Warwick and Coventry

Today marked the last day of our exile (the corridor looks very splendid indeed - the Swan Whisperer felt obliged to take his shoes off when he brought in the luggage), so we set off about noon and drove to Warwick.  We didn't get to see much of the town - the Castle wanted us to pay £6 just for parking, which we thought was extortionate - but we did find a very pretty little shopping street full of independent shops, and had lunch in one of them - a bacon (him) or sausage (me) sandwich with a fried egg.  Tasted good, but just a touch dry, we thought.  And extremely good coffee, and the most deliciously fudgey brownies!  Yum.

Then we drove on to Coventry to visit the Cathedral there, and to meet the Canon Pastor, whose blog is called Good In Parts.  She was busy, so we spent a very happy half hour wandering around the Cathedral and taking pictures

There will be more pictures on my Facebook page, for those who are friends there - these are just a sample.

When the Canon was able to join us, we wandered round the Ruins (always capitalised!) of the old Cathedral, and she explained that the idea was that you looked at the Ruins first, and then walked down the steps into the modern Cathedral, only you can't just now as there are Works going on to damp-proof the subterranean chapels, which are not currently accessible.  But the Ruins themselves are wonderful, and very evocative.  You will know, of course, of the Cross of Nails, which was formed from three mediaeval nails found in the bombed Cathedral and replicas of which have been sent all around the world (notably to Berlin, where we saw it in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedachtnis church)

 

You can't see the nails so well in the Coventry version, but what they do have, even more moving, is the Charred Cross, which was formed from two burned roof-beams that happened to fall in the shape of a Cross, and were kept that way.

  Originally this was in the Ruins, but now it has been moved into the Cathedral proper, and the one in the Ruins is a replica.

 

I love the way they have done this - with the Ruins there as a memorial and the Cathedral itself there to the greater glory of God,  It is a symbol of peace and reconciliation, and it does a great job!