



Helen F Warrington All posts by this member | 1 of 34 Tue 12th Jan 2016 11:27pm Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 Some of you will come across references to bits of St Mary's Priory that survived the demolition, and were visible before modern excavations. One of the buildings referred was called the Parliament House but there didn't seem to be any discussion as to it's actual location.
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Annewiggy Tamworth All posts by this member | 2 of 34 Wed 13th Jan 2016 11:19am Member: Joined Jan 2013 Total posts:1782 Helen. I have a copy of "Coventry it's history & antiquities" by Benjamin Poole. He gives quite a long description of that area in 1869. I copied it out some time ago, in fact when they were doing Time Team so if you don't have a copy I can easily email it to you.
Not mentioned in the article but during the Wars of the Roses Parliament was held in Coventry in the Chapter House of St Mary's Priory from 1459.
Edited by member, 13th Jan 2016 11:33 am |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member Thread starter | 3 of 34 Wed 13th Jan 2016 12:12pm Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 Hi Anne, that would be great. I've tried to place some of the drawings of the remains but only a few are identifiable and many no longer exist.
The building in the pictures is called the Parliament House but as you say, the War of the Roses Parliament was in the Chapter house that is supposed to be on the other side of Hill Top but a bit further south. Looking at the diagrams of the Priory, this was probably part of the infirmary. The whole upper half could be a rebuild using demolition stone but the arches below are part of the under croft. Originally I though some of the arches were reclaimed stone but there are similar groups of arches (eg Chester) The arches were filled in by the time the sketch was made but I have a copy one paining that suggests it was still a vaulted area, even after they'd built the house on top.
Chester gateway,
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member Thread starter | 4 of 34 Fri 11th Nov 2016 12:41am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 On 4th Nov 2016 2:53pm, Osmiroid said:
I know what most of them are. What you're looking at is the north end of the street called New Buildings, and looking south past it. A deceptive name because both that and New Street were erected just before the Civil War after some of the houses outside the wall were demolished to form a clear area so that the buildings weren't used as cover for enemy gunmen. On the left is the Priory mill and in front is the pond formed by the Sherbourne and the Radford Brook. The buildings curve round to just beyond that taller building with the flatter roof, where New Buildings goes off to the left and right and turns into Ironmongers. The tall building between Holy Trinity and the trees is the north tower of St Mary's before it was converted into the current form of the Blue Coat School.On 30th Apr 2016 7:13am, Helen F said:
Ha, I'd forgotten that one Dutchman
Have any of the buildings been identified? If I am reading it correctly the light building to the right of the church would be something on Butcher Row? And the foreground interestingly pre the demolition for Trinity St.![]() ![]() |
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Osmiroid UK All posts by this member | 5 of 34 Fri 11th Nov 2016 1:28am Member: Joined Aug 2013 Total posts:402 Brilliant info Helen, thanks :) |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member Thread starter | 6 of 34 Fri 11th Nov 2016 11:21am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 It's a pleasure to be able to pass on what others have shared.
Incidentally, in and before Henry VIII's time the scene would have been very different. It would have been dominated by St Mary's, stretching from the towers on the right and then well off to the left. The towers would have been about twice the current height with steeple on top, shorter than Holy Trinity because the design wouldn't have supported something as impressive. The central tower would be just left of St Michael's I think and would also have been shortish. I'm not sure how much of the two churches' towers would have been visible over the main body of St Mary's. Between the viewpoint and the cathedral would have been the cloister and in front of that the kitchen and a few minor buildings.
The mill would have been there on the left. By the time the drawing was made it was probably a saw mill and may have been one back to at least the 1600s, although a lot of the water redirection was as old as the priory. The view to the right of the scene would have been largely uninterrupted until you got to the bottom of Palmer lane and to the right of that, Bishop Street and the grammar school. Behind and to the left was the Hales Street Gate, then known as the Priory Gate. The road was called Priory Lane at that point and (having now checked) had that name in 1750. While a few genuinely new buildings were slotted in between and behind the civil war era buildings as can be seen in the drawing, the bulk of the building done on the street was well off to the left, beyond Hill Top, where factory buildings were erected over the remains of the priory and its out buildings and stretched off to the more modern Priory Lane. There was a funny collection of very old buildings at the bridge that also included a saw mill but I'm not sure that was its original purpose. Beyond that there was Miller Lane and by the name of the road one assumes what was originally a flour mill. Beyond that there was the Earl's Mill at the end of Cox Street (formerly Earl's Mill Lane) and this was also a flour mill.
To the left of the scene is Pool Meadow and that was what you'd have seen till at least 1750 although the land was slowly drying. The original pools were part of the Priory and used as fish farms. The mill pond in the scene had gone by 1850 and later became the Hales Street market area. It was the point where large sections of the rivers started to be built over.
Post copied from topic Hales Street on 31st Mar 2017 6:29 pm |
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Prof Gloucester All posts by this member | 7 of 34 Fri 31st Mar 2017 5:59pm Member: Joined Jul 2014 Total posts:1542 Re St Mary's Priory Helen F: would you agree that in essence it must have resembled Lichfield Cathedral (on a similar plan) though hemmed in by buildings might not have looked so impressive from the West end, the pier bases of which still remain in Priory Row and in the near top of New Buildings. This is how I always have imagined it. There are artists' impressions of the Priory but to me they look rather squat when compared with Lichfield. |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member Thread starter | 8 of 34 Fri 31st Mar 2017 8:43pm Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 It's easy to forget that all the other cathedrals kept changing after St Mary's was demolished. Tall spires were a later addition to churches and St Mary's wasn't built for them. It still had its pre Norman appearance as far as anyone knows. Had it survived, who knows what would have happened to it. The estimates of tower size are based on the excavated pillars and the assumptions that they couldn't have supported anything very tall. Images that survive (including a tapestry) show them a bit dumpy and angular. You can see them behind Holy Trinity and St Michaels.
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Prof Gloucester All posts by this member | 9 of 34 Sat 8th Apr 2017 8:31pm Member: Joined Jul 2014 Total posts:1542 What a mine of information Helen F! I am quite amazed by the tapestry. Does it still exist and if so where? I take the point about the squat towers of St Mary's, so after all it was not as impressive as Lichfield, though had it been so it might have dwarfed Holy Trinity and St Michael's churches which are fine specimens of medieval architecture. Regarding the kink in the line of St Michael's, some churches were designed with a kink in the choir to symbolise how Christ hung on the Cross, or so I read somewhere. |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member Thread starter | 10 of 34 Sat 8th Apr 2017 11:06pm Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 Sheldon Tapestry Map
The tapestry is at the Warwick Market Hall Museum but I haven't investigated how accessible it is.
My knowledge is from snippets I've picked up while looking for details about the appearance of the city, so it's not complete or chronological. You could well be right about the kink, I've just been to Suffolk and at least one of the churches was wonky too but the piecemeal way the church was built must have made the different phases hard to keep aligned.
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Annewiggy Tamworth All posts by this member | 11 of 34 Sun 9th Apr 2017 11:00am Member: Joined Jan 2013 Total posts:1782 The web site says the Market Hall Museum was refurbished in February. It is open Tuesday to Saturdays, it says it's open Sundays in April but does not appear to be open today. It is FREE. It also says it is level access on the ground floor and a lift to the first floor although the old floors are uneven. Hope this helps.
Warwick Market Hall Museum
My daughters friend works there so she is going to find out if the tapestry is still in the museum.
Edited by member, 9th Apr 2017 9:25 pm |
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Helen F Warrington All posts by this member Thread starter | 12 of 34 Sun 14th Jan 2018 10:25am Moderator: Joined Mar 2013 Total posts:2441 ![]() ![]() |
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Rob Orland Historic Coventry All posts by this member | 13 of 34 Sun 14th Jan 2018 10:42am Webmaster: Joined Jan 2010 Total posts:1502 That's fabulous Helen, and yes, anything could be possible, especially if, as you suggest, the original drawing was made from memory. I guess if I was to visit a town and then make a sketch later, I'd probably recall the salient points - but not necessarily in the right order, as Eric Morecambe would've said! |
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Annewiggy Tamworth All posts by this member | 14 of 34 Sun 14th Jan 2018 11:59am Member: Joined Jan 2013 Total posts:1782 This is a 1732 view from the south which seems to agree with your theory Helen (sorry about the quality, difficult to take a framed picture). Greyfriars Gate can just be seen where the coach is heading for and showing trees outside as on the 1500's picture. St John's on the left although it is called Bablake Church on this and the spires from the left marked as Greyfriars, Holy Trinity and St Michael's. Coventry Cross can just be seen to the right of Greyfriars.
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NeilsYard Coventry All posts by this member | 15 of 34 Sun 14th Jan 2018 1:21pm Member: Joined Aug 2010 Total posts:2812 Great stuff Helen/Anne ![]() |
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