Seven Hundred Years of History: St Mary’s Guildhall is Well Worth Your Attention

When walking along the cobbles of Bayley Lane in the heart of Coventry city centre, the ruins of the city’s Blitz-bombed cathedral loom large overhead. Shaping the street’s course, jutting into and hanging over the pavement, the physical imposition of what is perhaps the city’s most famous – and certainly most devastating – historical hour could quite easily subsume its surroundings. Yet nestled opposite, stone-built and comparatively unassuming, stands a medieval treasure that undoubtedly deserves even the most overawed passer-by’s attention. Operating over the course of its history as a seat of wartime power, a royal prison, and the host of a famous abolitionist, St Mary’s Guildhall would, in any other situation, be a deserved focal point – and is well worth a visit.

As its name suggests, the Guildhall, estimated to have been built in 1342, was initially established as the home of the merchant guild of St Mary. Holding a monopoly over trade in what would soon become the fourth-largest city in England, the guild set and maintained standards for goods and trading practices, and used its significant political power to lobby the city council in the economic interest of its members. The local power represented by the building only grew in 1392, when the guilds of Holy Trinity, St John the Baptist, and St Katherine merged with St Mary to form the United Guild of the Holy Trinity.

The Guildhall’s entry into national significance arrived just a few decades later. Between 1456 and 1459, at the height of the Wars of the Roses, King Henry VI and Queen Margaret fled London and held their court within the building. Given its centrality to their power, it could quite easily be argued that, for a brief time and at the height of great unrest, the city operated as the nation’s de facto capital – with the Guildhall at its heart. In fact, such was the mutual respect between the royal couple and the city, a tapestry featuring the pair was designed for the Guildhall. This tapestry – the oldest still in its original position in Britain – is sure to be the highlight of any visit.

The Guildhall was again the home of royalty, though under quite different, if equally perilous, circumstances in 1569, when Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned within the Mayoress’s Parlour by order of Elizabeth I. Intended to foil a band of Catholic nobles seeking to replace the Protestant Elizabeth with the Catholic Mary, the imprisonment was, to some extent, enacted for both queens’ protection, with Elizabeth asking the people of Coventry to care for her cousin. Given my personal interest in the early modern period, walking the same floors as the Scottish queen was quite incredible.

Almost exactly three hundred years later, in 1847, the Guildhall hosted a lecture delivered by the formerly enslaved, renowned American abolitionist Frederick Douglass, as he toured Britain and Ireland – an incredibly significant moment in Britain’s anti-slavery movement. The speech was reportedly met by a ‘sea of upturned faces’ and raised an impressive amount of money in support of the abolitionist cause. The event has since inspired staff and students at Coventry University to launch the Frederick Douglass in Coventry Project, designed to preserve the city’s civil rights heritage.

St Mary’s Guildhall possesses perhaps one of the richest histories of any site in the area – spanning almost seven hundred years, surviving battles, wars, and bombing, and maintaining its significance within the community. So, after taking in the cathedral, make sure you cross the cobbles and step inside – you’re sure to be in for a treat.

Bibliography:

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