The Medieval Coventry charity is a group of volunteers eager to encourage people to explore Coventry’s medieval history in a new and fun way.

Using a mix of traditional techniques and the latest digital technologies, we aim to bring the medieval city to life, showing how it developed from the Norman Conquest of 1066 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in around 1540.

Coventry was actually a Saxon town, so Earl Leofric and Lady Godiva fall just outside our focus. But we feel there is an even more interesting yet less well-known story to tell, particularly about Coventry’s heyday from the mid-14th century to the early 16th century.

We are working on a number of new and innovative projects, including a virtual reality model of Spon Street, a medieval industrial suburb. In 2022 we launched a downloadable app-based walking tour of the city’s medieval treasures.

Publications include our Historical Map of Coventry, produced in partnership with the Historic Towns Trust. We will shortly be publishing the proceedings of two recent conferences organised or co-organised by the charity: ‘Weaving Together the Threads: the Medieval Tapestry in St Mary’s Hall’ and ‘Coventry and Celebrations, Communities and Performances: festival occasions in Coventry from the 15th to the 17th centuries and their Legacies’.

Exhibitions and displays include: ‘Royal Women of Influence in Coventry: Queen Isabella and Margaret of Anjou’; ‘Metropolis: the History of Coventry’s Built Environment’ at the Metropolis Restaurant Gallery, ‘The Medieval Ceremonial Civic Sword of Coventry’, which featured at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, and ‘The Medieval Doom Painting’, installed at Holy Trinity Church.