In my (now fairly distant) youth, I read a lot of Enid Blyton books. For the characters in these stories, the idea of being “sent to Coventry” was just awful – it’s a slightly dated idiom that describes the timeless playground punishment of completely freezing someone out, by pretending you can neither see nor hear them.
However, Paddy and Plunkett are complete strangers to the work of Ms Blyton, and being generally optimistic little creatures, they jumped at the chance to be sent to Coventry for their latest adventure! Their first stop was in the oldest part of the city – although much of Coventry suffered severe bomb damage during the Second World War, some buildings did survive. Let’s take a walk, shall we?
On the left of these photos, you can see the shell of the old St Michael’s Cathedral. Most of the cathedral was destroyed in the Coventry Blitz, but the spire (apparently the third tallest in England) still stands… in fact, Paddy and Plunkett were treated to the sounds of bell-ringing practice while they strolled around!
Next, they went to take a peek at the new St Michael’s Cathedral, which is just next door. It was opened in 1962, and looks very different to its 14th century predecessor. Paddy and Plunkett were hoping to catch up with St Michael himself, but when they found him he looked a little busy…
Never mind, there’s plenty more to see! Paddy has a bit of a thing for classic cars, so there was one place the boys definitely had to go…
Plunkett had to pose for the photo, because Paddy had already run off to have a look around.
The Transport Museum isn’t just for car buffs, either! From the very earliest days of two-wheeled travel, Coventry was a veritable hub of bicycle manufacture, so you can find all sorts of crazy bikes in here…
… As well as the cars Paddy wants to see! Here are the lads enjoying the rather morbid display of hearses.
And Paddy was thrilled to be able to see ThrustSSC, current holder of the land speed record!
He was just about to climb aboard and take it for a spin, but fortunately Plunkett was able to distract him by appealing to his inner showman…
That’s the way to do it, indeed!
And after checking out every vehicle in the whole museum, the boys were finally able to find a Beastie-sized one to drive home. Thanks for the lift, Brum!
See you next time!
Ooh Enid Blyton – there’s a blast from the past. I remember being very confused about the term ‘being sent to Coventry’! It looks like Paddy and Plunkett had a great time exploring the city 🙂
Heehee, they certainly did! And would you believe that the expression “being sent to Coventry” has its own Wikipedia page now? No confusion for this generation of Enid Blyton readers… Assuming kids even read her books any more, of course!
These lovely little fellows are always wandering around! I’m jealous …. 😉
I know! I think the advantage they have over the rest of us is their diminutive height… It makes it so much easier for them to hitch a lift in a bag or a pocket! Lucky little monsters 😀
🙂 🙂 🙂
I want to be sent to Coventry now! 🙂 I drove there through a few times on my way to other places but never took the time to explore any of it… thanks to your post, next time I will! both cathedrals (old and new ones) look very interesting! there are a lot of St Michael related things all across England, I was told it was leyline related.. have you read anything about that while you were there?
Oooh, I didn’t hear… The boys were on a solo run, so I’ll have to ask next time I see them 😀 I think the old streets around the shell of the original cathedral look amazing, definitely worth a look from a human point of view sometime… Let me know if you pay a visit yourself!
Glad to see the boys having a good time. I don’t think I have ever been to Coventry, but I did read something interesting about it the other day: Apparently the story that Churchill allowed the bombing of Coventry to happen so that Hitler did not discover that his Enigma code had been cracked is false. In fact, the message was only decrypted on the following day – too late to prevent the bombing which, anyway, would have been pretty much impossible to prevent.
My brain is full of interesting stories like this… even if I’m not entirely sure what day of the week it is!!
Interesting! I had certainly heard the story that Coventry was “sacrificed” before… But when you think about it, your version makes a lot more sense! And I never know what day of the week it is either, but then what interesting conversation ever started with, “hey, did you know that it’s Wednesday today?” 😀
I love Plunkett’s vest and hat. Very Sherlock Holmes. Have these two beasties retired from their wanderings??
I hope not! They just got more features last year because I was blogging twice a week. This year I had a rethink, and figured I should probably spend more time actually making stuff! But fear not, they’ll be back! I’m not sure if you found it already, but this is their most recent adventure:
https://crawcraftsbeasties.com/2017/02/07/strangers-in-a-strange-land/
Enjoy!