We awoke this morning to our first day of sunshine, and after a light breakfast at the cottage drove north to Coventry. Coventry Cathedral was almost completely destroyed during World War Two, and today only its outer shell and spire remain. A new cathedral was built next to the old one, and together they are poignant symbols of remembrance and reconciliation.
Around the ruins of the old cathedral are the base of a spiral staircase and a First World War memorial plaque that was shattered and pieced back together.
The spire, which survived the bombing on the night of November 14, November 1940, is the third highest in England, measuring 295 feet.
Small pieces of stained glass survived the bombing, and these can still be seen in windows around the cathedral.
Shortly after the bombing the cathedral's stone mason noticed two of the charred medieval roof timbers laying on top of one another, bound them together in the form of a cross, and placed them on the altar. Today, the Charred Cross and the Altar of Reconciliation are found in the ruins of the old cathedral, and several services are still held in the ruins.
The new cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence and consecrated in May 1962, is built with the same local sandstone as the old church but is almost hauntingly modern. It’s an unusual and simplistic building with a huge, airy nave, a glorious organ, and several minimalist chapels off to the side. Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem was composed for the opening of the new cathedral, and the original score can be found in the museum in the undercroft.
Behind the altar is the Tapestry of Christ in Glory, the world's largest tapestry. Depicting Jesus and the four Evangelists, it is very colourful and one's eyes are immediately drawn to it when entering the cathedral.
The giant baptistry window contains 195 panels of coloured glass, arranged to depict baptism and the way in which Christ breaks into human life (I didn't see it, but then again I'm colour blind). In front of it is the baptistry font, a three-ton boulder imported from Bethlehem.
After lunch in the cathedral café we left Coventry and drove the short distance to Rugby for a tour of Rugby School. The school's graduates include Austin and Neville Chamberlain, Lewis Carroll, and Salman Rushdie, and it is one of England’s most well-known public (private) schools. It lends its name to the game of rugby, which was invented and first played on the Close, pictured here.
The highlight of our tour was a Classics classroom which is located at the top of a spiral staircase and has bookshelves that reach to the ceiling two stories above.
Attached to the walls of the room are parts of old desks on which past pupils (including one of the Chamberlain brothers) carved their names. It's hard to tell from the picture, but some of them were as neat as any modern computer font and looked as if they had been professionally done.
This is the organ from the Temple Speech Room, used for major ceremonies and concerts. More schools should have organs in their auditoriums...
We had late afternoon tea in the village, and then on the way back to the cottage stopped in Southam for dinner at the Bowling Green Inn - our first traditional pub meal! Success rate of English pubs so far: 100%. Being Sunday tomorrow we will be relaxing in the morning, so who knows where we'll end up in the afternoon.
GWV
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