Can you hear Frank Sinatra belting out “My kind of town, Chicago is…”
Can you hear Alfred Barker belting out “Myyyy kind of town, Cov-en-try is…”
After all, he and Ann lived in Coventry for nearly fifty years.
Where is Coventry???
Coventry is located in the county of Warwick which is part of the Midlands region of England. As you can see, Coventry is happily situated between the most important locations in all of England: Downtown Abbey, Milton and Pemberly. Did Alfred and Ann ever visit Lord and Lady Crowley, John and Margaret Thornton or Mr and Mrs Darcy? One can certainly hope so.
During the middle ages, Coventry was a hip and happening place due to the great wealth brought on by the cloth trade. Coventry housed queens, hid kings, and was the location of intrigue. When Alfred and Ann married in the 1820s, Coventry had lost its luster but was still a busy town. Saga seekers love how this 17th century travel writer Celia Fiennes described Coventry:
"Coventry stands on the side of a pretty high hill. The spire and steeple of one of the churches is very high and is thought the third highest in England. In the same churchyard stands another large church which is something unusual, two such great churches together. Their towers and the rest of the churches and high buildings make the town appear very fine. The streets are broad and well paved with small stones."[1]
Sounds like my kind of town.
[1] “Some Pre-Stevens History of Coventry Weavers,” Stevengraphs Bookmarks and Postcards, www.stevengraphs.com/firpreshisof.html (accessed February 2012).
I love that all of your map reference points relate to some wonderful, romantic story. It is true that England is more a land of romantic tales where men wear tall hats and women wear high-waisted frocks, rather than a country where people actually lived!
ReplyDeleteI love you blogs and could use some lessons. My children would definitely thing differently about my genealogical contributions if I had you flair. Nice post!
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