Art Gallery and Museum

May 1939

SITE OF THE MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY. [Continued]

St. Mary's Hall, built at different periods, stands as a monument of beauty. Caesar's Tower, which may really have no real connection with St. Mary's Hall, was built in the 12th century. The first part of St. Mary's Hall was erected in 1340, while the joining together of the Guilds of St. Mary, Trinity, and St. John enlarged the hall in 1394 -1414. Where a gate-way stands leading down the West side of the hall stood a building connected to St. Mary's Hall, called the Buttery, where the food of the Guilds was scored. The barge boards from this building were preserved, and used on the house next to it and still standing, a house of beauty, and possibly built at the time of the Church. At one time this house was called the Church House, and quite possibly was the dwelling of the vicars of those times.

Near St. Mary's Hall stands an ancient well, and at one time was looked upon as belonging to the "White Horse Inn", in Hay Lane, and now used by the Corporation as offices. The lightning conductor of St. Michael's Church is or was earthed into its waters.

From this house to the corner of Hay Lane where now the St. Michael's Baptist Chapel stands, stood old houses very similar. Thanks to Dr. Troughton, we have a picture record of these buildings preserved. St. Michael's Church stands on the North side as a monument to the family of Botoner's, - the spire a landmark for miles distant from Coventry. Weighing 6226 tons, and soaring to a height of 295 ft. 91/2 inches, the tower and steeple was built in 1373-1394. Two earlier churches stood on the same site, and called the "Church on the Hill." Its earlier burial ground is near the front of the Drapers Hall, and is on the roadway passing between St. Mary's Hall and the Church, and is mentioned by Earl Hugh Kenilock in 1187.

On the North side, opposite St. Michael's Baptist, stood several houses which joined up to the St. Michael's Tower, and in 1812 lived the woman owner in the house next to the Tower, while adjoining it was a barber's shop, and standing at the corner facing the County Court, stood an Inn in which a political party called the High Party, who strongly opposed the swearing in of the new Mayor (Joseph Eburne,) plotted to capture the mace and sword as he passed to St. Mary's Hall, but this was frustrated, as the mayor knelt on a cushion in Fleet Street, at the former Mayor's (Abram Owen) house, and being warned of the plot, entered St. Mary's Hall another way. On the north-west side, where now the County Hall stands, built 1784, once stood a Guild Hall but which Guild I cannot say, and between this and the Library building, stood two old timbered houses near which a conduit was built in 1632, when a large undertaking for the supply of water to the citizens from the Swanswell by Bartholemew Bewley, a plumber, and Thomas Sargeson, a mason. A print of the old house, called Swanswell House, is yet to be seen, but I do not know of any print of the stone tower 35ft. high, which held a large tank and gravitated the water in lead pipes across Pool Meadow, up Priory Row, to this conduit or reservoir. The water was forced to the top of the tower by a water wheel, which worked where the little waterfall now runs near the Swanswell Inn, and some years ago I had the pleasure of chatting to an old lady, who, as a girl, used to take her father's meals to the water wheel of which he had charge.

On the site of the Golden Cross Inn, once stood an older building, which earlier still was the Coventry Mint from the time of King Edward IV. The present Inn, looking so ancient, is modern, but its ancient looking timbers were used in 1794 to build a framework for St. Michael's bells, and was used for nearly a 100 years. The frame cost the sum of £3752. On this same side several other half timbered buildings stood, and some are yet standing. I believe another roadway exists at a depth of about 8-ft. beneath this part of Bayley Lane.

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