Bartimaeus

At the end of Nye's first day's travel aboard with us, we stepped off to explore Nuneaton. We hadn't gone many steps when Nye mentioned his foot was uncomfortable. He had new shoes and I hoped they weren't pinching so that he would be reluctant to walk any distance. I was glad he had mentioned it straightaway before it became painful. He went inside to take the shoe off and  investigate. He re-emerged saying he had clipped a toenail and it was now much improved. Hurrah, no worries walking into town. He later volunteered to walk an extra trip to the shops that day with me without complaints of being footsore.

The plan of visiting Coventry for 2 or 3 days, which we hoped he would enjoy, did involve walking into town from the Canal basin each day, exploring on foot and standing around in museums - far more walking than is needed to work a flight of locks and  sit aboard watching the scenery.

By late afternoon on the third day we had already covered things we had seen and enjoyed before and several sights we had missed. We were regularly seeing on our route a monument which looked old and obvious, but that neither Shane nor I remembered seeing. We concluded it had been renovated and behind hoardings before, otherwise how could it have been missed. 

There was no information around it but a little research revealed the Coventry Cross has gone through various designs and re-builds over the centuries, first documented  in 1300. It was dismantled and rebuilt in the 1500s. It was dismantled completely in the eighteenth century and twentieth century it was re-made again, but was removed in 2019 and only reinstated in 2023. That explains why we didn't see it in 2021 or 2022. It wasn't just covered, it wasn't there at all.

Something  we hadn't noticed was a church on the way to the centre - it had been closed on the afternoon of the first day. We decided to visit it on the way back on the second day. It had an impressive ceiling and altar window.

Nye and I were admiring it and I said I liked that it had a bigger picture across several windows rather than each window being a separate image. Then Shane called to us to turn around. The window behind us was even more colourful and had that same feature.

There was a detailed description of the figures in this window provided but I didn't take time to read it, but what a sight it was! I have never seen so much rainbow in a church window.

The next day we were planning to complete our trinity of Coventry cathedrals and visit the most up-to-date one. I felt it was very modern but as my friend had told me she had visited it in the 1970s I had to revise my definition of modern, and realised Nye's would be different again. I found it writ large on the floor that the cathedral was older than me, and as I had got into the museum as an OAP the day before, perhaps it was not so modern, but still as church buildings go it was pretty recent.

The decision to rebuilt next to, rather than over the old one, was to leave the old one as a reminder of war, and the whole church has a strong theme of reconciliation and reflection. 

Nye admired the tapestry hanging behind the altar. I had forgotten that as you moved forward windows facing diagonally became visible that we had not been able to see sitting further back.

Beyond the main church were further rooms and artworks. Many continued with the theme of justice and peace. The charred cross remembered the burning of the old cathedral and is made from the medieval timbers that fell in the bombed cathedral and were held together with nails.

The nails from the roof became the symbol of reconciliation. Nye was in touch with a friend who curates a museum in the USA and communicated with him, as he said he had nails from Coventry in his museum. It was un unexpected area of interest.

We went down to the museum and poetry exhibition. People could vote for their favourite. The poems were all written in the author's mother tongue and translated into English. Coventry has a very multicultural population.

I bought a couple of postcards, one of the glass entrance doors and one of the largest window. Nye was interested in the baptismal font made from stone from Bethlehem.

Outside Nye found a welcome sign which was all inclusive and he drew my attention to it. He liked to see so many groups that can be rejected by society, were actively welcomed in.