| St Mary's Guildhall | |
|---|---|
 The entrance to St Mary's Hall in Bayley Lane, Coventry. | |
| Location | Coventry, West Midlands |
| Coordinates | 52°24′28″N1°30′28″W / 52.4077°N 1.5078°W |
| Built | 1342 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Designated | 5 February 1955 |
| Reference no. | 1116402 |
  Location of St Mary's Guildhall in West Midlands county | |
St Mary's Hall is a municipal building in Bayley Lane in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It is a Grade I listed building. [1]
The building was built in the medieval style between 1340 and 1342 and much altered and extended in 1460. [1]
The guildhall originally served as the headquarters of the merchant guild of St Mary, [2] and subsequently of the united guilds of the Holy Trinity, St Mary, St John the Baptist and St Katherine, [3] which merged in 1392. [4]
Following the suppression of the chantries and religious guilds under King Edward VI in 1547, for a time it served as the city's armoury and as its treasury (until 1822), [5] as well as the headquarters for administration for the city council (until the Council House opened in 1920). [6]
In November 1569, following the Catholic Rising of the North, Mary, Queen of Scots was rushed south from Tutbury Castle to Coventry. [7] [8] Elizabeth I sent a letter, instructing the people of Coventry to look after Mary. [9] She suggested that Mary be held somewhere secure, such as Coventry Castle. However, by that time the castle was too decayed and Mary was instead first held at the Bull Inn, Smithford Street before being moved to the Mayoress's Parlour in St Mary's Guildhall. [10] Following the defeat of the rebels, Mary was once more sent north to Chatsworth in May 1570. [11]
On 3 April 1604 Princess Elizabeth Stuart and her ladies rode from Coombe Abbey to Coventry. She heard a sermon in St Michael's Church and dined in St Mary's Hall. [12] Prince Henry Stuart rode to Coventry from Leicester on 20 August 1612 and had supper in St Mary's Hall. He stayed at a house in Little Park street. [13] Later in the 1600s, the Guildhall was used as armoury during the English Civil War. [4]
In the 1750s, the medieval flooring was replaced with a sprung wooden floor for dancing. [4]
In January 1847, formerly enslaved person and famous American abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a lecture at St. Mary's Guildhall during his speaking tour of Great Britain and Ireland. [14] The crowd of a ‘sea of upturned faces' was noted by Douglass, who said that this 'filled him with hope that the day was not far distant when there would be not a slave in all the world’. [15] The Frederick Douglass in Coventry Project was launched in 2020 by staff and students of Coventry University to promote the cities civil rights heritage. [16]
In the 1861 the Guildhall operated as a soup kitchen. [17]
George Eld, mayor of Coventry (1834–5) was an antiquarian who encouraged appreciation of Coventry's ancient buildings. He initiated the restoration of the fourteenth-century interior of the Mayoress' parlour. [18]
The stained-glass window in the north of the Great Hall was restored in 1893 [19] and a Muniment Room was added in 1894. [20]
Restoration work by the council received the approval of the committee of the Coventry City Guild in 1930. Improvements had included the repair of the door at the north entrance to the crypt and providing glass and grilles in the windows of the fore crypt. Outside the crumbling exterior stonework was stabilized. [21]
Further restoration work began in 2020, [22] with £5.6m from a council Cultural Capital Investment Programme spent on the project. [23] The work was completed in July 2022. It includes a lift to provide wheelchair access to the first floor, 360 degrees panoramic views of all the rooms on digital tour tablets and a medieval kitchen that was revealed to visitors for the first time in over a century. [24]
The building also has a vaulted undercroft [25] which is now used as a tea room called Tales of Tea. [26]
The building retains a collection of royal portraits from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, arms and armour and fine stained glass. A marble statue of Lady Godiva by William Calder Marshall [27] is housed in an oriel with fragmented stained-glass windows off the Great hall. [19]
Notable paintings include a portrait by John Shackleton of King George I [28] and a portrait by Godfrey Kneller of Queen Caroline of Ansbach. [29] In 1861, the artist David Gee painted The Godiva Procession Leaving St Mary's Hall, which is now on display nearby in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry. [30]
The guildhall also houses one of the country's most important and unique medieval tapestries, [31] the Coventry Tapestry, which was created for the Guildhall somewhere between 1505 and 1515. [32] The couple portrayed in the tapestry are thought to be King Henry VI and Queen Margaret of Anjou, [33] alongside other noble figures including Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, John Talbot, 1st Earl of Shrewsbury and Lady Buckingham. [34] The tapestry and the stained glass window above it are considered one of the last shrines to the posthumous cult of Henry VI in England, [35] [36] which rivalled even the cult of the martyr Thomas Becket. [37]
During Coventry's year as European City of Culture in 2019 a conference was held about the legacy and significant of the tapestry. The St Mary’s Hall Coventry Tapestry: Weaving the Threads Together book will be launched in September 2024, featuring proceedings from the conference and new images. [38]
Lady Godiva, in Old English Godgifu, was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries.
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Although traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensional structures and sculpture. Modern vernacular usage has often extended the term "stained glass" to include domestic lead light and objets d'art created from foil glasswork exemplified in the famous lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The Cathedral Church of Saint Michael, commonly known as Coventry Cathedral, is the seat of the Bishop of Coventry and the Diocese of Coventry within the Church of England. The cathedral is located in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The current acting bishop is Ruth Worsley and the current dean is John Witcombe.
John Egerton Christmas Piper CH was an English painter, printmaker and designer of stained-glass windows and both opera and theatre sets. His work often focused on the British landscape, especially churches and monuments, and included tapestry designs, book jackets, screen prints, photography, fabrics and ceramics. He was educated at Epsom College and trained at the Richmond School of Art followed by the Royal College of Art in London. He turned from abstraction early in his career, concentrating on a more naturalistic but distinctive approach, but often worked in several different styles throughout his career.
Coventry, a city in the West Midlands, England, grew to become one of the most important cities in England during the Middle Ages due to its booming cloth and textiles trade. The city was noted for its part in the English Civil War, and later became an important industrial city during the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the centre of the British bicycle and later motor industry. The devastating Blitz in 1940 destroyed much of the city centre, and saw its rebuilding during the 1950s and 60s. The motor industry slumped during the 1970s and 80s, and Coventry saw high unemployment. However, in the new millennium the city, along with many others saw significant urban renaissance and in 2017 it was announced that the city had been awarded the title of 2021 UK City of Culture.
A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some cases museums while retaining their original names.
The Lord Leycester Hospital is one of the best preserved examples of medieval courtyard architecture in England and is a charity supporting ex-servicemen. It is located in Warwick, England, next to the West Gate, on High Street. It is a Grade I listed building. The Hospital is a prominent and internationally famous feature of Warwick. For almost 900 years buildings have been erected and civic activity has taken place on the site, starting with the chapel built in 1126. The site was donated by the 12th Earl of Warwick in the 14th century to the United Guild of the Holy Trinity and St George. The Guild Hall, Great Hall and Master's House were constructed in the late 15th century. Over the centuries, the ancient buildings and 500 year old gardens have been admired by many famous visitors such as Charles Dickens and Oscar Wilde, by Kings and Queens, such as King George V and the Queen Mother and ordinary travellers from around the world.
The Merchant Taylors' Hall in York, England, is a medieval guildhall near the city wall in the Aldwark area of the city.
The Guildhall York is a municipal building located in St Martins Courtyard, Coney Street, in York. Located behind the Mansion House, it is a Grade I listed building.
Coventry Castle was a motte and bailey castle in the city of Coventry, England. It was demolished in the late 12th century and St Mary's Guildhall was built on part of the site.
Nicholas Patrick Reyntiens OBE was a British stained-glass artist, described as "the leading practitioner of stained glass in this country."
Coventry Cross was an important landmark in the cathedral city of Coventry, England. Standing between Cuckoo Lane and Holy Trinity Church and in the alley known as Trinity Churchyard, it was a modern version of the historic market cross, such as was common in many medieval market towns.
Norwich Guildhall is a municipal building on Gaol Hill in the city of Norwich, Norfolk, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
Osburh was a Saint in Coventry, probably Anglo-Saxon but see below. Nothing about her life has survived to the present day. Her mortal remains were enshrined at Coventry. Close to the Forest of Arden, Coventry was at that time a tiny settlement.
The Guildhall is a historic building in Bore Street in Lichfield, Staffordshire in the United Kingdom. The guildhall is a Grade II listed building.
William Holland was a 19th-century British maker of stained glass and other decorative pieces. His work is represented in churches and stately homes across England, Wales, and Ireland. Holland of Warwick windows can be identified by his mark "Guil Holland Vaivic. Puix " written on a scroll in Latin in the lower right hand corner. Holland's stained glass reflects the influence of the Cambridge Camden Society and the Gothic Revival work of Thomas Willement. Willement revived in the early 19th century, the method used at York Minster to build the Great East Window in 1400 wherein coloured pieces are leaded and the lead then becomes part of the design, appearing as black lines in the window.
38–39 Bayley Lane is a former building, whose present-day site is accessible from the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum in Coventry, England. All that remains is the medieval undercroft, a fourteenth-century cellar that initially belonged to a wealthy merchant, who was a clothier. The undercroft is built with sandstone with a stone-ribbed vault for added security and strength. It is a Grade I listed building.
Bayley Lane is a historic street in the centre of Coventry and is thought to follow the line of the outer ditch or bailey of the former Coventry Castle, founded by the Earls of Chester between 1088 and 1147.
The Council House, Coventry in Coventry, England, is a Tudor Revival style city hall building which is the home of Coventry City Council and the seat of local government. It was built in the early 20th century. It is a Grade II-listed building.
Plymouth Guildhall is located on Guildhall Square in the city centre of Plymouth, Devon, England. It is a Grade II listed building.
Media related to St Mary's Guildhall at Wikimedia Commons