Whitefriars, Coventry

from Derby, excavated from Whitefriars]] from Whitefriars, on display at Herbert Art Gallery and Museum]] The friary was established on 14 February 1342 with the help of Sir John Poultney, about a century after the Carmelites arrived in England. It was built on land that had previously been fields and orchards. The Carmelites were a mendicant religious order, dependent on charity from those they taught and on the gifts from pilgrims visiting their shrine of Our Lady of the Tower. According to Dugdale, 'This Chapell is in the tower of the Cittye Wall without New Gate, close by the roadway leading towards London. On the outside thereof was a picture of the blessed Virgin, richly painted, and…

At the founding of the house in 1342, Whitefriars occupied a site of 10 acres in the south east of Coventry. The western approach was made from Much Park Street where an outer gate still stands. The cloister building was constructed from red sandstone. The remaining cloister walk (the eastern cloister range) The cloister which remains is relatively unchanged from how it would have been when it was constructed. The windows would originally have had no bars and looked out onto a garden or lawn. At the north end is the night stair which would have led down to the church, which is now demolished. It was in this room that Elizabeth I was entertained during her visit in the 1560s. The windows and…