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Coventry Leasing

Did You Know?

Coventry has two universities (Warwick and Coventry) and three cathedrals - the ruins of St. Mary's, destroyed by Henry VIII, the ruins of St. Michael's, blitzed in November 1940 and Sir Basil Spence's new cathedral, consecrated in 1962 and recently voted Britain's most popular 20th century building.

Legend has it that the city was the birthplace of St George, dragon-slayer and patron saint of England. St George was a central figure in Coventry’s medieval processions, long before Godiva featured.

The phrase 'sent to Coventry' originated during the English Civil War, when captured Royalists were imprisoned in the heavily fortified and strongly pro-Parliament city. They were given a hard time by the local people.

The first smokeless zone in Britain was introduced in Coventry in 1948 and the city is also the birthplace of the Green Party in this country, originally called the People Party and founded by two solicitors.

Two-Tone music, British Ska, came out of Coventry in the late 1970s, through bands like The Specials and Selecter. Ghost Town, the Specials’ biggest hit, was actually written about Glasgow, not Coventry.

All modern bicycles are descended from JK Starley’s Rover safety cycle, invented in Coventry in 1885. A decade later the city became the birthplace of the British motor industry, producing the first cars under licence from Gottlieb Daimler in Germany.

Coventry once boasted the only unfortified royal palace outside London. The palace’s surviving gatehouse, parts of which date back to the 13th century, is the oldest building in Britain to be used as a Register Office.

Film star Clive Owen and pop impresario Pete Waterman were born in Coventry, while Labour politician Mo Mowlam, architect of the historic Northern Ireland peace accord, spent her childhood in the city.

Sir Henry Parkes, five times Premier of New South Wales and the father of modern Australia, was born at Canley, then just outside the old city, in 1815. Parkes in New South Wales is one of Coventry’s twin towns.

By the 1950s, Coventry was home to the world’s second-largest car-making industry and was the world’s leading car exporter! This prosperity continued until the 1970’s, when many factories closed.

The 500-year-old Coventry Tapestry, on the north wall of the city’s medieval guildhall of St Mary, is the oldest in the country still hanging on the wall for which it was made. It features King Henry VI and his wife Margaret of Anjou, surrounded by many of the people they knew in life.

Lady Godiva was a real person but never rode naked through the streets of Coventry to free the people from taxation. The story emerged 250 years after her death, probably invented by Benedictine monks.