St Michael's Baptist Church

Is the spire shown behind 22 Bayley Lane Holy Trinity? Current photographs from the same angle do not feature a spire. PS photo from the early thirties.

Hello Rugby It's the spire of the Baptist Church which stood on the corner of Hay Lane and Bayley Lane and was destroyed in the Blitz.

Hello and thank you Dutchman. Scanned the photograph from a book I inherited from my parents.

This is a picture of the Baptist Church after it was bombed taken from the tower of the Cathedral. You can see where the spire would have been located. COVENTRY, SPRING 1944: EVERYDAY LIFE IN COVENTRY, WARWICKSHIRE, ENGLAND, UK, 1944 Copyright

Hello again. Were the remains of the Baptist Church preserved or demolished?

Demolished I'm afraid and the land it stood on left derelict for many years. It has recently been replaced with a trendy wine bar called "Bayley's"!

I remember when I was a kid that I used to walk past that site most days and it was always a mysterious looking place behind hoardings. There was presumably a cellar or crypt because I recall peering in and seeing a huge hole in the ground. The remains must have been removed before the mid-50s, but it lay derelict for nigh on 40 years. The pub that was eventually built on the site was called the Newt & Cucumber. It was a mainly student venue.

If I recall reading about it, the cellar of this chapel was used as a static water tank for subsequent air-raids after it had been destroyed in the blitz.

I only remember the site myself as a pile of rubble surrounded by a brick wall. A friend used to do his homework on it in the morning before catching the school bus in Broadgate. The council had some sort of grandiose plan to redevelop the entire area - which is why it was left derelict - but nothing ever came of it.

Bayley Lane photos 11 & 12

Ah, nice one, Cliff I knew you'd be on the ball - I like the way you can see the grave cross on the postcard that's visible today on google maps!

Great spot, Neil

They should reconstruct that.

I seem to remember that the static water tank was in the building on the corner of Hay Lane opposite the Golden Cross pub. I took the attached photo a couple of years ago which is on the wall of the building on Hay Lane next door to the Golden Cross and directly opposite where the tank was. I cannot decipher all of the writing but it does appear to indicate the location of water and is presumably a WWII notice.