More information : (SP33337875) Grey Friars Monastery (Franciscan, founded approx. AD 1234 [NR];
(SP33377875) Christ Church [NAT].(1)
Grey Friars Monastery. Founded C13th, dissolved in 1538. The spire and steeple are extant. See GP.(2)
The Franciscan Monastery, or Greyfriars. Little is known of the buildings, apart from the C14th church, of which only the tower and its spire remain. Excavations in the 1820's suggest that the monastic buildings lay to the South of the church, the cemetery to the North. In 1234, the friars were using timber for shingles to cover the roof of what was presumably the earliest church, which may itself have been built entirely of wood. The area of the precict was enlarged in 1289, and at the Dissolution, was bounded by the city wall on the SW, by Warwick Lane on the NW, by Greyfriars Lane on the East, and by Cheylesmore Park on the SE. Construction of the stone church was probably started in 1359. A chapel was built on the North side of the church shortly afterwards, many members of the Hastings family being buried there. Benefactions were received from several important Coventry families, many of the benefactors being buried in the church or precincts.
The size and shape of the church has been reconstructed,(a). It was cruciform, ca.250' long, with an aisled nave and unaisled quire of nearly equal length. There were short valences (transepts), which may also have served as porches, each with a chapel attached to its East wall. The area of the crossing was unusual. It was rectangular below the tower, being shorter from E-W, so that the chancel projected westwards into the crossing. It is thought that the nave altar stood against the western tower arch, and that the base of the tower served as a passage between the transepts. Thus, the quire was for the exclusive use of the friars. When the tower was built, its rectangular base was reduced to a square by inserting secondary North and South arches inside those leading to the transepts. Corbelled arches across the angles of the square completed the support for the slender octagonal tower. The Hastings Chapel, or St Nicholas' Chapel was built onto the North side of the quire at the West end.
A chapel dedicated to St Anne was mentioned in 1518, and a Rood Chapel was built in the churchyard in 1520, the latter being enlarged in 1522. There was also a Chapel of St Nicholas, which Fretton identifies with the Hastings chapel.
The friary was dissolved in 1542, and the buildings, apart from the church, demolished. The tower was kept in reasonable repair by the city corporation. However, the spire was blown down in 1551, and the tower top was remodelled in 1608, possibly as an octagonal embattled tower without a spire. The spire was rebuilt later, and repaired in the C17th and C18th. The land around it became orchards until Union Street was built in 1820. A new church, Christ Church, was built onto the tower in 1830, covering the approximate area of the Medieval nave, the tower base serving as the chancel. The church was gutted by fire in 1940 and demolished, but the tower survived, and today is substantially as it was when built in the C14th. Its total height is 211', of which more than half is the spire.(4)
Christchurch steeple, New Union Street. Grade II*.(5) |