Processions

I have absolutely no idea where this next series of cards came from.  I was sorting (and resorting, as you do) my boxes of cards last night and came across a set, all vintage and all showing processions of some sort or another.  I think they must have belonged to my father.

I realised too late that this one would fit quite nicely with last week's Sepia Saturday theme.  Too late for last week but I'm posting it anyway to celebrate this week, the 200th week since the formation of Sepia Saturday.

At first glance I thought it could possibly be a Robin Hood enactment but that's as far as it goes.  There is no further information anywhere.  The back is very plain and according to Playle's it is from an unknown British publisher between 1915 and 1918.

With ii was another form of precession but this time a painting called A Pageant of Childhood by Thomas Cooper Gotch, a book illustrator and painter in the pre-Raphaelite style.

This one is used and dated 1910.

Finally, for this post, there were several illustrating the Procession of the Holy Blood (Processie van het Heilige Bloed/Procession du St Sang) in Bruges, Belgium.

This is an annual Ascension Day procession in Bruges which re-enacts both biblical stories and historical scenes.  It was placed on UNESCO's List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.

There were other processions, among them one showing the Godiva procession in Coventry.  Suddenly I see a whole new theme for collecting...

Butcher Row

I picked up this card out of one of my older collections, thinking it must be relatively recent and had been misplaced. In fact it was posted from Coventry on 5 April 1915, 95 years ago.  It's not only in amazingly good condition but it looks very different from many of the cards from that era.

The artist, Florence Weston, published a book of 24 drawings of Coventry in 1916 and a series of ten postcards, but she was an accomplished artist best known for her watercolours of old Coventry.  Butcher Row, in fact it was Great Butcher Row, was demolished in 1936.

The message reads:

Am having a grand time.  Hope you are A1.  Arriving (here) Ashford about 8 Sunday evening.  Just returned from the city.  Very cold here.  Fo?? after dinner.  Opera House tonight.

Update for Genes Reunited people:  the card was sent to Miss Back, c/o Mrs Lee, in Ashford, Kent.

Two things interest me.  First of all the mistake the writer made wasn't crossed out but enclosed in brackets.  One primary school teacher of mine insisted on the same method of correcting mistakes.  I thought it was an idiosyncrasy of that particular teacher but maybe it was the method of choice at one time.  The second interest lies in wondering what could possibly be happening after dinner, and presumably before the Opera House.  Answers on a postcard.....

A Week of Cathedrals: 5 - Coventry Cathedral, England

The card is unused and undated, but it must have been bought by my father during the 1980s.
Coventry Cathedral

As a complete contrast to the ornate and often ancient cathedrals I've shown so far, Coventry's cathedral was rebuilt after the medieval church that had been the cathedral was bombed during World War II. The architect of the new building insisted that the ruins remained, which reminds me of the way the old church in Truro was incorporated into the cathedral there.

A cross was made of three nails from the roof trusses of the ruins and it stands on the altar of the new cathedral.  There are 160 crosses made from the nails throughout the world, having become a symbol of peace and reconciliation.  One was given to the Kaiser Wilhelm memorial Church in Berlin, also destroyed by bombing and kept alongside a newer building.

Every Friday at noon, the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation is read out in the ruined nave: