Helen F - Modelling the city

Ricoh Arena model in 45,000 toothpicks

I'm well set for images of St Mary's Hall, including some impressively old views but there are a few niggling gaps. The plans read from left to right as they go up the building. On the ground floor I could do with a few more pictures of the guild room, on the right of the main gate as you look at it from the outside. I've got a few pictures looking towards the west but none to the east. While the scullery going into the kitchen is mostly newish, I have no photos that capture that space from the inside. The other end of the kitchen, including the stairs to the hall are also lacking in decent pictures. While the kitchen has been knocked about, some more images of that end might be helpful. On the first floor, I haven't got any photos looking down from the hall to the kitchens although I have got pictures of the door. Of the room next door, I have pictures looking from the door but none looking the other way. The way into Caesar's tower from that level is also a bit of a mystery. The second floor on the plans is somewhat complicated. The South range (right side of the plans) is 3 storey but the East range (top of the plans) and North range (left side) seem to be only 2 storey. The North side is fairly simple, give or take changed windows and doors but the East range has changed a lot. The ground floor used to be open to the elements and the stairway to the first floor on the south side is the bit we are familiar with. It's how you get to the Great Hall. The floor above the East range has a very fine window all the way along but doesn't seem open to the public. Originally it was one big room with stairs on the top edge of the map. The stairs don't appear on the modern maps and aren't pictured on the ground floor at all. The room was almost as grand as the Great Hall with carved filigree roof supports to match. I assume that those have long since gone because there are no photographs of anything like it. It seems like that area is used as a landing and office now. There are no photos of it that I can find. The stairs at the South end (right side of the plans) are modern I'm guessing but I don't know where they come from or go to. Of Caesar's tower, only the doorways need a bit of photographic love. I have a set of photos but haven't worked out which level applies to which photo. The number of times I photograph a doorway going in but forget coming out. So if you've got any photos of these odd bits or you find yourself able to capture them, I'd be very grateful if you could share them. Incidentally the vaulted space at the top of the plans known as the Muniments Room is 'modern'. Edited by member, 6th Oct 2019 6:19 pm

Helen, I expect that with your extensive research that you have already seen this article, however in case you haven't it is about The St Mary's Guildhall kitchens: Coventry planning

Outstanding Argon! No, I hadn't seen it. It's got some very interesting stuff including images I hadn't seen before eg Fig 8. The plan from before the main staircase was enclosed is particularly useful. Thanks a lot.

Agreed - great find argon. Is the Knaves Post still there?

I'm guessing that the knaves post is at the Herbert. The kitchen has been given another level.

Hi Helen. As there are references in this thread - were the Leper Chapel and Spon Hospital one and the same? The Herbert has this one of the hospital by William Brooke. But Colin’s site also shows this on the Leper Chapel. We’re they the same and whereabouts were they?

Neil, there are several articles in the newspaper and they all say that the church of St James and St Christopher was erroneously called the leper chapel. One article says that it was further out and long since gone. The chapel on the bridge was used by travellers to make their devotions before entering the city. It says that Chapelfields is named after the old leper chapel. An article I have found on Google in the Telegraph says that in 2007, 800 year old bones that were believed to be of a leper were found when digging foundations and it says the chapel was in the vicinity of the junction of Allesley Old Road and Hearsall Lane. An extract from the Coventry Society article about Historic Chapelfields. The picture they use is the second one on your post. When Hugh Kevilock, Earl of Chester, had returned from a crusade around 1100 he built a hospice and a chapel to house one of his knights who had contracted leprosy. The leper hospital was moved to Alcester in the 17th century but the chapel survived until it was demolished to build the Chapelfields estate, the 'chapel in the fields' being the source of the name. The chapel had been called St Mary Magdalen, which name still exists in the 'Blue Roofed Church' at the top of Hearsall Lane.

Anne's spot on as per usual The 1850 map puts a labelled mark a short way down Hearsall Lane, just south of Broomfield Place and about halfway between Hearsall Lane and Craven Street. The barn had gone by then but it would have been demolished within living memory so is probably accurate. Troughton also sketched it and the Herbert has it in the History Centre. It shows a few more details, including windows that look a lot more like a medieval building than a barn but it's near impossible to work out a layout of the original buildings. The Chapel near the river is aptly named after St Christopher because originally there would have been a ford running passed it, not the current bridge. There was an earlier pack horse bridge but I think that it would have been further south and east, where the river narrows.

Thanks both. So what/where was Spon Hospital then?

The leper chapel/barn was part of the hospital. Often hospitals were no more than the outer isles of a chapel but I don't know about the Spon hospital.

Neil, post 82, the painting from the Herbert shows the Chapel of St James and St Christopher. I went to school at the Jnr Tech so I remember when there was much more than remains today. I recall the steps for instance. Edited by member, 10th Jan 2020 1:54 pm

Thanks Prof - that painting is recorded as being "Remains of Spon Hospital"? Edited by member, 10th Jan 2020 2:10 pm

As Anne writes, a lot of people mix up the two because they weren't aware that there was the second building as in your post. They knew that there was a leper hospital in Spon End and assumed that they were the same building. Also, Hearsall Lane to Craven Street is where they've found all the leper skeletons. Edited by member, 10th Jan 2020 3:26 pm