St Mary's Guildhall
| St Mary's Guildhall | |
|
Warwickshire | |
|---|---|
 The entrance to St Mary's Hall in Bayley Lane | |
| Type: | Guildhall |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP33587897 |
| Location: | 52°24’28"N, 1°30’28"W |
| City: | Coventry |
| History | |
| Address: | Bayley Lane |
| Built 1340–1342 | |
| For: | The Guild of St Mary |
| Guildhall | |
| Mediæval | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | Coventry City Council |
| Website: | www.stmarysguildhall.co.uk |
St Mary's Hall is a mediæval guildhall in Coventry, Warwickshire. It was first built between 1340 and 1342 and was much altered and extended around 1392 and 1430.
The building has a vaulted undercroft which is currently a restaurant.[1]
History
 |
 |
| The archway entrance to the guildhall in 1810 and today |
The guildhall originally served as the headquarters of the merchant guild of St Mary, and subsequently of the united guilds of the Holy Trinity, St Mary, St John the Baptist and St Katherine. Following the suppression of religious guilds in 1547, it passed to the borough corporation, and for a time it served as the city's armoury and (until 1822) its treasury,[2] St Mary's Guildhall was the headquarters of the city council until the Council House was opened in 1920.
In 1569 the Rising of the North broke out, a rebellion of Roman Catholic magnates, and for fear that the rebels would release Mary Queen of Scots from her imprisonment in Tutbury Castle, she was rushed south to Coventry.[3][4] Queen Elizabeth I sent a letter, instructing the people of Coventry to look after Mary,[5] suggesting that she be held somewhere secure such as Coventry Castle. By that time though the castle was too decayed and Mary was instead first held at the Bull Inn in Smithford Street before being moved to the Mayoress's Parlour in St. Mary's. Following the defeat of the rebels, Mary was once more sent north, to Chatsworth in May 1570.
George Eld, mayor of Coventry (1834–5) was an antiquarian who encouraged appreciation of Coventry's ancient buildings. He initiated the restoration of the fourteenth-century interior of the mayoress's parlour.[6]
In 1861, the artist David Gee painted The Godiva Procession Leaving St. Mary's Hall, which is now on display in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.[7]
In 1920, the new Coventry Council House was built, and the city corooration moved out of St Mary's Guildhall.
Restoration
Restoration work by the council received the approval of the committee of the Coventry City Guild in 1930. Improvements had included the repair of the door at the north entrance to the crypt and providing glass and grilles in the windows of the fore crypt. Outside the crumbling exterior stonework was stabilized.[8]
The building retains a collection of royal portraits from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, arms and armour, fine stained glass and one of the country's most important tapestries dating from around 1500.[9]
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about St Mary's Guildhall) |
References
- ↑ St Mary's Guildhall
- ↑ Fox (1957), pp. 96, 101, 175.
- ↑ Mary, Queen of Scots: England: The Marie Stuart Society
- ↑ "Step inside Coventry's Guildhall". BBC Coventry and Warwickshire (BBC). 19 October 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/coventry/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8304000/8304486.stm. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
- ↑ Pearce, Matt. "Mary Queen of Scots". http://www.stmarysguildhall.co.uk/info/5/history/10/mary_queen_of_scots.
- ↑ Joanne Potier, 'Eld, George (1791–1862)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
- ↑ Reader offers: Coventry Telegraph 26 November 2001
- ↑ The Times, News in Brief, 16 April 1930
- ↑ Pearce, Matt. "The Coventry Tapestry". http://www.stmarysguildhall.co.uk/info/5/history/9/the_coventry_tapestry.
