The rebuilding of Coventry

About

Coventry Atlas also records the history we are living through.

If you have a Coventry story to tell about your life and the places around you, then please get in touch. Anyone can contribute to Coventry Digital. We’re not just interested in heritage or historic items – we need to document the present too.

How Coventry Atlas works:
The Atlas draws its data from Coventry Digital, the new city digital archive which hosts data from Culture Coventry, the City Council, the universities as well as artists, businesses, schools and voluntary groups. We use information embedded in the files, such as GPS coordinates, to place items on the map and make search easier. As we update Coventry Digital so Coventry Atlas is automatically updated too. 

The Layers:
Creating map layers involves identifying longstanding common elements in both modern and old maps. These are often churches, rivers, bridges and so on. We’ve taken the choice to reflect the original cartographer’s version of the past as closely as possible rather than warp the map so that it fits very snuggly over the new map. This way you’ll see the world the way that your ancestors saw it and make a comparison with today.
 
Therefore, you’ll sometimes see where the maps don’t quite align, which can be due to the old cartographer being a little off with their measuring and orientation as much as a change in the streets today, such as a curved road being straightened, or a street being widened. However, if you do spot something that you’re not quite sure of, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
 
Our plans:
The site descriptions and biographies are accompanied with an image wherever possible, with a link other sites for those who wish to investigate people and places in more detail. This is the first stage of Coventry Atlas. In the next stage, we’ll work with communities to add in crowd-sourced stories, images, more walks and trails and to look at ways to make the website more interactive. If you have an idea, get in touch.

Our Partners:
Coventry City of Culture Trust was set up in 2015 to bid to be UK City of Culture in 2021 and in 2017 the Trust and the city were successful in securing the prestigious. We are a diverse, modern city which is re-imagining the role culture can play in bringing people together. Coventry is a city of welcome, a city of pioneers, a city of peace and reconciliation, a city of innovation and invention, a City of Culture. By inspiring leading artists to work with us, running high profile tourism campaigns, supporting a new generation of artists and makers, nurturing the creativity of young people, welcoming our communities to collaborate, partnering with local schools and universities, and removing barriers to attendance, we, along with our city partners, encourage everyone to participate in the creative life of their city and region.

Coventry Digital is an online repository managed by Coventry University. It holds images, documents, videos and audio from the major city institutions such as the Council, Belgrade Theatre, universities and Culture Coventry. It is searchable as the assets are keyworded and it is configured to support the needs of partners.

Culture Coventry is the Transport Museum, the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, the Coventry Archive and the Lunt Roman Fort. It is the official archive of a number of City institutions, including the Council and counts some fantastic medieval items including the Leet Book.

Photo Miners CIC have supported Culture Coventry on their programme of digitisation and supported the Trust on their outreach. They are managing the public interaction from Coventry Atlas for the Trust during 2021, including community workshops.

Coventry Atlas Development Team:

Producers:
Jacqui Ibbotson, Coventry City of Culture Trust;
Dr Ben Kyneswood, Coventry University/Coventry Digital

Sourcing:
Data Collection & Digitisation of Material by
Mark Cook & Jason Tilley, Photo Miners
Victoria Northridge, Coventry Collection, Culture Coventry

Writers:
Peter Walters, Historian, Journalist, writer of ‘The Little History of Coventry’
Dr Mark Webb, Prince’s Trust; Medieval Coventry

Resources for Schools: Madalyn Baskerville, Educational Consultant

Volunteer Collections Administrator: Rowan Ibbotson

Website Developers:
Coventry Atlas was developed by Error Agency using Humap, a digital platform which gathers multiple maps and diverse record collections together to tell a compelling story about places, people and things.

Digital Asset Management by Capture

Our Funders:
The Coventry Atlas website has been developed as part of the Coventry Great Place Scheme funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and Historic England with partner funding from Coventry City Council, University of Warwick, Coventry University, Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Coventry’s Business Improvement District.

Acknowledgements:

We would like to thank Historic England, Historic Coventry Trust, Historic Towns Atlas and University of Warwick Department of History for their support in the development of the Coventry Atlas website.

Coventry is one of only ten Heritage Action Zones (HAZ) in the UK managed by Historic England. One of the tasks of the HAZ, is to work out how best to tell Britain’s hidden stories and reveal our rich heritage to a wider national and international audience. We are grateful for the support of Louisa Moore, Victoria Walker and Martin Philips in the development of the website.

Historic Coventry Trust is preserving and restoring the city's heritage, but also finding new purposes for these buildings so that they have a sustainable future and once again become part of the daily life of the city, serving the needs of its communities for generations to come. We would like to thank Graham Tait and Sarah Allen for their support in the development of the website.

We are grateful to Steve Ranford of the University of Warwick for early research into website development for Coventry Atlas. Together with Professor Mark Knights, we look forward to the Coventry Lives project in development as part of Coventry's City of Culture year.

Website Image Credits:
This website uses images from Coventry Digital and Coventry Collections. Coventry Atlas does not own any image rights. Therefore, if you wish to use any of the images you see on this website, please consult Coventry Digital and Coventry Collections.

We are very grateful and would like to credit photographers for images displayed on the website including Niall McDiarmid, Jason Scott Tilley, Alan Van Wijgerden, Dylan Parrin, Jamie Gray, Graeme Peacock, Tara Rutledge and Christopher Poole. We will add to this list as more are contributed.

Special Places

Explore the link below to see the list of all of the current collections on some very special places in Coventry.

Special Place Collections

Contact the team

We're always interested in hearing about new records and collections. Get in touch to tell us about them!

Send an email

People of Coventry

Why not search on the link below, for more on the incredible lives of some of Coventry's most notable people.

People of Coventry Collections

Search by Theme

Uncover more stories and interesting facts about Coventry by exploring the link below to find our full list themed collections.

Search Collections by Theme