h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Coventry Cathedral - A87769697
Author: Elentari - U202814

I thought it was about time I got off my backside and wrote another entry, and this is a special place.

I have photographs which can be used if/when this gets picked.

A lovely entry about an important piece of Britain's cultural landscape.

Would it be out of place to mention it's use in the film Nativity! as the stage of the school's nativity play?


Geggs

This is a good article on an important building.

It gives an excellent account of the history of the cathedral, its wartime destruction and its role in reconciliation. I do wonder if you could have said more, however, about the new cathedral.

I have a childhood memory of being taken round the two cathedrals when the new one was still new. I remember the tapestry of Christ in majesty.

Nice to see you back in PR Entry is concise, well-rounded and appealing. Thank you.

Hi Elentari, thanks for writing this

I've actually been here and I can attest to the effect it has senses about the destruction of war. It is indeed a special place.

I do think "heaven" should be capitalised and you can also link to A18927859

You need a title tag on "admission fee"

I do look forward to seeing your photographs, and this gracing the Front Page.



GB

<> should have been "it has on the senses"

I'd like to write more about the new cathedral but I've never actually been inside! Does anyone have any insight to share? I could go and have a look but it may be sometime before I'm back in Coventry and I don't really fancy paying the admission!

I'll look at your suggestions later, thanks for the comments!

Thinking about it, there is a virtual tour on their website, I'll watch that.

I've added more about the new cathedral and a few other bits in the reconciliation section.

I can't remember how to do a title tag though - help?

Visitors can attend the new building to attend a service or pay an admission fee to have a look around.

Thanks for adding more about the new cathedral.

I think this makes a more complete picture - though it may well be the old cathedral, with its messages about reconciliation, that is the more evocative.

Thanks GB!

Any further comments?

Hi Elentari,
First off, nice entry, couldn't find anything to correct, so I thought I'd add a few thoughts, feel free to use as much or as little as you like (including none at all ) I was lucky enough to visit earlier this year as one of the choirs I sing with was doing Choral Evensong one Saturday afternoon in February. I have some pictures too if they would be any use?

The old cathedral building is very moving. The stark outlines and traceries against the grey sky, the stone is a warm dark red. It was very still – you could hear the bustle of the town, but there was an odd serenity about the place. A couple of small trees/bushes have grown up in one corner, and various new memorials/statuary etc contrast with the often fractured ones that were part of the cathedral originally.

The new cathedral is unusual in that it is aligned north-south – the connecting ‘porch’ between it and the old building is about halfway along the old buildings north side. A vast clear window with etchings of angels across the many panes runs pretty much the height of the southern end of the new building. The large sculpture of St Michael vanquishing some foe (possibly the devil? I can’t remember) is to the right of the main entrance as you look at it.

Inside the thing that first hit me was the height. I’ve been in many cathedrals, and maybe it’s the thinness of the supporting columns and the openness of the space inside. The floor is covered in a dark stone – there are parallel rows of old pennies (e.g. pre-decimal ones with Britannia) set at intervals along the central aisle and crossing points – they help guide the processions of clergy and choir to ensure you are keeping straight while walking!

Tall windows of coloured glass (from memory fairly abstract patterns in bright colours) run the full height of each of the angled bays down each side, you can’t see them as you walk in, only as you turn back towards the old building. As someone mentioned, you’re eye is taken to the huge tapestry on the far north wall, beyond the altar. The organ pipes on either side of this rise up a bit like angled battlements. The choir stalls are of a similar style/period to the rest of the building, in a dark brown wood and have a ‘crown of thorns’ type decoration along the top of the panel behind the back row of seats - I wondered if they could put candles in them, but never got the chance to ask. There is a shop and visitor centre (includes some of the vestments as well as paintings of the blitz etc), also the choir school tucked away, all underneath and round the north-side of the buildings.

The acoustic was lovely – one of my colleagues wondered if it was partly that this building is very much ‘as designed’ – it’s not had the later add-ons and extensions and changes in ecclesiastical architectural style that some older buildings have – it all feels very one, very organic. The wooden cross originally set up after the fire is now mounted above the stairs down to the offices, song school etc, it is very moving walking under this. A replica is located on the altar of the old building.

Thanks for your comments, Rockhound. Sorry it's taken so long to reply!

Are cathedrals normally east-west? Do you know why?

HI Elentari - firstly apologies for the long time to reply - I can only read h2g2 from work, I can't log in to comment, so I kept meaning to respond, and then forgetting by the time I was at home and could reply Sorry!

As far as I know most/many cathedrals (in common with many churches) are east-west with the altar at the east end (i.e. roughly towards the Holy Land and Jerusalem) at least for the cruciform/rectangular ones. That at least was what I was told at Sunday School as a young Rockhound - though it may be one of those generally accepted things (this guy throws finds more questions than answers http://www.archaeologyuk.org/ba/ba94/feat2.shtml ) rather than an established *fact*

Thanks Rockhound, I've added a mention.

Are you hapy with this now, Elentari?

Hi,

Nice article.

Two things. Early on you say the Abbey was built as a cathedral but later you say that the parish church was upgraded to a cathedral in 1918. My (admittedly nearly non-existant) understanding is that the Abbey was only a cathedral for 7 years when the diocese of Lichfield shifted it headquarters overland.

The second thing is that pretty much every church in Europe faces east so that people sitting in the pews in the morning face the rising sun through the east windows (often quite spectacular windows too). Coventry faces north (I think) so that for all year the light comes from behind. The side walls are zig-zagged with spectacular south facing windows so a) the front is bathed in light and b) people returning from the front for special moment during church services, turn and are confronted with blazing light. For many people who have been to services there, this is a transformative experience.