same book. I may have missed some information from past posts on this subject but do you know the names of these figures? It just goes to show how much of our city we take for granted, must have seen them hundreds of times and never even occurred to me as to who they were. I must have reached a new learning curve in my old age.

What a brilliant question Dreamtime, I'd also love to know more about the characters that adorn our cathedral tower - I wonder if there's a list somewhere? I can say, though - the figure in the second from last photo looks like he's clutching the old extractor fan from our kitchen window!