Lady Godiva

Did she or didn't she? Lady Godiva possibly clothed

We all know how stories change over the years Foxcote and I have often wondered about Lady G. It would not surprise me after reading your link. I must confess I would like to believe the old story as such a lot has been built around it over the years. Why change it now. Good read that one.

Woolhope Church, Hereford - Godiva's gift to Hereford. Godiva and her sister: Photo 1 Photo 2 I hadn't realised Godiva was a widow when Leofric married her.

Sir William Reid Dick's famous statue in glorious sunshine today

Devon Mayson, the flame haired Lady G pictured at the Lime Tree Park Club, Tile Hill, earlier this year. Definitely seems to be wearing a body stocking

Here's another statue of Godiva found in Kent:

Isn't she supposed to be sitting sidesaddle?

Yes of course Dreamtime.

The Godiva statue in St Mary's Hall:

Lady Godiva took the leading part in the 1951 Festival of Britain procession through the city. There was much speculation in the Evening Telegraph as to whether she was going to be a Coventry girl or come from elsewhere as they needed to be able to ride a horse and it might well be a chilly day. In the event she was an 'actress' from London and I was standing only a few feet away from her when up in Memorial Park - which was where the procession formed up - she got on her horse. She was wearing a flesh coloured bikini though from a distance - Peeping Tom - it looked as though she was wearing nothing at all!

Roger, was she sitting sidesaddle, or did you not notice that?!

A young girl riding a horse through Coventry was a charity gimmick. Godiva and Leofric go back to the 11th century, the time of chastity belts, so it's unlikely an Earl would let his young wife ride round the streets naked, and her second marriage. It's more likely that she was around forty, looked older so no-one was interested in looking anyway. Before the welfare state Coventry had a Saturday Hospital fund, I think my mother paid about a shilling a month for each of us. If we were ill then she got something like ten shillings a week for twenty odd weeks. If we were still ill then it was reduced to about half for the same number of weeks, but it was always short of funds so someone came up with the idea of a carnival to raise funds, but they needed a front piece so they went back to the ride round Coventry, only with a young girl to attract attention. But history shows us through the Doomsday Book that high taxes were crippling the country and the law was changed only a short time after the Godiva Ride, so did our good lady have some influence, not just with her husband, but Gov't as well, me thinks? I did attain a copy of the Doomsday Book in Coventry, whether library or book shop? I can't remember.

In recent years a film was made, and Lady Godiva had to ride down Bayley Lane on a big white horse. The part was played by an ex singer of the pop group Steps (Faye Tozer?). It was a freezing cold day (we all had coats on!), and she was clad only in a body stocking.

My father told me that at school in Coventry, they had to write a poem about LG, so he wrote Coventry City has long gone by. There lived a maiden, it isn't a lie. She rode through the city upon a grey mare, her nake'ness cov'd only by the locks of her hair. The teacher was not amused and rapped his knuckles with a ruler in front of the class.