Our July Open Day saw an exciting new venture for us, for the first time ever we used the upper floor in the Visitor Centre for a temporary display of items, as Scott Duffin showcased his Coventry Collection. We have previously used the ground floor area, the garden and the Weaver’s House itself for various exhibitions including Spon Spun Arts & Heritage Trail, these wonderful patchworks, and art exhibits from Coventry Biennial. However this was the first time we had used the space which was previously our office, which was transformed into a mini-museum.
The display included a loan of items from shoe shop Charles Ager (pictured below) alongside Scott’s personal collection of Coventry-related objects such as bottles made in the city and unique pieces such as mouldings from Edgewick Swimming Pool.
And what a fantastic exhibition it was! Here are a few photographs.
Of special interest for us was this sign from a Coventry Court.
Not just any Coventry Court. This was the sign that belonged to the Court behind The Weaver’s House. It felt like it had used a homing instinct to make its way back!
We were also delighted that Scott was able to bring an archive collection from Charles Ager, the footwear retailer, and a Coventry business since 1840. Their shop is located about ten minutes from The Weaver’s House, on Corporation Street.
We had an extremely busy Open Day, the sun shone, and although we had some reduction in space in the garden due to our building works, we were still able to offer our homemade cakes thanks to a careful re-siting of the refreshments. We were delighted to be join by the Sketch Coventry group. You can see some of the artwork here.
A huge thank you to all involved for making this memorable day happen!
Coventry resident Scott Duffin has a passion for the city and its history. Local heritage fans will be familiar with Scott from his guided walks, social media history facts and the book Elephants of Coventry as well as his enthusiasm for collecting Coventry related objects.
Scott has also amassed a considerable ‘Coventry Collection’ of all kinds of items and paraphernalia relating to the city. We are delighted that he will be joining us for our Open Day on Saturday 13th July to bring a selection of objects to display.
Scott’s Coventry treasures will be on show on the upper floor of the Visitor Centre at 122 Upper Spon Street (next to The Weaver’s House) from 10am until 4pm. The house and garden area will also be open with refreshments available.
Admission is free. Please note the stairs to the upper floor are steep.
As Volunteers’ Week draws to a close alongside our June Open Day, it’s the perfect opportunity to thank all of our volunteers, past and present, established and brand new!
Thank you for everything that you do – from being tour guides and experts in Weaver’s House history, to the bakers of the best cakes ever (this is a well established fact), to gardeners, to costume makers and wearers, to demonstrators of crafts, to our trustees and to those who help at the front of house and those who provide behind the scenes support – we really couldn’t do it without any of you!
Cheers to Volunteers!
Of course, The Weaver’s House started out with volunteers who restored Black Swan Terrace back in the 1990s. Without them, the house would have been lost forever. Today, on a sunny afternoon in our lovely garden, visitors enjoyed tea and cake and the opportunity to learn about this unique piece of local history.
The Weaver’s House is a charity and is run by volunteers and we always welcome more! You can get involved in gardening, handiwork, showing people round, making tea or dressing up and demonstrating medieval life. Whether you want to be a regular or give occasional help, being a volunteer with us can offer an opportunity to share skills, meet new people and really make a difference!
Ahead of the first Open Day the volunteers will be getting stuck into the garden after the winter. The first Gardening Day of the year is Saturday 30 March.
We are currently seeking more gardening volunteers to join in with looking after our Tudor-style garden. If you are interested, please do make contact with Tina, who leads the volunteer team, via volunteers @ theweavershouse.org * ahead of the day itself (as we need to know how many people will be on site.)
No experience and no references are required – just straightforward details and a chat beforehand. Gardening days run throughout the year but there is no expectation that volunteers will attend all of them.
*(Please note, you will need to delete the spaces from the email address to get it to work, we insert the spaces to reduce spam emails).
Another year of Open Days has drawn to a close. 2023 has seen a successful season despite some wild weather on occasion – the visitor reviews are consistently glowing.
Highlights during 2023 have included approval for the planned development works, the launch of our revised family history publicationThe Families of Black Swan Terrace, the excitement of seeing the 50s-style Terrace on TV in Three Little Birds, and some generous donations from various visiting groups.
The Weavers’ Workshop continue to run drop-in sessions on Mondays and Thursdays. Recently they have worked with the Ikon Youth Programme and the artist Seungwon Jung to explore Coventry’s history of weaving through workshops on Slow Boat in Coventry Canal Basin, Ikon gallery in Birmingham and The Weaver’s House itself.
The months of the year has seen a new business, skincare specialist SkinCo, take up residence in one of the shop rental units in Black Swan Terrace.
The Weaver’s House is due to reopen for visitors in April, and we will add our confirmed dates soon. If you have been mulling over the thought of offering some of your time to maintaining this little gem in 2024, simply email volunteers@theweavershouse.org for a chat.
The trustees and volunteers at The Weaver’s House are grateful for the support they have received this year and wish you a peaceful Christmas season – we look forward to welcoming you next year.
A blazingly hot weekend for the start of Heritage Open Days in Coventry saw a surprising number of visitors heading to The Weaver’s House and surprisingly, the hot drinks were as popular as ever! One of the times when the coolness of the old buildings are particularly welcome.
Spinning demonstrations were running in the garden in the shade and some younger visitors even had a go at this very traditional craft. When you go through the process to spin your own bit of wool you realise how long it must have taken to produce cloth.
Volunteers decamped to the beautiful surroundings of Drapers’ Hall for the final day of the Heritage festival, to take part in an exhibition of local groups. It was a great opportunity to see other organisations from across the city gathered together to acknowledge all that is achieved to preserve and celebrate Coventry’s history, culture and heritage. Thanks to Coventry Society who organised it, and to Drapers’ Hall for the stunning surroundings.
Open Days are now finished for this year and will restart in the springtime. In the meantime, group tours can be booked subject to availability of volunteers. Full details are at https://theweavershouse.org/group-visits-and-talks
The July Open Day took place on St Swithin’s Day and if the old rhyme proves true it may be a soggy summer!
St Swithin’s Day if thou dost rain, For 40 days it will remain, St Swithin’s Day if thou be fair, For 40 days will rain na mair.
The rain did not set in too much, so we had plenty of visitors. Should it prove to have some days more appropriate for staying inside, we have a couple of new products on the shelves.
Alongside our recent Weaver’s House family history booklet, we have Coventry-based author Mark Johnson’s Hidden Histories – Coventry Jewish Watchmakers. This carefully researched and abundantly illustrated book delves into the stories of migrant families in Victorian Coventry. A fascinating and insightful slice of Coventry’s history, very relevant to our area.
There is also some stock of the Concrete Colouring Book, designed for Coventry 2021 and featuring iconic brutalist and mid-century architecture of the city such as the Brittania Hotel, Elephant Building and Belgrade Theatre. These were generously donated by Michael Mogan and money raised from their sale at the bargain price of £3 will support The Weaver’s House.
The Weaver’s House will be open for three more Open Days this year: Saturday 12th August, and Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th September. All from 10am until 4pm (we recommend last admissions at 3.30pm).
We have exciting plans to develop the site, to tell more of the stories of the people who have lived here and enable us to deliver a better visitor experience. You can read more about these plans here.
We are very grateful to Heart of England Community Foundation for facilitating the funding to get this project underway.
Our new publication reveals more of the lives of the past residents of The Weaver’s House.
The Families of Black Swan Terrace delves into the family histories of the house and its surrounding cottages, built in 1455. Volunteer Clare Chamberlain, who herself has a family connection to the house, undertook considerable research to build on the foundations of the previous family history booklet, Who Lived in Black Swan Terrace?
The Families of Black Swan Terrace includes all the previous knowledge contained in the original, plus a substantial amount of new research, photographs, and reminiscences gathered from various families with links to the terrace. It has been a process of several years to bring it to print, and we will be celebrating its publication at the Open Day on 13th May, during Local and Community History Month. The house and garden will be open from 10am until 4pm. As usual, admission is free and no booking is necessary to enter the site.
Huge thanks to Carol Hudd who researched and wrote the first booklet, to Clare Chamberlain for the additional research and writing of the new edition, and everyone who has contributed along the journey. We are very grateful for your help.
Have you seen our plans to bring even more of the terrace’s history to life with a new exhibition space and installation in the garden area? We would love to hear from anyone with a connection to the buildings in the terrace or the court buildings behind – even scraps of information will help to build up the story!
Please can get in touch with us via history ‘at’ theweavershouse.org (normal email format, just changed the @ to avoid spam!) or drop in at one of the upcoming Open Days.
As we approach the Coronation, we thought we’d take a quick look at who was ruling during some of the key points in our Weaver’s House/Black Swan timeline.
There have been 28 different sovereigns of Britain (plus the Commonwealth period) during the life of The Weaver’s House and Black Swan Terrace. Here we look at who was monarch during some significant points in our buildings’ history.
1455: The six cottages in Black Swan Terrace were built by the Priory as one structure in 1455, replacing the buildings that had previously stood on the site. The reign of the Plantagenet king, Henry VI would have been well underway at this point, lasting firstly from 1422 to 1461 and restored to the throne 1470–71. King Henry VI and his Queen, Margaret of Anjou are thought to be featured in the Coventry Tapestry – do you know whereabouts in Coventry you can see it?
1510: The city wall, begun in 1355 is finally completed. Our row of cottages were situated outside the wall. This would have been the year after the Tudor, Henry VIII came to the throne.
1539: The ownership of the terrace by St. Mary’s Priory, Coventry came to an end due to the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, with ownership therefore passing to the Crown – though the terrace was sold in 1545 to John Combes and Richard Stansfelde.
1540: This date appears on our timeline as this is the year designated to recreate the experience of living in The Weaver’s House (above). It would have been towards the end of Henry VIII’s reign (1509 – 1547).
1581: The ownership of the house is with The Mercers’ Company (one of the large number of craft guilds in Coventry). By this point Elizabeth I was Queen (1558–1603, the end of the Tudor period). Elizabeth visited the city in 1565. As one of the main routes into Coventry was along Spon Street, she may have passed by the terrace – do you know which building she addressed the people of Coventry from during her visit?
1678: The terrace is sold by the Mercers’ Company to a Mr Rogers. This was during the reign of the Stuart king, Charles II, who has a connection with a Coventry phrase – do you know why?
1700: Around this time the cottages are now owned by John Pickering, during the reign of William III & Mary II (1689–1702).
1768: The ownership of the terrace is split into three parts in Mary Kevitt’s will. From this time the terrace has separate ownerships, and at this point the throne was occupied by George III (1760–1820).
1780-1800:
Behind 120 a range of further cottages was built
Behind 119 there was also a range of cottages with top-shops over
These buildings behind were Coventry Courts. Virtually no trace exists of these court buildings as those that were not destroyed in the blitz were demolished as part of slum clearance schemes. We are currently looking for any info and memories on these buildings (read more about this here).
1823: Around this time, during the reign of George IV (1820-30) , the first mention of the Black Swan Inn occurs, this would have been on the corner premises at 123 (today it has the Moira’s sign and distinctive green tiles), and in 1826 Swan Terrace is built behind 123 Spon Street.
1841: Now in the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) the cloth trades still dominated the economy of the area with nearly 50% of the occupants involved in the area’s traditional trades of weaving and dyeing. Ten years on, the emphasis has shifted to the silk trade, and by 1891, nobody living in the terrace was employed in silk or cloth-weaving or dyeing.
As Victoria’s reign came to an end, the occupancy of the terrace was changing as the frontage becomes converted to shop fronts during the period 1900 – 1915 (This encompasses Edward VII from 1901-10 and the start of George V‘s reign (until 1936).
1940: During the Coventry blitz a nearby terrace facing Barras Lane (adjacent to Spon Street) was destroyed. There are blackened timbers within Black Swan Terrace itself as a result of the blitz, during the reign of George VI (1936–52). The monarch visited the war-torn city straight after the devastation of the blitz.
The remaining significant dates are all within the span of Elizabeth II’s long reign (1952–2022)
1977-87: The terrace is bought for slum clearance by Coventry City Council, intended for demolition 1995: Spon End Building Preservation Trust formed, to rescue the terrace. 2007: The conservation work is completed and The Weaver’s House opens to the public.
2023:Our latest development has begun as we approach the Coronation of Charles III.
