Holy Trinity Church and Bell Tower

Reminds me of the water colour painting my father did in 1933, aged 18, but looking down the chancel from the opposite end. He was a brilliant artist. If I can work out the modern technology, I'll post a picture of the painting.

The mood of the area probably goes back a long way. I get the impression that Coventry wasn't desperately upset by the Dissolution and was firmly protestant by the Civil War. Unlike other cities it didn't stump up the cash to buy St Mary's from Henry VIII, mostly because the city couldn't afford it but probably also because it favoured its other three churches. So the priory site became a scrap yard. That must have been shameful, even if they were happy to drop Catholicism, losing such an iconic building must have been painful. I'm not religious but I love a good church and feel the emotions that went into building them. Once the bulk of the cathedral had been removed, the area was left to go to rack and ruin. Eventually the butchers from Butcher Row used the land for keeping animals prior to slaughter. There was a water tank situated on the remains of one of the great pillars of the central tower. The soil level built up over several hundreds of years, preserving what was left of the ruins. There was a period where the two east towers were used as house and gatehouse and the plot was turned into a garden but not long after, the south tower was demolished, the north was turned into the school and the land with the campanile (now excavated) became an overflow graveyard for the churches. So all in all, the place must have felt a bit cursed.

The little lane that ran from Priory Row to the churchyard (Spicerstoke) was known as Trinity Lane, it allowed people from either end to enter the Holy Trinity Church. This little street was not altered as far as I knew when they built the new Trinity Street, so it became the church path. Now the stained glass windows in both churches very few people knew about their history, but all were aware of the beautiful rainbow shafts of light that danced around sections of the church at times. And few people knew the history of the bells - love them or hate them but everyone was aware of the peeling of the bells, right from the cot you understood them. Throughout the city, they brought some kind of awe over the city, and told us this was a special day, and it was - people wore their Sunday suits, some people would not use their front room except on Sundays. There were no sport, the majority of shops did not open, it was illegal to sell or buy some breads. So when the Gov't said no more ringing, it was a little bit sad, for we had grown up with them. But little was said about them after the blitz. But Christ Church, the third of Coventry's famous spires, escaped damage in 1940 but was hit in April 1941 - here a bell fell from the tower and landed near the communion table. Have no idea if it was repaired.

Here's the painting I promised. I'm not very good with a camera!

A very fine painting. I'm so used to seeing that view in old photos and lithographs, I forget it has colour.

Thanks, Helen. This one is the larger, about 12" high and 15" wide. After that, he did a miniature, about 6" wide, and he always said that, because of the extremely fine detail, it took him over twice as long as the bigger one!

A rare view looking over the graveyard with the bell tower This view from the church roof looks towards the school.

Thank you Helen, I've never seen a view like that one before - and wow, what a fantastic 3D effect! It looks like you can see around the trees towards the school, it brings the scene to life compared to a normal photo. Those clever and innovative Victorians were way ahead of their time with stereo-vision.

They certainly were. This one might have been tourist material because I think it was in a German collection. There are a number of 3D photos out there of Coventry though I've never thought of trying the effect out.

Usually you'd need "stereoview" glasses to see the 3D effect, but a few years ago I learned to get that effect with just my naked eyes by using a similar technique to that used for autostereograms - or "magic eye" pictures. It depends on the image size, but in this particular case, with the Trinity photo(s) being quite large, I found about 18 inches worked. Try looking at the images cross-eyed, then relax your eyes outwards until looking "through" the images into the distance. Eventually a 3rd central image starts to appear, which is the left & right merged - and this image has a magical 3D look about it, like the parts of it are floating at various depths instead of flat and two dimensional. I guess different techniques work for different people, and some perhaps not at all, but it's worth a try.

Here's another photo of the Doom in Trinity:

No 'painting by numbers' in those days Prof. Thank you for the close up.

Very atmospheric painting Slim!

Thanks, Prof. As I said, I'm not very good with a camera, and taking a picture of the painting doesn't do it justice - lighting errors, distortion, glare and suchlike. I'm looking at the painting now - it's on the wall over my office door. The detail is incredible, e.g. the sunlight streaming through on the right, which you can just about make out in the pic, to the extent that when I was very young, I did not believe he had painted it, but belived it was a photograph. Canon Clitheroe was always associated with Holy Trinity. My father was in the CLB (Church Lads' Brigade), and they used to practice under Canon Clitheroe at the old Drill Hall, which was opposite where Ikea now stands. He won a replica of the Odell Cup, which I still have, for the "smartest individual turnout", and his title on the inscription is "Drummer", July 10 1933.

Here is another of Holy Trinity choir in the early 70s I think.