Old Cathedral and Church of St Michael

I think that there were 40 in total (not including gargoyles and small faces). I imagine some of the statues didn't survive the war. Some of the modern statues make sense - Godiva, Leofric, the 4 Botoners, various kings during the history of the church. I think that there was a St Michael slaying a dragon and what looked like a St Christopher.

This is reputed to be William Shakespeare

Modern technology will allow people standing in the ruins of the old cathedral to "view" it as it was prior to being destroyed in the blitz. Running an "App" on your smartphone it will enable you to see a 3D overlay of the original interior. The Telegraph article can be read here

This image of St Michaels is dated 1936 so must be one of the very latest images of the interior

I would call that one a winner Neil thank you.

These are most of the statues on the west face of the tower. There are three missing due to camera shake.

Those are nice shots of the statues. The one with the dragon is St Michael I'm guessing but the others don't look familiar.

Nice painting of the interior by David Gee. I'm not sure that I've seen it before. In fact, I don't think that I've seen this aisle looking along it to the east. Click on picture to zoom.

I've got some of my best images from somebody else's purchases I won't rule out splashing out if I see something truly novel but usually I don't see these things until they're long since sold. My bank account prefers me to buy vicariously.

There's a fascinating read here for anyone interested in medieval stained glass and the old panels of St Michael's.

I found this one

''WOW'' How did you do that. You missed out the Eagle, but no matter, a great picture, no wonder I was scared, didn't dare cough or sneeze.

One of the many projects I've been doing is trying to work out what the windows looked like. The glass and tracery changed over the years. By the point in the photo the original glass was in a poor state and it seems that a lot of what was left had been put together in a crazy paving effect rather than fully coherent windows. It probably stemmed from repairers not having the skills or patience for restoring windows to their former style. The two side panels of the apse held the best of the remaining glass. Up until quite late the clerestory (the upper level) had some of the old glass too but I'm not sure whether it was still there by the time the building was photographed. The medieval glass had already been under threat and some of it destroyed when Catholicism fell out of favour. The fantastical nature and richness of Catholic decoration was deemed unseemly and the walls were painted white and the mythical beasts in the glass were removed. What did survive were often more Earthly scenes including panels depicting important people. The glass saved from the bombing is being preserved and at some point we may get to see some logical groupings. I know that the original glass featured a lot of clear, yellow and painted glass but I'm not sure what other colours, if any they would have featured. The full colour versions are likely to be later additions. Theoretically the windows were photographed although I don't know if they survived. The two images I've been working on to determine the tracery are from the latter half of the 1600s (one from RIBA and the other pops up on line but can be found in the book St Michael's of Coventry, recommended for more info on the cathedral). The windows were more uniform than we see today or in the photos.

As you know I take loads of photos on my visits to Coventry. Is this a new resin cross that has been placed on the altar in the old cathedral, not noticed it before, as it looks a lot bigger.

This is a photo of the cross taken by Rob and uploaded to his site