Here in the UK, the phrase ‘being sent to Coventry’ means to be actively ignored or ostracised. This behaviour often takes the form of pretending that the shunned person, although conspicuously present, can’t be seen or heard….Hand on heart, I hadn’t a clue why, but a few googly type clicks and it seems possible that it originated in the English civil war of the 1640’s when Cromwell sent a group of Royalist soldiers to be imprisoned there, and the local criminals already in captivity, but Parliamentarians to a man, ignored them completely….Comes to something when even the sheep rustlers and pick-purses look down their noses at you….
But, it’s all supposition, no-one really knows.
What I do know is, (and I’m sorry Coventry but if the cap fits wear it), as towns go it really isn’t the most attractive or welcoming…In my honest opinion ‘being sent to Coventry’ is still a bit of a punishment.
That said, the cathedral is a bit of a smasher……….
All Images Copyright Stuart Allan Hyde
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stuart allan hyde ______ 
sophiemayersart
Beautiful images
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Hey there 🙂
Thanks very much indeed.
V-Light
Stuart Hyde - shpics
They’re angels indeed…BUT they do look a little under-nourished and more than a little ‘Lord of the Rings’ bad-guy-esque…Creepy, as you say. 🙂
janemorley2014
Hi sh, I reckon you’ve captured that desolate feel perfectly here,! I think I’d prefer the ruined bit myself, but those stained glass windows look truly awesome even more so in monochrome 🙂
Stuart Hyde - shpics
The ruined bit IS rather wonderful as well……Sadly it was over-run with Samsung toting Japanese tourists while we were there.
😦
janemorley2014
Sounds like my less than memorable visit to Florence 😦
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Ooooh I’ve never been, but my chum Andy went a few years ago and said he spent approx. three days queuing for 20 minutes of viewing and then spent a months salary on 2 espressos…He wasn’t a fan!
😦
janemorley2014
Haha! Sounds familiar 😦 I had wonderful images in my head of medieval masters still bustling about the place to the gentle accompaniment of discreet lute music and instead it was 15 plane loads of Japanese tourists surrounding every single thing I wanted to see. Not quite the right ambience 😦
Stuart Hyde - shpics
So often the fantasy trumps reality….Don’t get me wrong, I DO still want to splash around in a plunge bath with Evangelista and Turlington, but, just between ourselves, I know it would be a disappointment.
janemorley2014
Quite so sh, you’d be bound to get the plug end
😦
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Is that a sexual reference? ? ?
I’ve led a sheltered life…..
janemorley2014
Stuart Hyde - shpics
So I’m the wrong person??…..Hmmmm
😦
liampitts
Coventry isn’t all that bad. Ahhh who I am I kidding? It’s terrible.
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Hahaha…
BUT…I did have the best bratwurst I’ve ever had outside of Germany…Cooked over coals in a van on Market street…Enough justification for a visit in my book.
🙂
scillagrace
Coventry Cathedral, Coventry Carol (Lully lullay …la, la, la…) to me, it’s always had a rather romantic sacredness to it, but I’ve never been there. I really like the rood screen angels…it’s like a scrim in a theater set. Very dramatic!
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Glad you like the screen….It would be rood not to 🙂
Sadly, had you ever been… you would never, and I mean never, utter a sentence that contained both the words Coventry and Romantic…Just wouldn’t ever happen!
🙂
scillagrace
Then maybe I’ll just skip that reality and keep it in my head… 😉
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Still come to the Midlands though…I’ll just steer you both clear of the more obvious pitfalls.
🙂
Ben Rowe Aperturef64
I was in Coventry once and I have no real memory of being there expect that I was there for a conference and that’s it. Possibly my mind is ignoring the memory. Very nice images of the cathedral, maybe if I had seen it I wouldn’t have forgotten Coventry.
Stuart Hyde - shpics
I think it’s a bit like any severe trauma…The brain tends to block it out.
🙂
tesid2014
nice pics but i am not a fan of modern church architecture,have you ever seen liverpools wigwam aka catholic cathedral ???
Stuart Hyde - shpics
https://shpics.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/july-10-you-either-love-it-or/
Feast yer peepers Tanya… 🙂
equinoxio21
“Coventry”. “Smasher”. You are soooo Brit!
🙂
Thank you for the tale and the pictures.
(And I’ve just gone back to Florence this summer for the second time… Not that bad. Maybe the italians heard your friend Andy speak english and took him for a ride)
🙂
Have a nice week-end
Brian
Stuart Hyde - shpics
I am I can’t help it!!! I’m like one of those dyspeptic old colonels in 1930’s films….Suffering from gout, constipation and mild bigotry.
Oh Dear… 🙂
(And Andy spakes Black Cuntreyh, a diffrunt fing entyrlee 😉
equinoxio21
Black Cuntreyh, eh? (So many accents in the Royaume-Uni) Would you be so kind as to refresh my Frog memory? Coal mines? Wales?
🙂
Stuart Hyde - shpics
Heart of the midlands……where the smoke was blackest back when we still did industry 😀
My home town is Dudley, where even the dogs walk in two’s……..
(don’t get me wrong though, it’s still infinitely preferable to anything you Frenchies have to offer….I’ve walked the streets of “la belle france” on a friday night and know the meaning of fear).
equinoxio21
Oh. I understand why even the dogs walk in two’s… 🙂
What “rues” have you been walking on and at what ungodly hour? (I live in Mexico. Soooo, I can’t understand europeans and continentals’ “fear” over there. First thing I do when I go back to France (every year is precisely enjoy walking anywhere – almost – anytime! And yet I read in the press a growing feeling of insecurity o’there. Makes me curious.
Rhys Jones
Lovely images. …. Coventry is rather like the curate’s egg 🙂
Stuart Hyde - shpics
A Punch aficionado…..Never a bad thing!
🙂