Coventry ( or ) is a
city and metropolitan borough in the county of West
Midlands in England
.
Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in
the United Kingdom.
It is also the second largest city in the
English
Midlands
, after
Birmingham
, with a population of 300,848. The
population of Coventry has risen to 309,800 as of 2008.
Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of London and
19 miles (30 km) east of Birmingham, and is farthest from the
coast of any
city in
Britain. Although harbouring a population of almost a third of
a million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the
English Core Cities Group due to
its proximity to Birmingham.
Coventry
was also the world's first 'twin' city when it formed a twinning
relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad
(now Volgograd
) during World War II. The relationship
developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show
their support for the Soviet Red Army
during the Battle of
Stalingrad
. The city is now twinned with Dresden
and with 27
other cities around the world.
Coventry
Cathedral
is one of the newer cathedrals in the world, having been built
following the World War II bombing of the ancient cathedral by the
Luftwaffe. Coventry motor
companies have contributed significantly to the British motor industry, and it has
two universities, the city centre-based Coventry
University
and the University of Warwick
on the southern outskirts.
History
Coventry is an ancient city, which predates many of the large
cities around it including Birmingham and Leicester. It is likely
that Coventry grew from a settlement of the Bronze Age near the
town centre where Coventry's bowl shape and, at that time large
flowing river and lakes, created the ideal settlement area, with
mild weather and thick woods: food, water and shelter would have
been easily provided.
The Romans settling in Baginton founded another settlement and
another formed around a
Saxon nunnery,
founded ca. AD 700 by St Osburga, that was later left in ruins by
King Canute's invading Danish army
in 1016.
Leofric, Earl of
Mercia and his wife
Lady Godiva
built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a
Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary. In time, a
market was established at the abbey gates and
the settlement expanded.
By the 14th century, Coventry had become an important centre of the
cloth trade, and throughout the
Middle Ages was one of the largest and most
important cities in England.
The bishops of Lichfield
were often referred to as bishops of Coventry and
Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541).
Coventry
claimed the status of
a city by ancient prescriptive
usage, was granted a charter of
incorporation in 1345, and in 1451 became a county
in its own right.
Hostile attitudes of the cityfolk towards
Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the
English Civil War are believed to
have been the origin of the phrase "
sent to Coventry", which in Britain means
"to be ostracised"; although their physical needs were catered for,
the Royalist prisoners were literally never spoken to by anybody
.
In the
18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three main UK
centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot
, near Liverpool
and Clerkenwell
in London. As the industry declined, due
mainly to competition from
Swiss made
clock and watch manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved
crucial to the setting up of
bicycle
manufacture and eventually the motorcycle,
automobile, machine tool and aircraft
industries.
In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle
manufacture, with the industry being pioneered by
Rover. By the early 20th century, bicycle
manufacture had evolved into
motor
manufacture, and Coventry became a major centre of the
British motor industry. While over
100 different companies have produced motor vehicles in Coventry,
car production came to an end in 2006 as the last car rolled off
the lines at
Peugeot's Ryton plant.
Production was transferred to a new plant
near Trnava
, Slovakia,
with the help of EU grant aid to Peugeot: this made Peugeot deeply
unpopular in the city. The design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is still in the city at their
Whitley
plant
and although they ceased vehicle assembly at their
Browns Lane
plant
in 2004, they still continue some operations from
there.
Coventry precinct with spire of ruined
cathedral in the background.
Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during World War II, most
notoriously from a massive
Nazi German
Luftwaffe air raid (the "
Coventry Blitz") on 14 November, 1940.
This led
to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and Coventry's
historic cathedral was ravaged by firebombs
leaving only a shell and the spire. Aside from London,
Hull and Plymouth
, Coventry suffered more damage than any other
British city during the Luftwaffe attacks,
with huge fires devastating most of the city centre. The
city was probably targeted due to its high concentration of
armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants which
contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have
been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the
bombing of Munich by the RAF six days before the Coventry blitz and
chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as
one of the finest in Europe. Following the raids, the majority of
Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in
ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use, although
several were later demolished simply to make way for modern
developments.
In the
postwar years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general
direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a
new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its kind in
Europe on such a scale) and in 1962 Sir Basil Spence's
much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral (incorporating one of the world's largest
tapestries) was consecrated. Its pre-fabricated steel spire
was lowered into place by helicopter. In 1967, the Eagle Street
Mosque opened as Coventry's first
mosque.
Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s and
Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age'. During this period the disposable
income of Coventrians was one of the highest in the country and
both the sports and the arts benefited. A new sports centre, with
one of the few Olympic standard swimming pools in the UK, was
constructed and Coventry City football club reached the First
Division of English Football. The Belgrade Theatre was also
constructed along with the Herbert Art Gallery. The 1970s, however,
saw a decline in the British motor industry and Coventry suffered
badly. By the early 1980s, Coventry had one of the highest
unemployment rates in the country. In recent years, the city has
recovered with newer industries locating there, although the motor
industry continues to decline. In 2008, only one motor
manufacturing plant is operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the
popular
TX4 taxi cabs.
City boundaries
Unlike other major UK cities, Coventry does not have an extensive
'greater' urban area. This is partly because the city boundaries
were drawn so as to include practically all of its suburbs, and
partly because Coventry has comparatively little in the way of
contiguous satellite towns and dormitory settlements.
The M6
motorway directly to the north of Coventry acts as an artificial
boundary which precludes expansion into the Bedworth
-Nuneaton
urban area, as does the protected West Midlands
Green Belt which surrounds the city
on all sides. This has circumvented the expansion of the
city into both the administrative county of Warwickshire
and the metropolitan borough of Solihull
, and has helped to prevent the coalescence of the
city with surrounding settlements such as Kenilworth
, Leamington Spa
, Warwick
, Rugby
, Meriden
and Balsall Common
.
Suburbs or areas
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Places of interest
Cathedrals
St. Michael's
Cathedral is Coventry's best-known landmark and visitor
attraction. The original 14th century cathedral was largely
destroyed by German bombing during World War II, leaving only the
outer walls and spire. At the time of the bombing, the Spire of St.
Michael's was the third tallest in Britain, Ely and Salford
cathedrals being taller.
Due to the architectural design (it was the
tallest standing spire and not constructed as part of the roof, as
is the case with the neighbouring Holy Trinity
Church
), it survived the destruction of the main
Cathedral. The new Coventry Cathedral was opened in 1962
next to the ruins of the old. It was designed by Sir
Basil Spence. The cathedral contains the
tapestry
Christ in Glory by
Graham Sutherland. The bronze statue
St Michael's Victory over the Devil by
Jacob Epstein is mounted on the exterior of
the new cathedral near the entrance.
Benjamin Britten's
War Requiem, regarded by some as his
masterpiece, was written for the opening of the new
Cathedral.
The spire of the ruined cathedral forms one of the Three Spires
which have dominated the city skyline since the 14th century, the
others being those of Christ Church (of which only the spire
survives) and Holy Trinity Church (which is still in use).
Two of Coventry's "three spires"
Another
major visitor attraction in Coventry city centre is the
free-to-enter Coventry Transport Museum
, which has the largest collection of
British-made road vehicles in the world. The most notable
exhibits are the world speed record-breaking cars,
Thrust2 and
ThrustSSC. The
museum received a major refurbishment in 2004 which included the
creation of a striking new entrance as part of the city's Phoenix
Initiative project. The revamp saw the museum exceed its projected
five-year visitor numbers within the first year alone, and it was a
finalist for the 2005
Gulbenkian
Prize.
Art gallery and museums
The
Herbert
Art Gallery and Museum
is a major art gallery in the city centre.
About
four miles from the city centre and just outside Coventry in
Baginton
is the Lunt Fort, a
reconstructed Roman fort.
The
Midland Air
Museum
is situated just within the perimeter of Coventry
on land adjacent to Coventry Airport
and near Baginton.
Coventry was one of the main centres of watchmaking during the 18th
and 19th centuries and as the industry declined the skilled workers
were key to setting up the cycle trade. A group of local
enthusiasts are in the process of setting up a museum in Spon
Street.
The city's main police station in Little Park Street also hosts a
museum of Coventry's Police Force. The museum, based underground,
is split into two sections - one representing the history of the
city's police force, and the other compiling some of the more
unusual, interesting and grisly cases from the force's history. The
museum is funded from charity donations - viewings can be made by
appointment.
Coventry City Farm was
a small farm in an urban setting. It was mainly to educate city
children who might not get out to the countryside very often. The
farm closed in 2008 due to funding problems.
Highfield Road stadium
Since
2005, Coventry City Football Club have been playing at their new
home, the Ricoh
Arena
, a 32,500 capacity stadium in Foleshill
in north Coventry. Their football
academy is now based at The Alan Higgs Centre
, a leisure centre in south-east Coventry opened in
2004. The Highfield Road
stadium has been demolished, making way for new
housing and a small green.
Redevelopment
Millennium Square by night, showing
the Time Zone Clock designed by Francoise Schein with the Whittle
Arch soaring above
Major improvements continue to regenerate the city centre. The
Phoenix Initiative, which was designed by
MJP Architects, reached the final shortlist
for the 2004
RIBA Stirling Prize and
has now won a total of 16 separate awards. It was published in the
book 'Phoenix : Architecture/Art/Regeneration' in 2004. Further
major developments are potentially afoot, particularly the
Swanswell Project, which is intended to deepen Swanswell Pool and
link it to
Coventry
Canal Basin, coupled with the creation of an urban marina and a
wide Parisian-style boulevard. A possible second phase of the
Phoenix Initiative is also in the offing, although both of these
plans are still on the drawing-board. The redevelopment of the
Belgrade Theatre is currently in progress, and the building of
IKEA's first city centre multi-storey store has
recently been completed and was opened to the public on 16 December
2007.
The
River Sherbourne runs under
Coventry's city centre; the river was paved over during the
rebuilding after World War II and is not commonly known. When the
new rebuild of Coventry city centre takes place 2009 onwards, it is
planned that river will be re-opened, and a river walk way will be
placed along side it in parts of the city centre.
Twinning with other cities; "city of peace and
reconciliation"
Coventry
and Stalingrad (now Volgograd) were the world's first 'twin' cities when they
established a twinning relationship during World War II.
The
relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who
wanted to show their support for the Soviet Red
Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city was also subsequently twinned with
Dresden, as a
gesture of peace and reconciliation following World War II.
Coventry is now twinned with 27 other cities around the
world.
Coventry
Cathedral is notable for being one of the newest cathedrals in the world, having been built
following the World War II bombing of the ancient cathedral by the
Luftwaffe. Coventry has since
developed an international reputation as one of Europe's major
cities of peace and reconciliation, centred around its Cathedral,
and holds an annual Peace Month.
Education
The Alan Berry building, Coventry
University.
Coventry
has two universities; Coventry University is situated on a modern city centre campus while
the University
of Warwick lies 3.5 miles (5.5 km) to the south of the
city centre within Coventry near the border with Warwickshire. The University of Warwick is one of only
five universities never to have been rated outside the top ten in
terms of teaching excellence and research and is a member of the
prestigious
Russell Group. A team from
the University won the BBC TV
University Challenge trophy in
April 2007.
Coventry University is one of only a handful
of universities to run a degree course in automotive design (it is
second only to the Royal College of Art
course in prestige).
Coventry
also has three further education colleges within city boundaries,
City
College
, Henley College and Hereward
College.
Many of
the secondary schools in and around Coventry are specialist
colleges, such as Finham Park School
, which is a Mathematics and IT college, a teacher
training school and the only school in Coventry to offer studying
the International Baccalaureate, and Coventry Blue Coat Church of England
School
which has recently become a specialist college of
Music, one of only a few in the country. Bishop
Ullathorne RC School
became a specialist college in Humanities in
2006. Woodlands School
in Coventry is now also a sports college, which
has a newly built sport centre. Ernesford Grange School
, in the South East, is a specialist science
college. Coundon Court School
is a Technology college. Pattison
College
, a private school opened in 1949, specialises in
the performing arts. There is also Caludon Castle School, a
business and enterprise school, which has been rebuilt over
2005-2007.
Exhall Grange School and Science
College
is in the North of the City, although, its
catchment area is north Warwickshire. There is also Cardinal
Newman Catholic School and specialist arts college.
The
Coventry School Foundation comprises the independent schools
King Henry
VIII School
and Bablake School
together with Coventry
Preparatory School
.
The
Woodlands School, which is an all-boys' school, and Tile Hill
Wood School
are the only single-sex schools left in
Coventry. However, their
sixth
forms have merged to form the "West Coventry 6th Form", whose
lessons take place in mixed classes on both sites.
The Westwood School, which is a Technology College, close to The
University of Warwick. It is the only school in Coventry that is a
CISCO Academy and prides itself on its links with other educational
establishment, industry and the local community.
Arts and culture
Literature and drama
- During the early 19th century, Coventry was
well-known due to author George Eliot
who was born near Nuneaton. The city was the model for her famous novel
Middlemarch (1871).
- The Coventry Carol is named after
the city of Coventry. It was a carol performed in the play The
Pageant of The Shearman and Tailors, written in the 15th
century as one of the Coventry
Cycle Mystery Plays. These plays depicted the nativity story,
the lyrics of the Coventry Carol referring to the Annunciation to
the Massacre of the Innocents, which was the basis of the Pageant
of the Shearmen and Tailors. These plays were traditionally
performed on the steps of the (old) Cathedral, and the plays are
believed to have been performed for both Richard III in 1484 and
Henry VII in 1584. The Belgrade Theatre brought back the Coventry
Mystery Plays in 2000 to mark the city's millennium celebrations:
the theatre now produces the Mystery Plays every three years.
- The
Belgrade
Theatre
was Britain's first purpose-built civic theatre,
opened in 1958. In 1965 the world's first Theatre-in-Education (TiE) company was
formed to develop theatre as a way of inspiring learning in
schools. The TiE movement spread worldwide, the theatre still
offers a number of programmes for young people across Coventry and
has been widely recognised as a leader in the field.
Music and cinema
- During the late-1970s and early-1980s, Coventry was the centre
of the Two Tone musical phenomenon, with
bands such as The Specials and The Selecter coming from the city, spawning
several major hit singles and albums. The Specials achieved two UK
#1 hit singles between 1979–1981, namely "Too Much Too Young" and
"Ghost Town". Notable singles by The Selecter included "On My
Radio" and "Three Minute Hero".
- Today Coventry is recognised for its range of music events
including one of the UK's foremost international jazz programmes,
the Coventry Jazz Festival, and the award-winning Godiva Festival. On the Saturday of
the Godiva Festival, a carnival parade also starts in the city
centre and makes its way to the War
Memorial Park
where the festival is held.
- In
the film The Italian Job,
the famous scene of Mini Coopers being
driven at speed through Turin
's sewers
was actually filmed in Coventry, using what were then the country's
biggest sewer pipes, that were accessible because they were being
installed. More recently various locations in Coventry have
been used in the BAFTA nominated film
"Bouncer" starring Ray
Winstone, All in the
Game, also starring Ray Winstone (Ricoh Arena), the
medical TV series Angels
(Walsgrave Hospital), the BBC sitcom
Keeping Up
Appearances (Stoke Aldermoor and Binley Woods districts)
and in August 2006 scenes from "The
Shakespeare Code", an episode of the third series of
Doctor Who, were filmed in the
grounds of Ford's Hospital.
Venues
Warwick Arts Centre in Warwick University Campus
Theatre, art and music venues in Coventry include:
- The
Warwick
Arts Centre
: situated at the University
of Warwick, Warwick Arts Centre includes an art gallery, a
theatre, a concert hall and a cinema. It is the second
largest arts centre in the UK, after London's Barbican
.
- The
College Theatre: the city's main community theatre, housed at the
Butts Centre of City College Coventry. It's a fully functioning theatre with
flying scenery, full sound and lighting boxes.
- The
Belgrade
Theatre: one of the largest producing theatres in Britain,
the 866-seat Belgrade was the first civic theatre to be opened in
the UK following World War II. The theatre underwent a huge
redevelopment and reopened in September 2007; in addition to
refurbishing the existing theatre the redevelopment included a new
250-seat studio auditorium known as B2, a variety of rehearsal
spaces and an exhibition space that traces the history of theatre
in Coventry.
- Also
currently being built is the Belgrade Plaza
.
- The
Ricoh
Arena: located north of the city centre, the 32,000
capacity Coventry City FC stadium is also used to hold major rock
concerts for some of the world's biggest acts, including Oasis and Bon Jovi. The
adjacent Ricoh Exhibition Hall is a 6,000-seat events venue for
hosting a multitude of other acts.
- The
SkyDome
Arena
, which is a 3,000 capacity sports auditorium, and
has played host to artists such as Girls Aloud, Paul Oakenfold,
Judge Jules and Paul Morrell. It is the home ground for
Coventry Blaze ice hockey club, and
has also hosted professional wrestling events such as International Showdown.
- The
War
Memorial Park, which holds various festivals including the
Godiva Festival and the Coventry
Caribbean Festival, every year.
- The
Butts
Park Arena
, home of Coventry Rugby
Football Club, holds music concerts occasionally.
- The
Kasbah Nightclub, Hillfields
. It was renamed after refurbishment in
2007, but is still often referred to by its previous name,
'Colosseum'. By older Coventrians, it is still remembered as The
Orchid Ballroom.
- The
Criterion Theatre
, a small theatre, in Earlsdon.
Sport
The Ricoh Arena
Sporting teams include:
Coventry
City (football)); Coventry Bees (speedway); Coventry Rugby Club (Rugby Union) ; Coventry Bears
(rugby league);
Coventry Godiva Harriers
(athletics); Coventry Crusaders (basketball); Coventry Cassidy Jets (American football); Coventry Sphinx (football); Coventry
Copsewood
(football); City of Coventry Swimming
Club (swimming); Coventry Blaze (ice
hockey); Four Masters GAA
Club (Gaelic
football).
In football, Coventry City have been in existence since the late
19th century, but did not reach the
top flight of the
Football League until 1967, when they were
promoted as
Second
Division champions. Their highest league position so far is
sixth place in the First Division in 1970, when they qualified for
the
European Fairs Cup (now the
UEFA Cup) in 1970-71.
Their only major
trophy to date is the FA Cup which was won in
1987 with a 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Wembley
. Coventry were founder members of the
Premier League in 1992, but currently
play in the
Football League
Championship, the second tier of English football, where they
have been since 2001, following relegation after 34 successive
seasons of top flight football.
Their current stadium is the 32,600
capacity Ricoh
Arena, which opened at Foleshill in the north of the city in 2005, replacing
106-year-old Highfield Road
to the east of the city centre. Notable
former players include
Willie Carr,
Dion Dublin,
Stuart Pearce,
Gerry
Francis,
Kevin Gallacher,
Terry Gibson,
Mark Hateley,
Ian
Wallace,
Tommy Hutchison,
Robbie Keane,
Gary McAllister,
Reg
Matthews,
David Speedie,
Steve Ogrizovic,
Colin Stein and
Terry
Yorath. Notable former managers include
Jimmy Hill,
Noel
Cantwell,
Dave Sexton,
John Sillett,
Bobby
Gould,
Phil Neal,
Ron Atkinson,
Gordon
Strachan,
Peter Reid,
Gary McAllister,
Micky Adams and
Iain
Dowie.
The Coventry Bees are based at Coventry Stadium (formerly
Brandon Stadium) to the east of the city.
The stadium has operated both sides of World War II. The Bees
started in 1948 and have operated continuously ever since. They
started out in the National League Division three before moving up
to the Second Division and, later to the top flight. They have
operated at this level ever since. Amongst the top speedway riders
who have represented Coventry teams are
Tom
Farndon,
Jack
Parker,
Nigel Boocock,
Kelvin Tatum,
Chris Harris and three World
Champions,
Ole Olsen,
Hans Nielsen and Jack Young. Between 1998 and 2000, Coventry hosted
the
Speedway Grand
Prix of Great Britain at
Brandon
Stadium.
In 2007, the Bees won the domestic speedway treble of Elite League,
Knock-out Cup and Craven Shield, whilst
Chris Harris won both the
Speedway Grand Prix
of Great Britain and the British Championship.
The Bees retained the Craven Shield in 2008.
Before World War II
speedway
also operated for a short time at Foleshill Stadium, off Lythalls
Lane in the City.
In 2003,
Coventry Blaze won the
British National League and
Playoffs. In 2007,
Coventry Blaze won
the
Elite League and
the
British Challenge
cup and narrowly missed out on the treble by losing in the
semi-finals of the playoffs.
Coventry
Bears are the major rugby league team in the city now
playing in the Rugby League
Conference. In 2002 they won the
Rugby League Conference, and took
the step up to the national leagues. In 2004 they won the National
Division 3 title and have appeared in the Challenge Cup.
2005 was a good year for sport in Coventry. Not only did it become
the first city in the UK to host the International Children's
Games, but three of the city sports teams won significant honours.
The Blaze won the treble consisting of
Elite League, playoff and
Challenge Cup; the
Jets won the
BAFL
Division 2 championship and were undefeated all season; and the
Bees won the Elite League playoffs.
Major sports teams in Coventry
Notable Coventrians
History and politics
Coventry is well-known for the legendary 11th century exploits of
Lady Godiva who, according to legend,
rode through the city naked on horseback in protest at high taxes
being waged on the cityfolk by her husband
Leofric, Earl of Mercia. According
to the legend the residents of the city were commanded to look away
as she rode, but one man didn't and was allegedly struck blind. He
became known as
Peeping Tom
thus originating a new idiom, or metonym, in English. There is a
Grade II*
listed statue of her in
the city centre, which for 18 years had been underneath a
much-maligned Cathedral Lanes shopping centre canopy, removed in
October 2008. There is also a bust of Peeping Tom looking out from
a bridge that crosses one branch of the shopping precinct, and
across the road from the statue of Godiva there is a clock where,
at every hour, Lady Godiva appears on her horse while being watched
by Peeping Tom.
The Labour politician
Mo Mowlam was
educated in Coventry; trade union organiser
Tom
Mann and
National Socialist Movement
leader
Colin Jordan also came from the
city.
Science and technology
Coventry has been the home to several pioneers in science and
engineering.
Frank Whittle, the
inventor of the
jet engine, was from the
city, as was the inventor
James
Starley, instrumental in the development of the
bicycle and his nephew
J.K. Starley, who worked alongside his uncle
and went on to found car company
Rover.
Cyborg scientist
Kevin Warwick is also
a Coventrian.
George Singer,
manufacturer of Singer bicycles also lived in Coventry, his
Victorian home has now been converted into Coundon Court School and Community
College
. Coventrians who established successful
businesses from very humble beginnings were known as "Coventry
Kids".
The arts
Coventrians in the arts include the highly
acclaimed poet Philip Larkin
, actors Nigel
Hawthorne and Clive Owen, the actress
Lisa Dillon and the author Lee Child. Many notable musicians
originated in Coventry, including
Delia
Derbyshire,
Jerry Dammers,
Terry Hall,
Neville Staple,
Hazel O'Connor,
Clint Mansell,
Julianne Regan,
Lee
Dorrian,
Jen Ledger and
Panjabi MC.
2 Tone music
developed in and around Coventry in the 1970s and two of the
genre's most notable bands,
The
Specials and
The Selecter are both
from the city. Other Coventry bands include
The Primitives,
Adorable,
Fun Boy
Three,
The Colourfield,
King,
Jigsaw,
The Sorrows, and
The Enemy.
Record producer
Pete Waterman is also from the city
and is president of Coventry Bears. Broadcasters
Brian
Matthew and
Richard Keys, theatre
producer
Dominic Madden, and
pornographic actress
Debee Ashby are
also Coventrians.
Sport
Notable Coventrian sportsmen include
speedway rider
Tom
Farndon;
footballer
Reg Matthews;
cricketers Tom
Cartwright and
Ian Bell;
rugby union players
Neil Back,
Danny
Grewcock and
Geoff Evans;
boxer Errol Christie;
sprinter
Marlon Devonish; distance
runner
David Moorcroft;
show jumper Nick
Skelton and
fencer Kevin Reilly.
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Coventry
at current basic prices by
Office for National Statistics
with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling:
| Year |
Regional Gross Value Added 1 |
Agriculture 2 |
Industry 3 |
Services 4 |
| 1995 |
3,407 |
3 |
1,530 |
1,874 |
| 2000 |
4,590 |
3 |
1,873 |
2,714 |
| 2003 |
5,103 |
2 |
1,529 |
3,572 |
Notes:
- Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
- Includes hunting and forestry
- Includes energy and construction
- Includes financial intermediation services indirectly
measured
Coventry has long been a centre of motor and cycle manufacturing,
dating from 1896.
Starting out with some less familiar names
such as Coventry Motette, Great Horseless Carriage Co, Swift Motor Company and more familiar
names like Humber
, Riley, Francis-Barnett and Daimler and the Triumph motorcycle having its
origins in 1902 in a Coventry factory. The
Massey-Ferguson tractor factory was situated
on Banner Lane, Tile Hill, until it closed in the late 1990s.
Although the motor industry has declined almost to the point of
extinction, the
Jaguarcompany has
retained its corporate and research headquarters in the city (at
Allesley and Whitley), and
Peugeot still
have a large parts centre in Humber Road. The famous London
black cab taxis are produced in
Coventry by
LTI and these
are now the only vehicles still wholly built in Coventry.
The manufacture of
machine tools was
once a major industry in Coventry.
Alfred Herbert Ltd became one of
the largest machine tool companies in the world. Unfortunately in
later years the company faced tough competition from foreign
machine tool builders and ceased trading in 1983. Another famous
Coventry machine tool manufacturer was the
A. C. Wickman company. The last Coventry machine
tool manufacturer was
Matrix Churchill
which was forced to close in the wake of the
Iraqi Supergun scandal. It had been owned by
the Saddam Hussein government, via front companies, and closed
amidst much controversy and bad feeling.
Coventry's main industries include: cars, electronic equipment,
machine tools, agricultural machinery, man-made fibres, aerospace
components and telecommunications equipment. In recent years, the
city has moved away from manufacturing industries towards business
services, finance, research, design and development, creative
industries as well as logistics and leisure.
Coventry motor
companies once contributed significantly to the
British motor industry but that role
is now much diminished.
Transport
Coventry is near the
M6,
M69,
M45 and
M40 motorways. It is also served by the
A45 and
A46 dual
carriageways. Coventry has a much used inner
ring road opened in the 1960s (approx.).
Phoenix Way, a dual carriageway running
north – south opened 1998 (approx.), has improved traffic flows
through the city.
For
rail, Coventry railway station
is served by the West Coast Main Line
, and has regular rail services between London and
Birmingham (and stations beyond). It is also served by
railway lines to Nuneaton via Bedworth. There is a line linking it to Leamington
Spa and onwards to the south coast. Coventry also has
two Suburban Rail stations in Canley
and in Tile Hill
.
Bus service operators in Coventry include
National Express Coventry,
Travel de Courcey and
Stagecoach in Warwickshire.
Pool
Meadow Bus Station
is the main bus and coach interchange in the city centre. Two
park and ride sites exist in
the city, one at War Memorial Park and one at Courthouse
Green.
The
nearest major airports are Birmingham International
Airport
, some 17 km (11 miles) to the west of the city
and Coventry
Airport in Baginton, located 8 km (5 miles) south of the city
centre.
The
Coventry Canal terminates near the
city centre at Coventry Canal Basin and
is navigable for 61 km (38 miles) to Fradley
Junction
in Staffordshire.
Waste management
Incineration plant, Coventry
Coventry
has a large incineration plant which
burns rubbish from both Coventry and Solihull, producing electricity
for the National Grid and some
hot water that is used locally. Some rubbish is still put
into
landfill.
Coventry City Council is
assisting
recycling as part of their
waste management strategy in line
with national trends:
- many areas of Coventry have kerb-side plastic, metal (tins and
cans), and paper recycling.
Garden-green rubbish is also collected and composted.
- a wide range of waste materials can be taken by car to the
recycling depot, which is adjacent to the incineration unit.
- there are many recycling points throughout the City for paper,
glass recycling and metal / tin can
recycling.
In October 2006, Coventry City Council signed the
Nottingham Declaration, joining 130
other UK councils in committing to reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions of the council and
to help the local community do the same.
In November 2009, out of the biggest 20 cities in Britain the Forum
for the Future ranked Coventry in 11th place based on environmental
performance, quality of life, and readiness for the future.
Coventry was ranked 14th in 2008, and 17th in 2009.
Politics
The Council House, Coventry
Traditionally a part of Warwickshire (although it was a county
in its own right for 400 years), Coventry became an independent
county borough in 1889. It
later became a
metropolitan
district of the
West Midlands
county under the Local Government Act (1974), even though it
was entirely separate to the Birmingham conurbation area (this is
why Coventry appears to unnaturally "jut out" into Warwickshire on
political maps of the UK). In 1986, the
West Midlands County Council
was abolished and Coventry became administered as an effective
unitary authority in its own
right.
Coventry is still strongly associated with its traditional county,
Warwickshire. This may be because of its geographical location,
forming a large protrusion into the county.
Coventry is administered by Coventry City Council. The city is
divided up into 18
Wards each with
three
councillors. Coventry has usually
been controlled by the
Labour
Party over the past few decades, and at times they appeared to
be in safe control. However the
Conservative held control for a
short time in the 1970s, and they have also been in control since
June 2004. (For a time they held control on the casting vote of the
Lord Mayor, but they won clear control at the local elections of 4
May 2006).
The leader of the controlling Conservative group is Ken Taylor, who
has held the post of Leader of the Council since 2004. The leader
of the opposition Labour group is
John
Mutton.
A notable politician serving with Coventry City Council is former
Militant Tendency Labour MP
Dave Nellist who now represents the
Socialist Party
.
Certain local services are provided by West Midlands wide agencies
including the
West Midlands
Police, the
West Midlands
Fire Service and the
West Midlands
Passenger Transport Executive (Centro) which is responsible for
public transport.
In 2006, Coventry and Warwickshire Ambulance Service was merged
with the
West Midlands
Ambulance Service.
The Warwickshire and Northamptonshire
Air Ambulance service is based at
Coventry
Airport in Baginton.
Coventry
is represented in Parliament
by three MPs
all of whom are Labour. These are:
Up until 1997, Coventry was represented by four Members of
Parliament, whereupon the Coventry South West and Coventry South
East constituencies were merged to form Coventry South.
At the Annual Meeting of the City Council on 20 May 2009,
Councillor Jack Harrison was elected as the new Lord Mayor of
Coventry. Councillor Harrison has been a Labour councillor for 13
years representing the Lower Stoke Ward. Councillor Harrison's
wife, Jill, is Lady Mayoress. The Deputy Lord Mayor is Councillor
Brian Kelsey. He has been a Conservative councillor in Bablake Ward
since 1999.
The
Bishop of Coventry since
April 1998 has been the Rt Revd.
Colin
Bennetts, who retired from the post on 1 December 2007. The
Reverend Canon Dr
Christopher
Cocksworth was nominated Bishop of Coventry on 3 March
2008.
Demographics
Like
most major British
cities, Coventry has a large ethnic minority
population, making up 25.2% of the population as of 2006
estimates. The ethnic minority population is
concentrated in the Foleshill and the St.
Michael's wards.
The composition of the ethnic minority population is not typical of
the UK.
Sikhs are the largest non-
Christian religion, with
significant numbers of other
South
Asians. The Black population is 3.1%, only slightly above the
British average, and lower than some other cities.
8.2% of the population identify as ethnically
Indian, 2.2% as
Pakistani, 0.8% as being from
other South Asian groups, and 0.7% as
Bangladeshi.
White Irish people constitute 2.8%, and
2.9% of the city's population identify as "
White Other" (non-Irish, non-British white
groups).
1.7% of the population are
Black
African, 1.2%
Black Caribbean, and
0.2% from other black groups.
1.5% are ethnically
Chinese and the
remaining
0.9% is mainly composed of
East
Asians.
People reporting two or more ethnicities make up 2.1% of the
population.
Year and Current Total Population
- 1801 - 21,853
- 1851 - 48,120
- 1901 - 88,107
- 1911 - 117,958
- 1921 - 144,197
- 1931 - 176,303
- 1941 - 214,380
- 1951 - 260,685
- 1961 - 296,016
- 1971 - 336,136
- 1981 - 310,223
- 1991 - 305,342
- 2001 - 300,844
- 2007 - 306,700
- 2009 - 309,800
Closest cities, towns and villages
Cities (within 80 km/50 miles)
Towns (within 32 km/20 miles)
Villages
- Baginton, about 4 miles south
- Neal's
Green/Ash
Green
- about 4 miles north
- Burton Green
, about 4 miles west
- Binley Woods
, about 5 miles southeast
- Stoneleigh
, 5 miles south
- Ryton-on-Dunsmore
, about 5.5 miles southeast
- Hawkesbury
, about 5.5 miles north
- Ansty
, about 6 miles north east
- Corley
, about 6 miles northwest
- Bulkington
, about 6 miles northeast
- Brandon
, about 6 miles southeast
- Shilton
, about 7 miles northheast
- Berkswell
, about 7 miles west
- Balsall Common, about 7 miles west
- Fillongley
, about 7 miles north
- Wolston
, about 7 miles southeast
- Brinklow
, about 7 miles east
- Bubbenhall
, about 7 miles southeast
- Meriden, about 8 miles west
- Bramcote
, about 8 miles northeast
- Princethorpe
, about 10 miles southeast
- Stretton-on-Dunsmore
, about 10 miles southeast
- Wolvey
, about 10 miles northeast
Postcodes
Postal districts CV1
to CV6 inclusive cover the city of Coventry and its
immediate suburbs. Postal districts CV7
to CV47 cover almost all of the surrounding administrative county
of Warwickshire, with the exception of those areas around Coleshill
, Polesworth
, Alcester
and Studley
in western Warwickshire, which have Birmingham postcodes
instead. However, Coventry remains the post
town for settlements within the CV7 postcode, even though they do
not form part of the city.
Twin cities
Coventry
was the first city to "twin" with another city (Volgograd, Russia) and hence began the now common worldwide
practice of twinning.
It
continued after World War II when Coventry twinned with Dresden as an act of peace and reconciliation, both cities
having been very heavily bombed during the war. Each twin
city country is represented in a specific ward of the city and in
each ward has a peace garden dedicated to that twin city.
Coventry is now twinned with 26 places across the world:
Accent
Coventry in a linguistic sense looks both ways, towards both the
'West' and 'East' Midlands. One thousand years ago, the extreme
west of Warwickshire, what today we would designate Birmingham and
the Black Country was then separated from Coventry and east
Warwickshire by the forest of
Arden, with resulting inferior means of
communication. The west Warwickshire settlements too were smaller
in comparison to Coventry which, by the 14th century, was England's
third city.
Even as far back as Anglo-Saxon times
Coventry, situated as it was along Watling Street
was a trading and market post between King
Alfred's Saxon Mercia and Danelaw
England with a consequent merging of
dialects. Phonetically the accent of Coventry is similar to
Northern English in that it eliminates the long a /ɑː/, so cast is
pronounced [kæst] rather than [kɑːst]. Yet the clipped, flatter
vowels in the accent also contain traces of
Estuary English, increasingly so amongst the
young since 1950. One notable feature which television producers
have been apt to overlook is the distinction between Coventry and
Birmingham accents. In Birmingham and the Black Country 'Old' and
'cold' may be pronounced as "owd" and "cowd", this linguistic
feature stops starkly as one moves beyond Solihull in the general
direction of Coventry, a possible approximation of the 'Arden
Forest' divide perhaps. The prosody in the voice has none of the
see-saw of traditional 'Brummie', being more 'flat' in its terminal
sentence tags. The common Birmingham inflection of the phonetic
feature 'ɒɪ' in words such as 'price'-becoming similar in sound to
the word 'choice' is absent in Coventry. Yet accents alter briskly
in this particular part of the Midlands, North Warwickshire
(Bedworth & Nuneaton) for instance display increased East
Midlands dialect features. Then again, just to the south, the
general Southern English feature of the longer 'a' in words such as
"bath" and "path" (becoming "barth" and "parth") starts to occur
across an east to west band of settlements somewhere between
Southam and Banbury, positioning Coventry right at the edge of
England's phonetic crossroads.
Dramatic representations on film have been very uneven down the
years, ranging from Yorkshire sounding builders visiting the Queen
Vic in
Eastenders [1987] to Black Country
sounding factory workers in the Jeffrey Archer adaptation 'First
Among Equals' (1984). The BBC's 2009 documentary 'The Bombing of
Coventry' contained useful phonetic data on the 'Coventry Accent'
in the form of interviews with Coventrians. A recent performance
from the actress Becci Gemmell, playing Coventry character Joyce in
the BBC drama
Land Girls, also gave a
more accurate phonetic representation of the accent.
Honours
A
minor planet 3009 Coventry discovered by Soviet
astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in
1973 is named after the city.
2008 bomb scare
On 12 March 2008 an unexploded World War II
Luftwaffe bomb was discovered at 12 noon on a
building site in Coventry's city centre, a
British Army bomb
disposal unit was called in and subsequently called in experts
from Cambridge. A controlled explosion was conducted at
approximately 02:40 GMT on the morning of March 13.
At first areas in close range of the bomb were evacuated (including
a school and a hospital), however, as the day progressed larger
parts of the city were closed off. Later, a cordon of 500 metres
was enforced. The event attracted mass media coverage throughout
the
West Midlands
region.
See also
Further reading
- Smith, Albert & Fry, (1991) The Coventry We Have
Lost. 2 vols. Berkswell: Simanda Press, 1991, 1993 ISBN
0-9513867-1-9; ISBN 0-9513867-2-7
References
- Coventry's Heritage, by Levi Fox (1957)
- Coventry: History and Guide, by David McGrory (1993)
ISBN 0-7509-0194-2
- A History of Warwickshire, by Terry Slater (1981) ISBN
0-85033-416-0
- The Bombing of Coventry BBC Television (2009)
External links
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