Community Restoration Projects and The Charterhouse of Coventry
By Silva Shahini, Second Year History
Coventry is known for its medieval origins, its innovatory golden age and its modern attempts to try and bring both elements together as a ‘City of Culture’. Despite all this history, Coventry City Council have not been known to conserve their regional history, with a local anecdote noting how Coventry Council has torn down more historic buildings than the famous Coventry bombings ever did. But, despite this, some buildings remain fully intact and are attracting conservation efforts. One of which is one of the only Carthusian monasteries in the country, the ‘Grade 1’ listed building: The Charterhouse.
The monastery is a patchwork of history, much like the city itself. It was established in 1381 and was of special interest to King Richard II due to the monastery sharing a name with his wife, Anne. After centuries of prominence, Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries posed a threat to St Anne’s Priory. Thankfully, parts of the monastery such as the Prior’s House and the precinct walls survived Henry’s dissolution through becoming a private country estate, owned by a string of local nobility including Robert Dudley, who also owned Kenilworth Castle. The alterations in transforming the House into a private manor from the different owners from different periods of time can be clearly seen: the adding of new floors, walls and paintings from the early modern period right through to the Victorian wing with its classic tiles fully intact.
The house’s last private owner was Colonel Wyley. An industrialist and influential local man, he died with no surviving children to inherit and bequeathed the house and lands to the people of Coventry. The property was then used in various ways by the council and people after Wyley’s passing, though the historic house itself was off limits. The uses ranged from the grounds being used by locals as a bowling green; a location to house their social club; a space to host anti-Thatcher May Day festivals and for daily dog walking. The grounds were a central part of the local community.
This building’s story does not end here. Coventry City Council attempted to sell Charterhouse and many of the locals protested against it. This led to a bigger effort to protect and conserve the city’s heritage, ultimately leading to wider conservation projects around the area. Historic Coventry Trust is a heritage development trust that aims to sustain historic local places to connect people with Coventry’s history and to make it eventually self-sufficient. The heritage group encourages many locals to volunteer with the renovation and the research to ongoing projects; the members of the community are heavily involved and a large part of the reason that this project is going so well.
The Charterhouse is currently a key aim of theirs with an opening scheduled for the 1st April 2023, and the building has been renovated in a way that keeps the new functional parts of the renovation and the restored parts separate. However, both still retain the original theme of the building. The people renovating Charterhouse wanted the restoration efforts to be noticeable, and wanted the building to be as open as possible by not having barriers throughout the building. There is a focus on being transparent; allowing people to engage and connect with this project and its history.
There is also a strong focus on not making Charterhouse just about one specific period of history but looking at the many ‘lives’ of the property, demonstrated throughout clues left in the building. This project is also ongoing, so after its opening date there will still be continuing conservation efforts and part of the building’s journey will be through local people both visiting and volunteering there. I have had the privilege to be involved in this project and have recently gone to visit the property, seeing parts not yet seen before such as the Elizabethan wall paintings, the Victorian part of the house and the more medieval sections of the building.
Charterhouse is part of the fabric of its locality, and has been an epicentre of community and culture; a place that ties in various important figures throughout the city’s time. This building has remained standing whilst the city around it changed and bears the markings of these changes in one location. This conservation effort and the innovative, forward-thinking approach shows how history does not have to be pushed to the side to make way for modernity, but that the preservation of history and the changes that it brings is important. The increased exposure of Coventry’s history to the local public is also key for the local identity and understanding of how Coventry came to be the way it is. The openness and closeness this project enjoys with people only brings into focus more important work that needs to be done as by preserving this historical sites, as they both strengthen communities and enrich the lives of those who are able to learn from them.