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Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest
city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although Leicester and Nottingham have larger urban areas. The population of Coventry has risen to 309,800 as of
2008.Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of London and 19 miles (30 km) east of Birmingham, and is farthest from the coast of any city in Britain. Although harbouring a population of almost
a third of a million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham.
Coventry was also the world's first 'twin' city when it formed a
twinning relationship with the Russian city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) during World War II. The relationship developed through ordinary people in Coventry who wanted to show their support for the
Soviet Red Army during the Battle of Stalingrad. The city is now twinned with Dresden and with 27 other cities around the world.
Coventry Cathedral is one of the newer cathedrals in the world,
having been built following the World War II bombing of the ancient cathedral by the Luftwaffe. Coventry motor companies have contributed significantly to the British motor industry, and it has two
universities, the city centre-based Coventry University and the University of Warwick on the southern outskirts.
History
Early history
Coventry is an ancient city, which predates many of the large cities around it including Birmingham and Leicester. It is likely that Coventry grew from a settlement of the Bronze Age near the
present-day city centre where Coventry's bowl shape and, at that time large flowing river and lakes, created the ideal settlement area, with mild weather and thick woods: food, water and shelter would
have been easily provided. The people of the Coventry area may have been the Corieltauvi, a largely agricultural people who had few strongly defended sites and signs of centralised government.
Roman period
The Romans settling in Baginton founded another settlement and another formed around a Saxon nunnery, founded ca. AD 700 by St Osburga, that was
later left in ruins by King Canute's invading Danish army in 1016. Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva built on the remains of the nunnery and founded a Benedictine monastery in 1043
dedicated to St Mary. In time, a market was established at the abbey gates and the settlement expanded.
Middle ages
By the 14th century, Coventry had
become an important centre of the cloth trade, and throughout the Middle Ages was one of the largest and most important cities in England. The bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as bishops of
Coventry and Lichfield, or Lichfield and Coventry (from 1102 to 1541). Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, was granted a charter of incorporation in 1345, and in 1451
became a county in its own right.
Civil war
Hostile attitudes of the cityfolk towards Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the English Civil War
are believed[citation needed] to have been the origin of the phrase "sent to Coventry", which in Britain means "to be ostracised"; although their physical needs were catered for, the
Royalist prisoners were literally never spoken to by anybody.
Industrial revolution
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Coventry became one of the three
main UK centres of watch and clock manufacture and ranked alongside Prescot, near Liverpool and Clerkenwell in London. As the industry declined, due mainly to competition from Swiss made clock and watch
manufacturers, the skilled pool of workers proved crucial to the setting up of bicycle manufacture and eventually the motorcycle, automobile, machine tool and aircraft industries.
Transport industry
In the late 19th century, Coventry became a major centre of bicycle manufacture, with the industry being pioneered by Rover. By the early 20th
century, bicycle manufacture had evolved into motor manufacture, and Coventry became a major centre of the British motor industry. While over 100 different companies have produced motor vehicles in
Coventry, car production came to an end in 2006 as the last car rolled off the lines at Peugeot's Ryton plant. Production was transferred to a new plant near Trnava, Slovakia, with the help of EU grant
aid to Peugeot: this made Peugeot deeply unpopular in the city. The design headquarters of Jaguar Cars is still in the city at their Whitley plant and although they ceased vehicle assembly at their
Browns Lane plant in 2004, they still continue some operations from there.
World War II and the Coventry Blitz
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A 1972 Hillman Avenger Tiger, produced in Coventry by Chrysler Competitions Department.
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Coventry precinct with spire of ruined cathedral in the background.
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Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during World War II, most notoriously from a massive Nazi German Luftwaffe air raid (the "Coventry Blitz") on 14
November 1940. This led to severe damage to large areas of the city centre and Coventry's historic cathedral was ravaged by firebombs leaving only a shell and
the spire. Aside from London, Hull and Plymouth, Coventry suffered more damage than any other British city during the Luftwaffe attacks, with huge fires
devastating most of the city centre. The city was probably targeted due to its high concentration of armaments, munitions, aircraft and aero-engine plants
which contributed greatly to the British war effort, although there have been claims that Hitler launched the attack as revenge for the bombing of Munich by
the RAF six days before the Coventry blitz and chose the Midlands city because its medieval heart was regarded as one of the finest in Europe.
Following the raids, the majority of Coventry's historic buildings could not be saved as they were in ruinous states or were deemed unsafe for any future use,
although several were later demolished simply to make way for modern developments.
Postwar years
In the postwar years Coventry was largely rebuilt under the general direction of the Gibson Plan, gaining a new pedestrianised shopping precinct (the first of its
kind in Europe on such a scale) and in 1962 Sir Basil Spence's much-celebrated new St Michael's Cathedral (incorporating one of the world's largest tapestries)
was consecrated. Its pre-fabricated steel spire was lowered into place by helicopter. In 1967, the Eagle Street Mosque opened as Coventry's first mosque.
Major expansion to Coventry had taken place previously, in the 1920s and 1930s, to provide housing for the large influx of workers who came to work in
the city's booming factories. The areas which were expanded or created in this development included Radford, Coundon, Canley, Cheylesmore and Stoke Heath.
Coventry's motor industry boomed during the 1950s and 1960s and Coventry enjoyed a 'golden age'. During this period
the disposable income of Coventrians was one of the highest in the country and both the sports and the arts benefited. A
new sports centre, with one of the few Olympic standard swimming pools in the UK, was constructed and Coventry
City football club reached the First Division of English Football. The Belgrade Theatre was also constructed along with
the Herbert Art Gallery. The 1970s, however, saw a decline in the British motor industry and Coventry suffered badly.
By the early 1980s, Coventry had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. In recent years, the city has
recovered with newer industries locating there, although the motor industry continues to decline. In 2008, only one motor
manufacturing plant is operational, that of LTI Ltd, producing the popular TX4 taxi cabs. On 17 March 2010 LTI
announced they would no longer be producing bodies and chassis in Coventry, instead producing them in China and shipping them in for assembly in Coventry.
City boundaries
Unlike other major UK cities, Coventry does not have an extensive 'greater' urban area. This is partly because the city
boundaries were drawn so as to include practically all of its suburbs, and partly because Coventry has comparatively little in the way of contiguous satellite towns and dormitory settlements.
The M6 motorway directly to the north of Coventry acts as an artificial boundary which precludes expansion into the
Bedworth-Nuneaton urban area, as does the protected West Midlands Green Belt which surrounds the city on all sides.
This has circumvented the expansion of the city into both the administrative county of Warwickshire and the metropolitan
borough of Solihull, and has helped to prevent the coalescence of the city with surrounding settlements such as Kenilworth, Leamington Spa, Warwick, Rugby, Meriden and Balsall Common.
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