Coventry. A city that is unfortunately so near to Birmingham that it is often forgotten about, but also fortunately just far enough away that we don’t speak with that accent. In fact, “we speak with an accent that’s exceedingly rare!” At least that’s what the Coventry City fans sing every week, whether it’s at the Ricoh Arena or at away games up and down the country – or that season we played our home games in Northampton, but we don’t talk about that.
Luckily, due to our location on one of the country’s most central rail lines, it’s incredibly easy for us to get to just about anywhere in the UK, whether it be for football, shopping, boozing, sightseeing, or … what else is there?
And if you’re coming to us by rail (TIP: London Northwestern Railway has FREE wifi in every carriage), there are some unspoken things you should know about us lot, located smack bang in the middle of England.
No, Coventry is not basically Birmingham
This assertion is lazy geography. We are 20 miles away from Birmingham. Sunderland is barely 15 miles away from Newcastle upon Tyne but you wouldn’t say “Newcastle is basically in Sunderland”, unless you wanted to get banished from the north-east forever. Solihull is a town that is “basically” Birmingham. We are our own city, with enough cathedrals to spare (more on that in a minute).
Coventry – and its spirit – is indestructible
Due to our extremely central location – Meriden, the traditional centre of England is just 8 miles away – we’ve often found ourselves in the middle of some heated situations. The most notable of which was the Coventry blitz, which took place on the night of the 14 November 1940. It was the single most concentrated attack on a British city during the second world war. It lasted for 11 hours as the Luftwaffe essentially attempted to knock Coventry off the map, being one of the UK’s major centres for war production. The old cathedral was mostly destroyed during that raid, but its remains now serve as a phenomenal event space.
We also have a rich history of cathedrals
While the old cathedral was destroyed, as mentioned, we had an old, old cathedral that Henry VIII ordered to be destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries in the early 16th century. What remains of it is still standing and open to the public in the Priory undercrofts, which was dug up by Tony Robinson for a Time Team special in 1999 on Channel 4. Side note: There is a Nando’s right next to the Priory gardens, so you can make a decent afternoon of history and chicken.
Enjoy flying abroad? You have us to thank for that
If we are honest, we aren’t the greatest at making a big deal about the things we’ve done in the past. For a city that was essentially the beating heart of the country’s motor industry, we should at least talk about it as much as Brummies like to talk about how they are the second city.
But more impressive than that is Coventry’s very own Sir Frank Whittle. No, it’s not just the name of a school in Walsgrave – Sir Frank Whittle was the genius behind the modern jet engine, which effectively changed the world.
When Sir Frank first brought forward his plans to the UK’s Air Ministry in 1929, his blueprints were called “impractical”. Just eight years later, in 1937, his Whittle Unit engine roared into life, and by 1941 jet-powered planes were heading to war. The rest, as they say, is history.
If you call it the Phoenix or the Kasbah, we know you are a student
Clubs change names, that’s true, but we never forget – or stop calling them by – their older names.
That club on Primrose Hill Street in Hillfields is The Colly (or Colosseum for the more formal among you) not the Kasbah, despite what it says above the doors. Those who really know their history will recall a brief period in the early 90s when it was called the Tic Toc, and played host to Blur and Ocean Colour Scene amid Britpop fever. The Phoenix? That’s the Colin Campbell or the Campbell to those who grew up here. And the building with the domed roof opposite? Before it was a Cov Uni building it was an old Odeon theatre.
We still really hate Aston Villa
It’s been nearly 20 years since both clubs were even in the same division – the 2000/01 season of the Premier League – but we still despise the Birmingham club, with a passion. Attend any Coventry City game and you’ll hear the fans singing “S**t on the Villa”. It’s not clever, but it is funny. The reason why? That’s open to debate, but what’s football without rivalry?
We birthed ska
It’s yer da’s favourite thing to put on the pub jukebox – and for good reason. He was probably there when Coventry musicians the Specials and the Selecter put 2-Tone on the map.
The Specials’ 1980 hit Ghost Town is a song that still encapsulates Coventry. At least that’s what the band’s drummer John Bradbury said in 2011: “When I think about Ghost Town I think about Coventry.”
It’s a batch
It’s an argument that’s been done to its doughy death on Facebook and Instagram, but when it comes to a bread roll we call it a batch because it IS a batch and this is why: batch originates from the German word meaning “to bake” or “bacan” in old English. Over time this evolved into “process of baking” to “event of baking” to “the set of things baked” and eventually to a “set of things”, ie a batch. And these bread rolls would be baked in batches too. Therefore you have the batch.
Book your tickets to Coventry with London Northwestern Railway at londonnorthwesternrailway.co.uk
