Chairman's Newsletter - September 2025

September 2025
 

 

     I WAS RECENTLY asked to help complete the annual audit form sent out by the Royal Navy Trophy Centre to check on the safety of the property it has loaned to the Cathedral.   You may not have realised that when you walk through the Cathedral undercroft past the Navy Room (top photo) the corridor lighting comes from historic 17^th century lanterns on loan from the Royal Navy.
     The Royal Navy’s support of the Navy Room goes back some years before the Cathedral’s consecration when HMS Gamecock donated £1000 towards the furnishings.   HMS Gamecock was the name given to RAF Bramcote (a former Royal Air Force station) in 1946 after it was transferred to the Royal Navy for use as a base for Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) flying units.   The camp is near Nuneaton, and is now used by the British Army and called Gamecock Barracks.
     The Navy Room was originally planned as a morning office for the Provost (Dean) and a room where at other times Diocesan Clergy could sit and relax.   The clergy could borrow from the Cathedral Library housed in the adjacent office.   The Library is no more, and today its Basil Spence-designed bookcases are stored in a distant Cathedral cellar (hopefully not too damp!).   Now the Navy Room and other undercroft rooms are used as offices by Cathedral staff.  
 

     The pictures show Provost Williams examining the old lanterns on their arrival at the Cathedral.   He can also be seen alongside the Rt Rev Cuthbert Bardsley, Bishop of Coventry, on the occasion of the formal acceptance of the Battle Honours Board of HMS Phoenix on loan.  
     That mythical beast has long been associated with the City of Coventry, where you can find its image today in the Upper Precinct on the levelling stone that was set up when Coventry’s post-WWII rebuilding work began.   My research tells me that since the 17^th century the name “HMS Phoenix” has been shared by sixteen vessels and two shore establishments.
     The last battle noted on our HMS Phoenix Honours Board is the Battle of Dogger Bank.   That was a major naval engagement during the First World War when on 24 January 1915 the British Grand Fleet engaged successfully with the Kaiserliche Marine (High Seas Fleet).
     The Royal Navy loan to the Cathedral includes a series of tankards  (see top photo) from one of the past ships named HMS Coventry.   That ship was a C-class light cruiser launched in 1916 but sunk in an air attack in 1942.   It was on this ship that Petty Officer Alfred Edward Sephton served.   In 1941 he was awarded the first Victoria Cross of the Mediterranean campaign posthumously for his "great courage and endurance".   His VC used to be on display in St Michael’s Hall at Coventry Cathedral but in 1990 it was stolen by burglars who smashed the cabinet in which it was stored.
     Other furnishings on loan to the Cathedral from the Royal Navy are displayed on the corridor wall.   There are a number of Ships Crests and several gun tampions (ie wooden plugs for the muzzle of a gun).    Inside the Navy Room is the memorial to those who lost their lives on HMS Coventry.
 

 

 

     THERE HAS BEEN a positive response from members to the Friends Appeal to preserve the Cathedral’s historical film collection.    Thank you.
     I wrote last month about the 80 historic films held in the Cathedral Archives.   Their subject matter is unknown because specialist equipment is required to view them and it is not readily available.   The worry is that with the passing of time the celluloid film material is deteriorating.
     Before the Cathedral film material is lost for ever, the FRIENDS of COVENTRY CATHEDRAL has begun an urgent programme to digitise them.   We will then be able to view them and the subject matter filmed will be preserved for posterity.
     The first 5 films are currently in a conversion laboratory being preserved, at a cost of approximately £300 per 45 minute reel.   The labels read  “Form of a Servant. Christmas 1963”, “Operation Reconciliation (Dresden)”, “BBC Success Story”, “Coventry and Ottobeuren Join Hands” and “Coventry Cathedral”.   
     We will not know the quality of the filming or the relevance of these labels until we are able to play the films on their return.   We intend to provide an opportunity for members to view them.      Your gift in support can be sent payable to the

• FRIENDS of COVENTRY CATHEDRAL at 63 Daventry Road, Coventry CV3 5DH or can be  sent direct to our bank
• HSBC, sort code 40-18-17, a/c number 80360244  (IBAN: GB61HBUK40181780360244)

 

 

     THE DEAN (left) and Canon Nitano (right) were just two of the Cathedral’s supporters who threw themselves off the Cathedral roof in a sponsored abseil to raise funds for the Cathedral.   Altogether some £9,000 has been raised to date by the clergy and others to support the Cathedral’s ministry.  
     Teams of volunteers from other local charities took part and between them raised more than £70,000 for their respective funds.
     If you are tempted to try it for yourself, there will be another opportunity to abseil later this year in the autumn.  
     And there is still time for you to add your encouragement to the Cathedral clergy team with a donation on their Just Giving page -      https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/coventrycathedralabseil
 

     CHRISTIAN CND MARKED the 80th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings during August  with this art installation in Coventry Cathedral.
     The work was created by Leah Hislop and is composed of dark black and vibrant coloured paper cranes, encouraging reflection on the human cost of nuclear war and our shared responsibility to seek peace.
     The origami crane is an international symbol of peace following the actions of Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old at the time of the Hiroshima bombing and who contracted leukaemia in the years that followed.   In hospital she took up the Japanese tradition of folding paper cranes.   The tradition is that for every 1,000 cranes that you make, you are granted a wish.
     She made 1,300 paper cranes before she passed away, and since her death the Japanese tradition has spread across the world with the wish for peace.  

     THE COVENTRY CATHEDRAL Girls Choir led by Rachel Mahon, the Director of Music, spent an August weekend singing services in Southwark Cathedral  (photos above).   They were welcomed by Canon Kathryn Fleming, Precentor of Southwark, who was formerly a Residentiary Canon of Coventry.
     There were more paper birds in Southwark.   Suspended in the nave of the Cathedral the singers saw “Peace Doves”, an extraordinary art installation created by internationally acclaimed sculptor Peter Walker.  It features thousands of paper doves decorated with messages of peace.   It is shown in the background of the picture above left.
     The doves carry unique messages, written by visitors, school children, and community groups, and help create a space for reflection and hope.
 

 

 
     LAST MONTH I wrote about the Ice Cream & Coffee van allowed in the Cathedral Ruins in response to the many visitor refreshment requests (and volunteer complaints!) as the Cathedral no longer has a café/restaurant.
     The lack of Cathedral refreshment facilities was just the same in 1962 when the Cathedral opened.
     There were no refreshments available at the new Cathedral and it was more than a year later before the Cathedral Refectory building was finally completed and opened to the public.   Today that Refectory building is beneath the John Laing Centre, but its kitchen equipment is so worn out and outdated that it would need total replacement before the restaurant could be restored.
     In 1962 Coventry City Council’s answer was the Festival Café constructed alongside the old County Court building, where the Slug & Lettuce outdoor seating is today.   It was opened by the City Council as a “temporary” snack bar specifically to offer refreshments to Cathedral visitors during the three months of the Consecration Festival.  
     It was anticipated that for those three months the centre of Coventry would be packed with visitors – some coming to view the new Cathedral and others to attend the planned non-stop programme of celebratory music and drama events at the Cathedral and at other nearby city centre venues.
     The Festival Café was opened by the Mayor of Coventry on the 21^st May 1962 – just in time for the Cathedral Consecration four days later.   The opening ceremony was performed by Mayor Ald. W Callow (left of photo) on the last day of his mayoralty.   He was replaced the following day by Mayor Ald. A J Waugh (far right of photo), whose first major public engagement was to welcome the Queen on her arrival at the new Coventry Station en route to the Cathedral.
     The Corporation’s “temporary café” proved to be very popular and lasted many years longer than the few months that had been planned.   In those early years I worked as part of the Cathedral Verger team and we would take coffee and tea breaks there - often joined by other staff members!  
     No one had anticipated that each summer in the years after 1962 visitors would flock to our City in their thousands to view the new Cathedral, as proved to be the case.   And many visitors were dying for a cup of tea when they arrived!   After all, they needed to build themselves up to face the hour-long entry queue that slowly grew each morning stretching the length of St Michael’s Avenue and beyond.   
     The Festival Café operated for some 30 years until eventually the site was cleared to make way for the Cathedral Lanes development that opened in 1990.
 

Do you remember?

     I WAS PRESENT in 1995 when Queen Elizabeth distributed the Royal Maundy in Coventry Cathedral.
     There is an opportunity to hear about the history of this ancient tradition, and to learn a little of what goes on behind the scenes when Paul Leddington Wright speaks to us after the AGM on 4^th October 2025.   As the Secretary of the Royal Almonry, Paul was responsible for several years for the administration of the Royal Maundy from an office in Buckingham Palace.

Make a note of the date – 4^th October 2025.