Pet Portraits - The Artist's Home Town

(Further painted images of Coventry may be seen on my Landscape Paintings page)

	Photo - Looking across from Tile Hill Village Shops. In the distance is the Old Cottage in Banner Lane which is to the centre left of this picture, over the hedgerow.
	Photo - Another view from Tile Hill Village Shops up Tile Hill Lane, which leads to Coventry City Centre.
	The Old Cottage on Banner Lane - Oil Painting - This old cottage is very near to my home. Sadly, although it was a listed building, it was allowed to deteriorate and became structurally unsafe. It has now been demolished to make way for the Banners Brook Housing Estate. Originally, an estate workers cottage, it was a last remnant of the old Estate.
	Photo - The ancient drovers path - photo - This runs along the side of Banner lane, past the gate of the old cottage - now the Banner's Brook housing estate
	Photo - The back garden of the old derelict cottage - 9 February 1989 - showing the old water pump which the cottagers used.
	Photo - Tile Hill Village Shops and Garage.
	The Bell Inn, Tile Hill Village - This public house is just down on the left of the butcher shop in the following picture - I cannot find a photo at present so this is one of my oil paintings.
	Photo - My Local Butchers, Richard Sergeant in Tile Hill Village.
	Photo - A small corner of my garden, by my back gate.
	Photo - My garden and pond in June 1986.
	Photo - My pond in July 1984.
	Photo - The Scouts Wood, Rough Close. Winter scene viewed from Wickman's Field.
	Photo - Toby in Scouts Wood - November 1995 - Photo. My little Jack Russell Terrier Toby in the far distance on this lovely autumn afternoon.
	Photo - Bluebell wood in Rough Close, Tile Hill, Coventry May - 1998 photo - Running alongside the fields where I walk my dogs, lies the Rough Close Scout Wood. A beautiful, peaceful oasis and home to rabbits, foxes, squirrels, muntjac deer, and many other creatures including a great variety of birds such as woodcocks, pheasants, thrushes, blackbirds, bluetits, great-tits, wrens, pigeons,
	Photo - The pond in Conway's field - July 1992 - Photo. This is the pond on the other side of Middle Meadow. This is home to many creatures, moorhens, ducks, frogs, toads, smooth newts, crested newts, various species of dragonflies and beetles, and numerous other species.
	Photo - My son Paul in the Dog Daisy Field, Wickman's site - July 1996. In the summer, this field was a sea of white dog daisies. There were also wild pansies, and many other plants. This land has, sadly, now been built over
	Photo - A small field we used to call our Secret Garden, in July 1995. There were so many butterflies here, especially small blues, it was unbelievable. We used to see hares, rabbits, muntjac deers, foxes, pheasants, grouse, kestrels, and many other creatures. This field has also, now been built over so these creatures are gone from this area for ever.
	Photo - Bus Stuck in Snowdrift - On 9 December, 1990. The bus can be seen on the left of the picture. The local shops ran out of bread as deliveries could not get through. We have not had such heavy snow for a number of years now.
	Photo - Toby, my Jack Russell Terrier, in the Snow - Although almost buried in the deep snow, Toby nevertheless was one soul who thoroughly enjoyed it.
	Photo - After the snow storm 8 December 1990. No buses or cars could use the roads and it was very difficult trudging through the snow. People started hoarding bread and suchlike, although within a week this snow had almost gone. It is a long time since we had snow this deep, although, then, we could almost guarantee one or two periods of heavy snow per winter. Global Warming?
	Photo - A Bumble Bee busy in my garden in May 2005. I love watching these busy little creatures.
	Photo - A young Blackbird, just fledged, resting in one of my pear trees. We quite often have a nest of Blackbirds in our Wisteria.
	Photo - The nearby nature reserve in Banner Lane. The beauty of getting away from everything for an hour or so.

Pet Portraits of Dogs, Cats & Animals in oils on canvas or watercolours

Pet Portraits of Dogs, Cats & Animals in oils on canvas or watercolours or Greeting Cards

A Brief Glimpse of My Home Town (I will be putting more on this page about Coventry as soon as I get some time).

Coventry City is situated in the midlands of England, just to the south-east of Birmingham, England's second city.

Godiva did, in fact, exist. The name is a form of the old English name Godgyfu. It is not known where she was born, her date of birth, nor who her parents were. She did have close ties with Lincoln and it is said that she may have been the daughter of the Sheriff of Lincoln, with large estates in Newark which is just 20 miles from Lincoln. However, one thing is certain, Godiva did marry Leofric, Earl of Mercia whom, it is said, was much older than her. She was, apparently only about 16 years old when she married Leofric but died, an old woman, only 10 years after her husband, so these ages seem rather confused.

When Godiva married Leofric, she was though to be already rich in properties inherited from her own family. It is possible that the land around Coventry was one of her properties.

Coventry, according to the Domesday Book, had only 69 families which meant it was quite a small place, indeed more of a hamlet than a town in Godiva's era.

Whether she ever made her ride through Coventry is now lost in the mists of time. However, in 1572, Richard Grafton, a Coventry Member of Parliament, refers to the ride in some writing. Whether Peeping Tom ever existed is also not known for sure.

In 1672 - 1726 an account by Humphrey Wanley does describe how Coventry householders were instructed to keep their doors and windows closed while the Lady rode through. But, as this was some 600 years after the supposed ride, it cannot be given much authority. However, if the ride was made, it would have been through an area of isolated dwellings or a village, not a town or city. It is also probable that Godiva owned Coventry herself and did not need her husband's or anybody else's permission to impose or repeal any tax on its citizens. That was under her own control. The only levy she would have had no control over was the Heregeld which was levied to pay for the King's personal bodyguard. This was a National tax which everybody had to pay until Edward the Confessor revoked it in 1051. But, perhaps, Godiva could have paid the peoples Heregeld from her own wealth. This confusion may have arisen because, by the time the earliest account was recorded, the women of England had lost their property, personal and legal rights to which they had been entitled until 1066, when the Normans invaded England. The fact that Godiva was a wealthy landowner appears to have been forgotten. People were writing from the perspective of Norman law in which women from 1066 had very few rights.

Godiva and Leofric were devout Christians and Coventry's Benedictine Prior of St. Mary was said to have been financed by them. Their remains are reputedly buried there. The Virgin Mary appears to have been of great importance to Godiva and another church she founded, in Stow, Lincolnshire, is named St. Mary's Priory Church. It is just 5 miles from Lincoln. She also bestowed other gifts to churches throughout the midlands.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicles record Leofric's death as 30th October 1057. Godiva died just ten years later in 1067.

This blitzing of Coventry gave rise to the expression "Coventrate" meaning destroy.

Isabel Clark's Pet Portraits of Special Pets, People & Places make very Special Gifts

Pet Portraits of Dogs, Cats, Animals, Wildlife, People, Landscape Paintings & Greeting Cards created from Your Own Photos

Pet Portraits - The Artist's Home Town - Coventry

BA (Honours) Fine Art

A Glimpse of Coventry - Tile Hill and Tile Hill Village

Pet Portraits of Dogs, Cats & Animals in oils on canvas or watercolours

Pet Portraits of Dogs, Cats & Animals in oils on canvas or watercolours or Greeting Cards