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Coventry’s Hidden Gems
During the lockdown, we are very much missing welcoming visitors to our little medieval house and sharing its history. Our visitors often describe the house as a “hidden gem”, which they are delighted to discover, sometimes having passed close by for years without realising what is inside.

We are also missing enjoying the other wonderful places to explore and enjoy in Coventry. Whilst we are in lockdown, we thought we would highlight some of these great places – celebrate memories and look forward to at some point being able to visit again.

To begin with, we’ve chosen five other places we think of as being or containing ‘hidden gems’:
1. Lanchester Interactive Archive. This fascinating space presents the legacy of engineering genius Frederick Lanchester. Delve into the archive and see blueprints, sketchbooks, notes and correspondence. You can use augmented reality steering wheels to bring it all to life and even sit in a Lanchester car! The archive is inside Frederick Lanchester Library on Gosford Street, so when it is possible to visit again, you’ll need to sign it at their reception desk first, you can find full details here. In the meantime, there is plenty to look at online.
  One of the interactive ‘steering wheels’, held over a photograph, brings details to life.
2. Quarry Gardens, Russell’s Garden Centre. There’s already lots to enjoy on site including a truly great cafe, light railway, and the garden centre itself, but it is easy to miss the entrance to the Quarry Gardens, a beautiful landscaped area, river walk and maze. A true secret garden, at the moment you can visit it virtually with this walkthrough video:
3. ‘Doom’ Painting, Holy Trinity Church. A building with an impressive history, dating back to the twelfth century, if you have never had the chance to visit, it’s definitely one for the must-do list. The guides are friendly and extremely knowledgeable, there is a children’s trail and lots of interesting details, including the astonishing ‘Coventry Doom‘ which was painted before The Weaver’s House was built! The years had taken their toll on the painting, but it was spectacularly restored in 2004. Whilst the church is closed, you can take a 360 tour here.
  Each year the church holds a Christmas Tree Festival.
4. St John’s Church, Spon Street. We’ve looked in detail before at some of the many intriguing features of this historic church. It repays a return visit as you are certain to notice something new each time, and be certain to ask one of the guides to point out some of the details such as a window that looks onto a blank wall and a door covered with ‘Green Men’. Definitely one to visit after the lockdown, as hidden away from view is a newer built area which houses the tearoom, open on selected days. It’s easy to forget that you are right in the heart of the city centre, when this is the view:
5. Sculpture Trail, University of Warwick campus. More ‘hidden in plain sight’ this one, as the sculptures are dotted all around the campus landscape. Whether you wander randomly or pick up a trail map to follow and find out more about each artwork, there is plenty to explore when the campus reopens to visitors. You can find out more about the sculptures here.
  Days of Judgement, Cat 1.
  
  So, there’s our first batch of hidden gems! We would love to hear about your hidden gems for when we can go exploring again. Please share your ideas with us.
April 14, 2020
Warp speed ahead!

In this post Sara of the Weavers’ Workshop takes us through the process of rewarping our reproduction loom, a mammoth task!

The replica medieval floor loom is at last warped up following several wintry sessions in the freezing upstairs ‘solar’ of The Weaver’s House. We had no heating, but thankfully we had the benefit of electric lighting, so we cannot really claim to be replicating the task that faced John Croke in 1540, who would have only had a rush light with which to see by.

The warping up process was managed over several cold, lengthy sessions thanks to the technical expertise of Ian McClusky from the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers and support from The Weavers’ Workshop (Margaret Annetts, Heidi Campbell and me). The Weaver’s House trustee, Peterson, assisted to get the technical elements of the loom working – so the shafts and foot pedals synchronised to create a workable ‘shed’ through which to pass the boat shuttle.

Ian hard at work on the loom

The loom is a faithful reproduction of the type of narrow floor loom used in medieval times to produce undyed cloth for the artisan workers in the area. It is hoped to demonstrate the weaving process as it would have been done at that time using a boat shuttle, but there is still work to do to find a suitable shuttle and master the technique. While weaving cloth seems straightforward enough in principle, setting up the loom and achieving a rhythmic approach to the weaving process requires great skill and it is amazing in these days of advanced technology, how the craftsmen of old achieved great things with what we regard now as relatively simple equipment.

You can see a full picture of the loom in the gallery.

If you are interested in traditional weaving, you may be interested in our post on weaving in Mexico, on a very similar loom.

March 30, 2020
Heritage Open Days and a special occasion are the perfect close to the season

This year, we’ve celebrated the fact that Heritage Open Days is 25 years old! The increasing success of the festival is a great sign of a healthy interest in heritage. And for the final weekend of Heritage Open Days, we also celebrated the centenary of one of the house’s previous residents.

Sid O’ Neil lived in The Weaver’s House itself during the early twentieth century. His descendant, Clare, is one of the current volunteers and she organised this special celebration to mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth.

We had some cakes and balloons to mark the occasion, but one thing we weren’t expecting was a rather special happening… In 1929 a ten-year-old Sid O’Neil went to school and played with neighbour Fred Golby. Ninety years later Sid’s son Terry and Fred’s son and daughter, Eric and Carol, met for the very first time at the terrace where their dads lived. Family history in real time!

Alongside Sid’s birthday celebrations, we also had tours, tea, cake and sunshine to enjoy the garden.

A big thank you to everyone who has come to our events and supported us this year.

September 27, 2019
Making a meal of Open Days

“The rain it raineth every day”.

Oh and hasn’t it just? June has had a distinctly autumnal feel so far, although on the upside, the garden is looking fantastic! Medieval buildings are often pleasantly cool during the summer months but it certainly can be chilly when it’s cold.

We were therefore surprised, and pleased, to see so many visitors considering how dire the weather had been all week. Looking at the forecast we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we might just be on our own huddled around a vat of pease pottage in an effort to keep warm.

Tasted better than it looks!

Nearly out of mini-trenchers

Visitors cleaned us out of pottage

Speaking of the pottage, it went down incredibly well with most tasters saying that they enjoyed it… or that it wasn’t as bad as they had feared it would be! One visitor enjoyed it so much that, after several samples, he claimed to be off home to make some. If you were that visitor, we’d love to hear how it turned out!

We served the pease pottage on a traditional medieval trencher – basically a plate made of bread – in rather non medieval style mini-trenchers. Perhaps it will catch on and pease pottage vol-au-vents will be sweeping the nation by Christmas.

Of course, our usual delicious homemade cakes were available in the tea room for anyone who was not enamoured of the idea of pottage!

We also had an insight into the fascinating rules of Tudor table manners. Our volunteers set this up as a game, a taste of which is below.

Setting the Tudor table

What would be on the table?

A few comments from the visitors book illustrate the enthusiasm with which the day was received:

“So interesting and inspiring. Wonderful volunteers, wonderful cake!”
“Very well done especially the pease pudding and the strawberry chocolate
cake. An unexpected gem.”
“Very interesting. Have wondered about these buildings for years. Great to
hear some fascinating facts.”

It was very heartening to see that the rain did not stop play with other great events across Coventry, including a Wellbeing event at the Herbert, including the Weavers’ Workshop, and Positive Images Festival. Heritage and culture fans seems to be a hardy bunch!

Weavers’ Workshop display

Creations by the Workshop members

Our next Open Day is in July when we’ll have all the usual tours and refreshments, and we’ll have some added archaeological interest thanks to CADAS (Coventry and District Archaeological Society). Do join us on Sunday 21 July from 11am until 4pm.

June 18, 2019
Medieval Mayhem in May!

On Sunday 5 May The Weaver’s House came alive as special guests and visitors filled the house and garden. Locally based reenactor group Coventry Militia brought expertise, costumes and weaponry for an authentic historical experience.

Visitors were able to find out about many aspects of medieval life and specific information about the role Coventry played during this period. Plus, there was of course the chance to see some exciting medieval action! And though we may say it ourselves, it was a lot easier to see what was going on than in the Battle of Winterfell.

Our knowledgeable volunteers were kept busy with a stream of visitors enjoying the regular tours of the house, we squeezed in as many people as possible.

The day prompted some fantastic reviews:

“A very informative couple of hours, very interesting talk with the wool spinning ladies and our guide around the Weaver’s cottage was brilliant.”

“Excellent guides really bring the place to life. A hidden gem.”

All in all, the day was a huge success with over 180 visitors enjoying history, reenaction and of course our homemade cakes. We’re very much hoping to invite Coventry Militia back for a future event.

In the meantime, our next Open Day is on Saturday 15 June, when the focus will be on Medieval Meals. As usual, admission will be free, and we’ll be open from 11am until 4pm, with refreshments available.

May 24, 2019
We are a part of the DesignLab Nation…

Last month our fantastic volunteers Tina and Janet hosted a visit by 30 students and teaching staff from Finham Park 2.

The visit was linked to the innovative DesignLab Nation programme run by the V&A which brings together schools, artists, and museums to explore the approach to design. This particular visit was part of a collaboration between the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum and designer Gemma Potter, and we were delighted to be involved.

During the visit, the students were given an in-depth insight into the history of the weaving industry in Coventry to assist in their current project. They had also visited Warwickshire-based game studio Rare as their project challenged them to question what they view as playful and productive activities. By designing prototypes for analogue input and output devices, students could links between the 18^th/19^th century Coventry based weaving trade and the current game design industry.

You can delve more into the DesignLab Nation programme here.

Unlikely as it may seem, this isn’t the first blog post we’ve written with a connection between weaving and gaming!

All photographs ©Victoria and Albert Museum

February 6, 2019
A Happy Halloween was had…

It certainly has been a bumper year for Open Days. September saw us open for two weekends for Heritage Open Days, for the very first time, and October saw another first with a special Halloween themed event at half term, as part of Museums at Night.

Volunteers worked really hard in the week running up to the event and transformed the house into a spooky and entertaining setting for a late afternoon of crafts, treats and storytelling. Despite it being a cold day, much fun was had and visitors were able to warm up with mulled apple juice, hot chocolate and Halloween themed tasty treats.

Volunteers got into the ‘spirit’ of things by dressing in suitably spooky attire and some little visitors also came along in costume. As well as the creepy craft session, there was also a Make a Potion Trail and an ‘Unlucky’ Dip.

The Belgrade Theatre’s panto dame, Nanny McWheeze, popped in to learn a little about spinning wheels and spindles, in the hope of protecting Princess Belle from the curse of the wicked Carabosse!

The day finished with a special storytelling session in the house itself, with storyteller Pyn Stockman enchanting both children and adults with the tale of Vasilisa the Brave.

Thanks to all our volunteers and visitors who made it such a memorable day!

November 20, 2018
The Weaver’s House – Mexico

The Weaver’s House, Mexico

Our trustee Dr Nat. Alcock made a recent visit to Mexico and during his stay he visited a traditional weaver in the village of Teotitlán del Valle in the south of the country, near the town of Oaxaca. This was fascinating, as the methods and equipment were very similar to ours, as you will find:

Nat watches a demonstration by the weaver, Faustino, on the main loom.

Carding the wool before spinning.

The winding and spinning wheel, looking very familiar.

Another familiar sight, this time it’s woad dye from a plant growing on the coast. It was used for patterns of varied hues of blue, the depth of colour depending on the dyeing – first, second or third batch.

More natural dye, here a grinder is being used to crush cochineal, with the resulting red dye shown on the wool hanks. The famous cochineal beetle [grana] which is found only on a particular cactus it produces varied hues, depending on the pH. Cochineal is commonly used as a food dye.

Other natural dyes used were:

Yellow, either from marigold or a lichen

Deep black from a mimosa seed pod

Brown from pecan shells

Some of the hanks of wool dyed with natural dyes.

A finished carpet.

A finished carpet in shades of natural blue, using similar dye to Coventry Blue!

An old loom, dating from around 1900. It belonged to Faustino’s great-grandfather, and has been restored.

Some very familiar weaving sights! Take a look at our Gallery page to spot the similarities.

Our thanks to Faustino Ruiz and his wife Ludivina for sharing their weaving expertise.

January 15, 2018
New trustees needed!

This year, we celebrated ten year’s of The Weaver’s House. The project which began with a conversation in a pub in the 1990s has made fantastic achievements in bringing this special local landmark to life. Now, Spon End Building Preservation Trust, which runs the house, are seeking some new trustees to join the team as the close of this tenth year has seen some regular members move on. Are you looking for something new in 2018? Could you play your part in the history of this fascinating building?

The Weaver’s House and Activity Centre. Photo: Clare Chamberlain.

Trustees meet approximately once per month and are responsible for overseeing the development and direction of the organisation. No previous experience is necessary though a passion for Coventry and heritage would be beneficial. The trust is especially looking for new trustees with company secretary and health and safety knowledge. Trustees with campaigning and fundraising skills to share would also be very much welcomed. If you are interested in becoming a trustee, please use our Contact Form to get in touch.

November 28, 2017
Lights, camera, weaving!

During the winter season, although there are no open days, there are still signs of life in The Weaver’s House! Most recently the house was a location for an exciting filming project.

Mark Webb, University of Leicester and Weaver’s House member, worked with PhD students from Warwick University Department of Visualisation and a camera team from Herbert Media to film late medieval weaving, using the Weaver’s House replica loom. This is part of the development of a virtual reality model of Spon Street and its associated medieval crafts. Professional re-enactors Ruth Gilbert and Tim Jenkins were filmed doing weaving and winding quills in costume of the period circa 1500.

The whole process, including setting up a ‘green screen’ environment for video and preparing the loom, took three days. Two other Spon Street crafts will be filmed in the next few months – tanning and dyeing. Eventually the results will be fed into an overall model of medieval Spon Street, recreating a multi-sensory experience including sights, sounds and smells. We can’t wait to see the completed project!

October 18, 2017