Benedictine Site, Palmer Lane Guest House

August 1934

EXCAVATIONS

Excavations for a new river course over which the new Trinity Street is to pass have been going on for a year or more, and are still being proceeded with. In the made up ground of from ten to sixteen feet depth of rubble, cattle dung, sand, clay and stone, one would expect to find a host of things revealing the doings of the Benedictines in their early habitation of Coventry, or as spelt at that time "Covaentree," and this is proving to be so. Palmer Lane is the road over which the Palmers, Guests, or Pilgrims came to the Guest House, and we can picture a number of pilgrims arriving from ships which landed them on our shores. Each one arriving carried a piece of palm-wood to denote they had been to the Holy Land. They also carried tokens or signs of lead, pewter, or brass, a number of which were found in 1852 when dredging the river Sherbourne. Others are coming to light, some of pewter and brass, with inscribed on, also a small token of brass, shaped like a shell. This no doubt is "The Compostella Cockle-shell." The Palmer in "Piers Ploughman" says: -

The old Guest House stood at the corner of Palmer Lane until 1820, and before this was demolished a fine drawing was made by Alderman Phillips. It is impossible to say when this House was built, but no doubt early in the 13th century or perhaps earlier. The building was of stone foundations, which can be traced to-day, they having been used for later buildings. Houses were built on this site as early as 1643, when a siege was expected to be made by Charles I., and some of the Guest House was utilised.

One large side of an inner wall was discovered, about 20 yards wide, and three stories high, and when the 17th century plaster was removed, large panels of clay, measuring 4-ft. by 3-ft. were discovered. Being an inside wall, the clay was bound with straw, while usually on an outside wall coarse hay (or rushes) was used, as it would be more fibrous, and stand the weather better than straw. An old doorway to a bedroom had been cut through one of the original windows of the Guest House, and fortunately one section had been left complete. Large oak timbers, roughly cut from the trees, morticed, and fastened together with wooden pegs, came to light as the present bedrooms were stripped of the wallpapers, showing the massive room where once the pilgrims met and dined, and discussed their pilgrimage.

An old stone chimney was discovered in a house a little way down the lane and can be seen in its original state to-day. This chimney was possibly in the kitchen of the Guest House as shown in a drawing. A little lower down the lane stood the stables for the guests' horses, and it would appear that a roadway led into the Guest House yard next to the outside of the chimney.

I hope to discover a bridge which crossed the river at Palmer Lane end, and would join up to Priory Gate, St. Agnes Lane, Cook Street, Silver Street, and College Square. It is most probable this Lane was Catesby Lane, as a washing-pool (perhaps for sheep) was at the end, and would be near the river, where a certain woman pulled down the gate, and the Leet compelled her to put it up again. The Catesby family of Gunpowder Plot fame were established in Coventry as early as 1324, and Catesby Lane is missing from the list of names in the Speed's map of 1610.