St Michael's Church/Coventry Cathedral [split from Legend of Blitzkid]

[Blitzkid]

Thanks Dutchman, glad someone understands.

[Blitzkid]

Joseph Gutteridge wrote his Autobiography in Victorian times, when the church was restored during the years 1885-1890 Andrews was a member of the committee which raised funds for the work. As a result of his own efforts in surveying it, he wrote several papers on the restoration of the bells and steeple. When the work of restoring the steeple actually began in 1886 he was called upon to lay the first stone above the foundations, he said in the speech that the glorious monument would still stand after the deaths of those present.

Prime minister Gladstone was pleased to accept the book to his own private Library in Hayworth on the Welsh border.

[Blitzkid]

As a child in the thirties I must have been taken to the Cathedral a dozen or more times, but recently i have seen an old postcard that shows the Golden Eagle, this was a dazzling golden bird when the suns rays caught it, but as far as i know it was there in 36, but disappeared after the blitz, I and my father searched for it two days later, the day the king came to visit, we were thrown out of the ruins by police and authorities, because of the Kings visit although he wanted to meet the people. But since then there as been no mention of this wonderful statue, as far as I know.
It lay on the end of the pulpit, and slightly under the flags, which were saved.

[Blitzkid]

With Coventry pets all destroyed in Nov 39, and then incessant bombing, the morning after was so Quite, so still, just the odd crash of falling buildings, and the landscape so altered, it took a little time , to adjust, the quiet of the screeching trams, the air smelling like the end of a giant bonfire dying down, it was so unreal????
But the Old Coventry was never rebuilt, Smithford street, the open market, all lost.

[Blitzkid]

The council could have had real static water tanks near the Cathedral but declined, the fire chiefs knew that six-seven fire engines at maximum power would drain the flow of water from the mains.

They could have made a larger sump in the river that passed through the Burges?

[rebbonk]

Interesting, Blitzkid. When I worked in industry, most companies had their own 'static' tanks in case of fire. As a kid, I remember holes in canal bridges that would allow water to be drawn from them.

[Blitzkid]

Oh yes, Armstrong Siddeley had a tank. Sunday was quiet and a man went for a cool dip but could not reach the top of tank to get out. He would have drowned had i not been looking for him. I heard his cry of help and with help rescued him, but no way was any one going to speak of it, it became a joke between friends.

[Blitzkid]

Coventry fire brigade had nothing to do with firefighting at the Cathedral, it was left to the Solihull fire Brigade Brigade who were called in by Coventry Brigade to help out. That threw more call on the mains water.

But believe it or not the Germans destroyed the Cathedral from within, set it alight from within the walls, exactly as they had done with the City of Gaza some thousand years before.