COVENTRY--ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH
The loss, is the more to be regretted. When the Cathedral was finished A specimen Of sheer beauty, the most beautiful steeple in Europe. A tower enriched with saintly figures on the sides, an octagon rising out of it, that lengthened into an elegant spire. Every part is so finely proportional that Sir Christopher Wren spoke of it as a masterpiece of architecture. The outside extremely handsome, the inside light and lofty, consisting a body and two aisles divided by four rows of high pillars and arches. The height of the steeple and length of the church are the same, three hundred and three feet, the width one hundred and four feet. The steeple was begun in the reign of Edward 111 in 1372, by the two brothers Adam and William Botoner at their own expense. It took over twenty years. The body was rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI, some ornament was added to the steeple at the same time.
By 1886 with the dissolution and Coventry weather it was in a sorry state, stones were falling from the steeple, when a person called ANDREWS a designer of silk ribbons formed a committee to restore the Cathedral. (the bells in the fabric of the tower was Questionable) The committee set out to raise funds for the restoration, ANDREWS was asked to lay a stone above the old foundations about 1888 and the Cathedral was restored to it's former beauty.
Saturday morning (the day the King visited) I visited with my Father. I saw grown men weeping at the destruction but slowly their fists closed. It was to be regretted by everyone but the Germans...