Legend of Blitzkid

The white friars of Coventry were a party estimated of about a thousand monks and Friars that fled the persecutions, settled in England, mostly in East Anglia. That says nothing of Carmelites. Today's Historians tell us nothing of who the were, what Country they were from, language they spoke, what religion they we're, why did they choose Coventry. Very little, they have no pictures of them. The first stage of the journey was from Port Jaffa to Mount Carmel Monastery, not by the monks of Carmel but by the coastal Monks, from Mount Carmel Monastery to Fort Latrun. 2nd stage by Carmel Monks/friars then by other monks. The area was mountainous. Leopards, hyenas, foxes roamed the mountains in the 10-11-12th centuries.
See Monks and Friars topic.

Thank you, Blitzkid.

I loved the place, The fortress I was in, had a seachlight and heavy Machine guns, commanded a brilliant view, for Miles around, clear mountain air, It was brit built, of the 1930, but Five years later was completley demolished by tthe Egyption Army in their battle with Israeles. But the monastery we could see in the distant was an eye- opener for me, I was profoundly affected by the Monasteries I visited.

COVENTRY MONKS.

Coventry Monks were Knight Templars, fleeing from the wrath of Persecution, torture and death by burning, that’s the only reason for them to be there. The word Carmelite did not exist there were no such animal, it was from a book called ‘Ride from Chester to London’ by “Pennant” t one day in Coventry only.

he was told there had been monks in Coventry, as he wasn’t a historian, (he had heard of Mount Carmel in church. the word is in no other History books.)

Formerly Benedicts, Templars, Carthusians, Cisterians, and Trappist, were all break away ‘Orders’ in each Monastery.

I did not read this from a book, it was translated to me from old scrolls in Mount Carmel Monastery where I spent a lot of time in 1947.

Hello, I like what you said about the ruins you knew as a kid, can you tell me more, how far did they spread towards Earl Street and the other way? Do you know the old toy shop they are doing up? History books tell me they had a horse racing track in Cheylesmore park (Greyfriars Green) in 1753 to 83 but a three year old girl was killed, so they scrapped it. I believe the toy shop was their club house? What do you think, Dutchman, if you think I have got anything wrong Please tell me? I love Cov’s past, the old Cathedral that got blitzed was built from the ground upwards in 1886 so was not what I thought as a Kid. The Adverts in the precinct were placed there in 1934, I saw them build White Lion via an uncle. You may ask me any questions of Coventry you like, my family was of Cov before 1800 via the canal boats.

The Ring Road was originally planned to follow the line of Whitefriars Lane, crossing Gosford Street at ground level. This proved to be impractical so work was stopped while a new survey was carried out. During that period local archaeologists were given permission to excavate the ruins of Whitefriars Church. As far as I can tell all they found were some stone foundations and a few bits of broken pottery.

I think the Abbey only extended as far as Whitefriars Street (at that time known as Bachelors Walk) to the west and Gosford Street to the north. I suspect the Black Lion Inn in Gosford Street was originally another gatehouse leading to the Abbey.

The toy museum in Much Park Street was a pottery shop in my day. It had an abandoned pub one side and a busy chip shop the other. That's all I know about it.

When I first entered the great walls of the Monastery of Mount Carmel it reminded me of the remaining walls of Coventry cathedral two days after the Blitz. This original Monastery was much older by about 500 years, and the biblical stories I had heard of and the stories of the Knight Templars that came to Coventry.

This monastery goes back to the 11th century, when monks and friars took up the sword, soldiers of Christ, that marched on Jerusalem 1096 with a dream of reconquering the Holy Land. The fiercest fighters of all. By 1120 there were Benedictine Monks that were already monks that dedicated to help the sick and elderly Known as the order of St John Hospitallers and granted Papal recognition in 1113, help thousands of Pilgrims, a charter in 1137, for the protection of the Pilgrims. In the 11th century there were already buildings that had Marble Columns, arches of stone with joints of lead. The Templars the the second Crusade they adopted the most disciplined fighting force in the world of those days. In 1146 the Templars adopted the famous red cross Patee before going to the second Crusade. They wore white cloaks of sheep skins, they cut their hair, forbidden to cut their beards, to cast behind them a dark life, to a pure life.

The Monastery of Latrun was just off the the main road to Jerusalem, at the base of the Hill. In ancient times it was a huge Castle/Fort that completely controlled the pass through the Mountains.

It held a school, in the twentieth Century so could not have been the severe Trappist movement, neither did I see any signs of Trappist monks as Wikipedia reported?--I stayed there for three days. In fact I never heard of a Trappist monastery in Palestine and only one in France.

Thanks, Blitzkid. Please keep these memories coming.

rebbonk, A lorry load of soldiers approached our camp gate with badges and Red berets, they asked if we could give them food and tea they had been out training, but our guard at the gate felt something was wrong, so he took a closer look, walked inside the guard house to press the button to lift the pole, and called the Guard out and pressed the button to warn the camp. He had spotted their Wings Badge was on the wrong shoulder, there was a gun fight turned their lorry round and sped off taking their dead and wounded with them, we had a sandbagged guard house so we had no casualties.

Another time we had a perimeter of three rolls of Dannert barbed wire [razor wire] fence all around the camp, and about every three hundred yards a Sandbagged guard place with small searchlight and Bren gun. In middle of the night I heard a noise in the wire. Twice I challenged and no reply so I fired a whole Magazine, and my companion shone the searchlight. I had ripped a Pariah (wild dog) to pieces. I woke the camp up and there were some groans but everyone knew I had done right, we took no chances.