Books on Coventry

Not exactly Coventry but some time ago we bought a set of books called "Old England: A Pictorial Museum Of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal, And Popular Antiquities" edited by Charles Knight. I would date these books about 1860. They are packed full of engravings from all over England with several of Coventry. I have just browsed through these again and some are quite interesting, things we have seen pictures of before but with little extras like people in the picture. I will try to scan some for the relative topics. They are fascinating books with lots of history as well, some are quite expensive but the ones we bought were in poor condition so not so bad.

Just had the book "101 views of Coventry, Rugby, Leamington, Kenilworth, Warwick and District" published by W H Smith for my birthday. Many pictures you can see on the internet but nice to have them in a book. Not dated but it is not a modern book. I found it on the Oxfam Book Shop web page. There is quite a few Coventry books on there.

It is a lovely selection of photos, Anne, although most, like you say, are now scattered around the internet. The nearest I've managed to date it yet is around 1910, which was roughly when most of the images appeared as postcards.

Sydney Bunney book for £3.11 inc postage.

Caution, when people follow links to things on Ebay and Amazon, there is a chance that the price goes up because of the apparent interest. This is true of the book above. There are now cheaper copies available.

Over the years I have bought a lot of books about Coventry and other local history subjects. Many of them I buy, look at the pictures use them for reference and promise myself I will read them. Short of something to read a few days ago I thought right and took Life in an old English Town by Mary Dormer Harris off the shelf and read it. ( Interesting it once belonged to a Mrs Rotherham of Holyhead Road ) Not an easy book to read as she keeps breaking into literal translation. I did not realise that there was so much conflict between the Priors and the Earls half. Is there a map that shows where the divide was ? Also interested to read that the churches were used for various other things than religion, business transactions etc. She mentions in the book another book in the Social England Series which I managed to get a copy of called Evolution of the English House by Sidney O Addy, again a very interesting book but it helped me with one thing I have always wondered about. When looking at documents that mention buildings they always mention the number of "bays" I was never sure exactly what this meant. Mr Addy explains it in very good detail (Apologies if you already know this) Early ancient buildings were supported by "forks" or crucks and shaped like upturned ships. The easy way to extend these buildings was in the length. These buildings were divided into bays or half bays, a bay being 16 or 8 feet. A bay was just sufficient length to accommodate a long yoke of four oxen abreast. they ploughed the land 4 abreast so it was considered necessary that they should stand together in the house. In later houses straight walls were added to the side and the tie beams lengthened at the top. So the measurement "bay" was still used in later centuries to describe the size of a building. It is still used today. I have been informed that when a factory is put up a bay is measured between the steel uprights ! So thank you My Addy, you have helped me a lot. There are several other books in the Social England Series I would like to read but there does not seem to be any more available at the moment !

Hi Anne, Mary's work is inspirational in scope. There isn't a map as far as I know and I guess that it changed over the years as more religious houses settled in the city. The priory also owned settlements outside the city. I believe that there are some disputes over the authenticity of some of the early documents and whether they were forgeries or copies of genuine older documents. I'm not even 100% sure if the roads are exactly where they used to be. We could guess. The payment for which bits of wall might help. The ward boundaries too. If I remember rightly the boundary on the west was the Radford Brook and cut West Orchard in half. Holy Trinity was probably the Prior's half and the castle wall was probably somewhere between Pepper Lane/Bayley Lane and Holy Trinity. On the Bradford map, there is a boundary line that respects that with the exception of a funny loop cutting through Pepper Lane and even bisecting the gaol/Country Hall. It skirts St Michael's graveyard cuts through between New Street and Jordan Well before running up the middle of Cox Street/Mill Lane. Thus putting the Earl's mill on his half. The odd bump on Pepper Lane might indicate the location of an early motte but that would surely place it on the Earl's side? Unless it was given up when the main residence moved to Cheylesmore? The bisected gaol may indicate that it was shared by the two halves. I'm tempted to believe it was originally the castle keep, which were repurposed to serve as gaols as they were as hard to get out of as they were to get in. But your guess is as good as mine.

I do like the above map Helen. I don't know how you ladies can overload your brains with all the info you share with us. We all appreciate it, thank you.

Dreamtime, I don't overload my brain ! I write it down in a post and then forget it ! At least then I can refer to it in the future😡. Never been very good at retaining facts.🤔

Ditto. I remember that there is information and roughly where to find it. Much of mine is stored in Powerpoint. That map is great and one of the first things I saved to my machine. I made a mental note when it turned up on Coventry Digital.

I recently read a book that was free on my Kindle. It's called Telling Tales with content by the Coventry Writers Group and published to celebrate the City of Culture 2021. While not a history book it was a very enjoyable collection of recollections, poems and stories from people with connections to Coventry.

I found another new book called Elephants of Coventry by Adam Wood and Scott Duffin. It's a large-sized quite thick paperback packed with lots of photos and information. I think it's available on line and in local gift and bookshops.

Anne proves what a champion she is, yet again Neil, the page is from a book called Coventry Views and Reviews (illustrated) up-to-date. A real treasure and one worth scanning for inclusion in Coventry Digital. All about Coventry business printed about 1896. Packed with pictures and details. I'd rate it as one of the must haves but it only comes up rarely and isn't online as far as I know. Rob has a copy, as do I.

Thanks Helen - I know some of the earlier directories occasionally have full page Ads with pics on. Keep hunting people!!