Coventry Cross of Nails

The original version was made from three large medieval nails salvaged from the Coventry Cathedral after the building was severely damaged by German bombs on 14 November 1940, during the Second World War.

He found several large hand-forged medieval carpenters nails as he walked through the ruins of the cathedral on the morning after the bombing.

The Cathedral's Provost Richard Howard had the words "Father Forgive" carved into the wall behind the altar of the ruined building, and two charred beams fallen together into the shape of a cross were erected among the rubble.

It made a progress around the churches of the diocese in Lent 1962, returning to the new cathedral on the eve of its consecration on 25 May 1962, and is now often displayed at the High Altar, with the nails now welded into place.

At many, the Coventry Litany of Reconciliation is recited each Friday; the short prayer was written by Canon Joseph Poole in 1958.