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Transcript from Coventry City Council December 1979 brochure , with updates where needed.
The area around Holy Trinity Church and the Cathedral was declared a Conservation Area on 8th August 1969. It includes some of the most important of Coventry's historic remains and gives the most complete remaining impression of the City's character before the massive industrial expansion and accompanying redevelopment of the twentieth century.
Its narrow streets and alleys and attractive trees and lawns form a remarkable contrast with the redeveloped areas which abut on all sides. Its national importance was recognised when the Department of the Environment granted it the status of an Outstanding Conservation Area in December 1976. (The 'outstanding' status ceased to be a recognized category (nation-wide) some years later.)
This narrow cobbled lane from which the Conservation Area derives its name runs up into the heart of the area between Nos. 8 and 9 Priory Row. It winds picturesquely up the steep northern slope of the hill between an interesting mixture of old and new development.
Historical BackgroundThe area which occupies the top of the low hill on which medieval Coventry developed has throughout the centuries been the focus of the City's civic and religious life, as represented in medieval times by castle and priory, and today by Council House and Cathedral. No trace of the 12th century castle of the Earl of Chester survived the medieval period. Bayley Lane, however, is assumed to follow the line of the castle's outer fortifications and attests to their original extent. The slight lean of the Cathedral spire can be attributed to part of its foundations having sunk into the filled-in defensive ditch. Coventry's major civic buildings (dating back to the 14th-century St. Mary's Hall) now occupy the bulk of the castle site. While the southern part of the present day conservation area had become the centre of Coventry's local government, the northern half had become the site of an important religious foundation. Although tradition has it that a Saxon nunnery dedicated to St Osburg (or Osburgha) first occupied the site, the first firm evidence is for the foundation of the Benedictine Priory of St Mary by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Godiva. Current thinking is that the church was founded in the 1020s or 1030s, but dedicated in 1043. In 1095 the new priory church was made the seat of
the Bishop of Lichfield, who was thenceforth known variously as the Bishop
of Coventry or the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfleld. However, at the
dissolution of 1538 the abbey was suppressed, the Cathedral Church was
quickly demolished and the bishops returned to Lichfleld. A diocese
of Coventry was not to be restored until 1918. | |
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The Area TodayApproaching the conservation area from Trinity Street, a short flight of steps leads the pedestrian from the bustle of the City Centre to the quiet and calm of the delightful lane called Priory Row. Immediately on the left is a short terrace of early 15th century timber framed houses which with the adjacent ruins of the priory foundations and the eccentric Victorian Gothic fantasy of the Bluecoat School, form a picturesque group. Dendrochronological (tree-ring) dating of these buildings (Lychgate Cottages, or 3-5 Priory Row) a few years ago surprised us all, because it revealed that all the timbers dated from the early 15th century - showing that the houses must have been contemporary with the Benedictine cathedral church before its destruction! Pictures of the cathedral on the Phoenix Initiative / Past Forward web sites show these houses up against the south-west tower of the church, backing on to the Priory Court. Passing the ruins of the priory foundations,
one comes to the finest group of Georgian buildings surviving in
the City. Nos. 7 to 11 Priory Row comprises five fine
three storey town houses (see front cover picture at top of this web
page), each built to individual design and on a different building
line. Together they form a harmonious and interesting group which
acts as a perfect foil to the medieval stonework and the trees and lawns
of the Cathedral precincts. No. 11 has a particularly interesting
history. The finest of the group, it suffered a direct hit in the
Second World War, only the front facade remaining. This was retained
and the house behind was rebuilt to conform as closely as possible to the
original. | |
Holy Trinity Church and Coventry CrossTo the south side of Priory Row, behind its narrow wooded graveyard lies the impressive bulk of this magnificent cruciform church. Originally a Norman foundation, it was in existence by 1113 as a chapel serving the Priors half of the City. This church was destroyed by fire in 1257. Remains of the rebuilt 13th century church survive in considerable quantity in the present structure which dates in the majority from the late 14th and 15th centuries. The chancel may date from as late as the mid 16th century. In 1666 the spire and upper part of the tower fell in a great storm, but were rebuilt on an even grander scale within three years to its present height of 237 feet, making it the second tallest of the City's three medieval spires. The replica of the magnificent medieval market cross was erected in 1976. The original cross, erected in 1541 to replace a smaller structure of 1422 stood in Cross Cheaping. It was demolished in 1771 when attempts were being made to remove obstructions in the City's streets. By that time the 57 feet high structure had fallen into extensive decay. To the immediate south of the Cross is located the
County Hall which was built in 1783-4 on the site of an old guildhall of
the City. Designed by a Samuel Eglinton it was one of the few 18th
century public buildings in Coventry of any architectural distinction and
is the only one to survive. It has a fine stone faced classical
frontage onto Cuckoo Lane. The red brick frontage onto Bayley Lane
formerly contained the house of the governor of the gaol which stood on an
adjacent site. | |
St Mary's Hall
The present building stands on the site of the first hall built for the Merchant Guild of St Mary's soon after its foundation in 1340. The stone and half timbered buildings date mostly from the late 14th and 15th centuries. They comprise the stone built hall and gatehouse - on the Bayley Lane frontage, and two ranges of timber framed buildings. These are ranged around a small rectangular courtyard. To the south of this main group stand the ancient stone built kitchen and the three storeyed stone tower, known as Caesar's Tower, which may be a rebuilding of part of the original castle. The centrepiece of the group is the hall itself
which was rebuilt between 1394 and 1414 when the Guild of St Mary's was
absorbed by the more powerful Trinity Guild. It is built in a
perpendicular style similar to St Michael's and may have been the work of
the same masons. Internally it is notable for a fine wooden roof, a
remarkable medieval tapestry and the great North Window. In the late
middle ages the St Mary's Hall complex became the meeting place of the
powerful Trinity Guild and the City's Court Leet and Council, who between
them controlled most of the City's financial legislative and
administrative affairs and established Coventry as one of the four leading
towns outside London. | |
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The narrow medieval streets of Hay Lane and Bayley Lane lend a more urban character to this corner of the Conservation Area. Unpretentious brick frontages in the former, cladding earlier timber framed structures, create an attractive early 19th century street scene. The Golden Cross public house is a timber framed jettied house dating from the 16th century. Hugging the cliff-like red sandstone walls of the old cathedral, Bayley Lane still retains a medieval atmosphere. In addition to the Cathedral and St Mary's Hall there are other fine buildings in the street which cover a variety of styles and ages. They include the charming 16th century timber framed cottage with carved gable and corner post, the early 19th century 'Greek Revival' Draper's Hall; and the former police station next to St Mary's Hall, which was erected in 1863 and enlarged at several later dates in a tudor red sand-stone style to match the Hall. Historically, St Michael's Church was the parish church of the Earl's half of the City. In medieval times it was very closely connected with the guilds and was always a focus of civic life. St Michael's was one of the largest parish churches in England, having been built on a grand scale between 1373 and 1450 in the fully developed perpendicular gothic style. The magnificent tower and spire survived the wartime destruction and, at nearly 300 feet high, is the third tallest in England. In 1918 the diocese of Coventry was created and St Michael's became the Cathedral. After the destruction of the church in November 1940, a competition was held to choose a design for a new cathedral. Sir Basil Spence's now world famous design was selected and involved retaining the ruins of the medieval church and building a monumental new cathedral in a wholly modern style on a north-south axis to the north. The new cathedral was consecrated in 1962 by Queen Elizabeth II. Beyond the east end of the Cathedral ruins the townscape opens out to the lawns and modern buildings of Coventry University (formerly the Lanchester Polytechnic). The well treed graveyard of St Michael's has been preserved within this new development and serves to link it in atmosphere to the older parts of the conservation area. To the north of the new cathedral a fine modern addition to the townscape is formed by Cathedral Square, laid out in 1974 and surrounded by large scale modern buildings. Council HouseThe remaining major building in the conservation area is the Council House. It was built between 1913 and 1917 after a design competition which was won by the Birmingham Architects, Edward Garret and H. W. Simister. One of the conditions of the competition was that the design should be in keeping with the adjacent St Mary's Hall. Since the war a modern square has been opened up in front of its principal facade. The latter can now be appreciated in its entirety for the first time. The FutureWith the granting of outstanding conservation area status, grants towards approved works of enhancement are now available from the Department of the Environment, although funds set aside for this purpose are limited and have to be shared between all the outstanding conservation areas in the country. Most of the important buildings in the conservation area have been well restored and maintained over the years. In addition, Draper's Hall has been the subject of improvement works and some improvements are proposed for 9-10a Hay Lane. In 1979 the Cathedral ruins, spire and tower underwent extensive restoration and similar works on Holy Trinity Church are nearing completion. [Needs Updating! Who allowed the "transformed approach" to be lost?] The most important enhancement schemes in the conservation area in the future will be those involving new building. A major development is intended for the site of the existing library which will extend to High Street and form the eastern edge of Broadgate. This will transform the approach to the conservation area from the main shopping areas. [Needs Updating!] Further major development, including a new city hall and city library, is planned for the site bounded by Earl Street, St Mary's Street, the top of Priory Street and the Reference Library, where at present, temporary buildings detract from the character of this part of the conservation area. [Need
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