The Churches of Coventry: A Short History of the City & Its Medieval RemainsWoodhouse, Frederic W.
History
The Churches of Coventry: A Short History of the City & Its Medieval Remains
Woodhouse, Frederic W.
Churches -- England -- Coventry; Coventry (England) -- History
Above the tower arch is a painting of the Last Judgement, discovered
in 1831. It is now so much darkened that very little can be made out.
The following is a description of its appearance before 1860: In the
centre is the Saviour clothed in crimson and seated on a rainbow.
Below are the Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist with the twelve
Apostles arranged on each hand. Two angels sound the summons to
Judgement, and on the right of our Saviour, steps lead to a portico
over which three angels look down on the scene and others welcome a
pope who has just passed St. Peter. On the Saviour's left are doomed
spirits being conveyed by devils in various ways and in ludicrous
attitudes to the place of torment, represented in the usual manner by
the gaping mouth of a monster, vomiting flames of fire. A large
painting of a crucifix, with a priest kneeling beside it and angels
flying above, was discovered at the same time on the north side of the
Chancel but was too much mutilated to be thought worthy of
preservation.
The =roofs= throughout are of low pitch, and almost all resemble one
another in design. Those of the nave, chancel, archdeacon's chapel (on
the west of the north porch) and transepts are divided by their
principal timbers into large panels, which are again subdivided by
mouldings upon the boarded ceiling. At all angles and intersections
there are carved leaves, and stars in relief adorn each panel. All
these roofs are painted in accordance, it is said, with existing
indications of the original colouring. The ground is blue, the
mouldings red and white, the stars and carving are gilt. The nave roof
spandrels, above the tie-beams, have large painted figures of angels,
supporting between them shields emblazoned with the instruments of
the Passion. These are also said to be reproductions, but it appears
likely that time had left much to the imagination of their restorer.
[Illustration: NORTH SIDE OF NAVE, EASTERN BAYS.]
Nevertheless, the whole effect of the roofs is harmonious, a result
apparently obtained by the use of a blue far removed from the
ultramarine tint too often employed.
Since the removal of the ringing floor, in 1855, the lantern stage of
the tower has been once more visible from the church. A wooden vaulted
ceiling was at the same time inserted where a stone one had originally
been built or intended.
The =chancel= is dark owing to the small clearstory windows, the low
outer north aisle, and the concealment of a south window by the organ.
At the first pier east of the tower came the rood-screen, and on the
south side (in the aisle) the door to it may be seen at a height above
the floor. Access must have been by steep steps against the wall, or
from the top of another screen across the aisle. The church accounts
of the year 1560 tell us what it cost to remove:
Payd for taking down ye rode and Marie and John _4s. 4d._
Payd to ye carpenter for pullyng down ye rode lofft _4s. 8d._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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