Coventry Heritage Open Days

Also just read the Clock Museum are bringing out the old Co-op clock that was on the wall in Corporation St to view

There are a few places I'd like to visit - Swanswell gate house, Bonds Hospital, the Herbert undercroft and the Drapery excavation but I doubt that I've got the steam to visit twice in one week.

My local classic car club is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year and we were invited to display our cars outside the Motor Museum, so with time to kill and never having visited any before I spent an afternoon viewing the inside of the newly restored grammar school in Hales St, then up Corporation St to St Johns and finally the Watch Museum in Spon St. If I have time next weekend I plan to visit the gothic style church of St Marks in Bird St and also the undercroft beneath the Herbert as well. The booklet I have suggests 52 sites of interest all within the locality. www.coventry.gov.uk/hod or call 024 7697 6987

This is very cheeky of me, but I wonder if you or anyone else hoping to go to the Herbert undercroft or Bond's or the Swanswell Gate house, could take photos of the insides. There are photos of the undercroft main directions but I'm missing the stairs opposite the narrow window and the doorway into that area, plus the top of the stairs looking down. I may get there myself but it requires me to get up at about 6 in the morning which requires a lot of enthusiasm.

Helen, I'm not certain I'm going yet but if I do I'll take the pics.

Much appreciated. I might get there myself but it's a long trek from here. But there's always next year.

Great day yesterday visiting a few spots I had not been in before. Slightly disappointed that Swanswell Gate was not open - not when we were there anyway, even though it was supposed to have been. Popped in to Fords Hospital - literally breathtaking inside but I am absolutely furious about the multi-storey car park that has gone up behind it for The Wave swimming pool. It's absolutely scandalous - I'll not post an image of it on here for fear of upsetting anyone but it's ruined the rear view IMO. Anyway, next a slight wait in the queue for the Police Museum but definitely worth it. Some amazing (and frighteningly graphic!) displays of crime over the years - really interesting and judging by the queues to get in there is a real demand to see this remain in the city - here's hoping. Rosemary, I thought of you when I was in there! Then popped in to The Herbert. We wanted to go down to the Undercroft but the guide book stated it was not open that day - when we asked though, The Herbert came up trumps and gave us a private viewing! Helen, apols, I did not read your request above in time. However, just found this one on FB from the Enjoy Coventry page - hope it captures some of what you were after. Grab a copy while you can as it's a direct link off FB so may disappear soon. Let me know if you ever need anything specific as I am local. We finally went around Priory Row and the Lychgate cottages - again totally fascinating to finally get inside and see all around, including their cellar. With a tiny chink of light down from the cobbles on Priory Row it was so atmospheric and you could really imagine what it may have been like down there over the years and hiding from the bombing etc. Also surprised to see a blocked up passageway believed to have been directly in to the Priory. I'll hopefully do a few more next weekend - again if anyone that's not local wants me to capture anything, let me know. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love Old Cov.

Neil, Excellent, for those of us that cannot see Coventry again, well appreciated. Thank you. Kaga.

Super picture that one Neil - I hope it doesn't disappear too soon! I hope these below are also useful for you Helen - I took them in 2002 when the kids were only 3 & 4, and back then the cellar was beneath the old Tourist Information Centre, before the 'modern' Herbert was built.

Thanks to both of you, yes very useful. I thought that you came into the crypt from the right, I didn't realise it was blocked off now. I've got pictures and a map showing them going up much further although I'm still not 100% sure how it relates to the surface map. Rob, yours is the only photo I've seen showing that doorway into the small corridor with the tiny 'window' at the end. So that's the way in. Are those stairs old? The wall in that corridor doesn't look contemporary with the main chamber and the tiled floor is different too. But that archway into it looks like it belongs. Interesting to see the old hinges. It tells me how doors worked with that kind of cellar. Since I embarked on this, I've started photographing all the odd details that an artistic shot doesn't record. The roof, the floor, that funny bit behind the door that nobody sees... Thanks again

Helen - if you mean this one of Rob's Yes, that's the way in, although as Rob mentioned his visit was before the Gallery was as it is today when it was the small Visitor Centre. Today you gain entry via the stairs you see here - they also lead to the cooler rooms under the Archives which they use as stores, so you enter it from the south Despite walking over it many times I'd never actually spotted this on the floor outside which is supposed to be the outline of the undercroft - although I don't think every square inch matches what you can see today

For completeness I should probably add this one here (although Mods may wish to add to the Bayley Lane thread) showing its discover after the blitz - one positive amongst the bombing. (c) Historic England

That's a later cellar with a brick vault although it may have older foundations. I've got a similar photo of the paving but matching modern features with old maps is harder than we'd assume it to be. Especially if the feature predates the maps and it's partly under the road or the house next door.

Is that not the Herbert one then Helen? Looks the same location?