England
Things you probably didn't know about Coventry
Lady Godiva’s city, destroyed and rebuilt twice over.
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1057 — fact 1 of 5
Lady Godiva’s legendary ride
The story of the countess riding naked through the town to protest her husband’s taxes dates from the 11th century.
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1896 — fact 2 of 5
Britain’s first car factories
Coventry became the home of British motor and cycle manufacturing, from Daimler in 1896 to Jaguar and the Coventry Climax engine.
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Fact 3 of 5
Sent to Coventry
The phrase for being shunned likely comes from Civil War-era Coventry, where royalist prisoners were given the cold shoulder.
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1962 — fact 4 of 5
A cathedral built beside its ruin
After the 1940 blitz, the new cathedral rose next to the bombed shell — a symbol of reconciliation, not replacement.
See what 1962 was like → -
1944 — fact 5 of 5
Twinned with the world
Coventry was the first city to twin with a Soviet city (Stalingrad/Volgograd, 1944) and now has more twins than almost anywhere.
See what 1944 was like →
Our Coventry collection is part of a growing local-history library — more cities and facts are being added.