ABSTRACT
The three churches of St Michael, Holy Trinity and St John the Baptist are amongst the most telling reminders today of Coventry’s medieval past. Their architectural fabric is almost entirely late medieval, part of an explosion of building and rebuilding within the city from the late 14th century onwards. St Michael’s was by far the most impressive, both in terms of scale and the nature of patronage that allowed for a complete reconstruction of the church. Little is recorded of its construction dates and since its partial destruction in 1940 its architecture has been largely overlooked. This article aims to reassess its history, placing it in a local and national context. Almost everything above ground was the result of two reconstruction programmes in the later middle ages, carried out in stages from c. 1370 to c. 1450. Usually interpreted as a single campaign, this paper will show how the 13th-century church, itself a significant building, was adapted and altered before the wholesale reconstruction of the nave and chancel, and how the evolution of the church cannot be divorced from the circumstances of the economic, social and topographical development of Coventry.
