St Mary's Priory and Cathedral

[2][3] Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife Lady Godiva rebuilt on the remains of the nunnery to found a Benedictine monastery in 1043 dedicated to St Mary for an abbot and 24 monks.

[2][4] John of Worcester tells us that "He and his wife, the noble Countess Godgifu, a worshipper of God and devout lover of St Mary ever-virgin, built the monastery there from the foundations out of their own patrimony, and endowed it adequately with lands and made it so rich in various ornaments that in no monastery in England might be found the abundance of gold, silver, gems and precious stones that was at that time in its possession.

"[5] Bishop Robert de Limesey transferred his see to Coventry c. 1095, and in 1102 papal authorisation for this move also turned the monastery of St Mary into a priory and cathedral.

This was known as the "Prior's-half", and the other was called the "Earl's-half" which would later pass to the Earls of Chester, and explains the early division of Coventry into two parts (until the Royal "Charter of Incorporation" was granted in 1345).

In 1856 the Blue Coat School was rebuilt on the same site, and during the construction the remains of the cathedral's west wall were discovered, including the foot of the south-west tower and its spiral staircase.

One was in the site of the chapter house, one was to reach the original floor, four metres below the current ground level, and two were to identify the locations of the two crossing piers which would have borne the weight of the tower and roof.

[12] Time Team revisited the excavation site for a programme in March 2001 to explore some of the discoveries made since their earlier episode.

One of the featured findings was a layer of clay around the entrance, which still carried markings from the wheels of carts believed to have been removing stone after the building was demolished.

[16] During removal of debris from an undercroft, a small piece of masonry bearing a painted gold crown was discovered, and this discovery was followed several days later by a larger item.