Butcher Row ('Great' and 'Little')

It's wonderful to see these two photos, some years apart, I think. The side window and the alley clearly show the same building. I love the proud family.

Don't get me started! Putting the cross down Butcher Row in the nice pleasant minimalist layout we have enjoyed in recent years. My estimation in this picture, of the original location, as previously mentioned where the green arrow is. On drones, a sub 250 gram drone could be used, virtually no rules on them, apart from airports and prisons. I watch DJ Audits on YouTube, he has done the police station and a few other Coventry places, can't remember if he used the drone each time though, but he nearly always uses it in his videos.

A slight aside but great to see you back on here posting again, Osmiroid! Always love your posts. Hope all is well.

Hi Osmiroid Ditto what Neil wrote. As for where the cross used to be, I've gone round in circles so many times! The layout of Broadgate has changed so much it's bewildering but I think it was probably where your red mark is. It was roughly opposite the old street into the market and in the middle of the road but not the buildings as the pavements weren't the same size on both sides. It took me ages to realise that Broadgate now, Broadgate in that photo and Broadgate at the time of the cross were all different.

Thanks Neil and Helen, I'm OK, I hope you are too ☺ I had another tablet fail, lost some nice Coventry pictures, luckily not hundreds. Helen, you may be right, I intended the red mark to be the side of the Royal Vault facing the old Broadgate and the cross further up, and that's if I mean the same one, I will try and find the picture.

This is the picture. The Coventry Society position it here. So I seem to be out a bit, but obviously Butcher Row is totally incorrect. I suppose there is no campaign to get it built where it actually really was.

Yes Osmiroid, I looked at much the same information. The view that fits best but isn't as pleasing is the top image (including the odd shaped paving). As far as I can tell it is also the oldest view. The very sexy drawing showing a view to the right of the cross at Holy Trinity was created too late to have captured that view. It's good fiction in other words. As far as I can tell, the buildings to the right of the Spicerstoke gap in the first photo are possibly brick clad in later years - the twin roof stays the same behind a single front which can be seen from above. The buildings behind in the Spicerstoke have features that could easily be older than the Georgianised fronts and the building at the end, on the corner of Derby Lane was definitely half timbered. The Spicerstoke gap at the top of the Great Butchery looks too narrow but it is likely that the Cross Cheaping side was changed more than the Broadgate side. There is certainly a building built around the end, which again is more obvious when seen from high up. Take that away and the view of the top of the Great Butchery becomes visible. It's possible that the reason Holy Trinity spire doesn't show in the first image is because it was directly behind the cross. More work in this area I think.

These are from my rough version of the city, using the Board of Health map location for the cross.

Thanks for adding that, Helen.

I used the fabulous piece of art known as the 1851 Board of Health map to create an overlay with a modern aerial view on this Historic Coventry page. With Holy Trinity Church and parts of High Street, Bayley Lane & Cuckoo Lane as common ground to old and new, hopefully the "Site of Ancient Cross" marked on the 1851 map is correct and gives us our spot near to the corner of Cathedral Lanes... which also explains why it wouldn't really be practical or desirable to place the new cross exactly on its original spot. I also recently added a new passage to the bottom of that page, discussing the history of "replica" crosses.

A well known image but I had to add this here off Facebook after someone colourised - doesn't it bring it all to life!

That turned out good! There are various free online apps to colourise pictures, it's good to try more than one for a picture sometimes, because the results can vary between good and bad. There are also photo enhance apps, results can vary again, sometimes a picture can be fully improved, sometimes there is part distortion and part improvement. Replace one kind of rough with another kind of rough. In this picture it worked well on the woodwork of the white building on the right mostly.

That's brill, Osmiroid. Thanks

Nice one, Osmiroid. For an even better result, split the image up into zones, then improve them separately and then stitch them back together, starting with the most distant first. But, the effect is more than good enough as it is.

Can anyone confirm which one was No.10 Butcher Row please and do we have a piccy of it? In contact with someone who had a relation who lived there in the early 20th century who is asking..............