Historical highlights

Facts about St. Mary's Guildhall:

•  The building of St. Mary's Guildhall incorporated some of the remains of Coventry Castle, built for the Earls of Chester in 1139.
•  In 1388 an angry mob burst in and threw loaves of bread at the Mayor because he had not enforced laws governing the quality of bread.
• The hilt of Coventry's ceremonial sword, stolen from the Guildhall in 1481, turned up on a rubbish heap in London 400 years later and is now in the Burrell Collection in Glasgow.
• The 'gallery' of kings in the 15th century window above the tapestry includes a rare representation of King Arthur.
• After rioting in the Guildhall in 1525, five ringleaders had their ears nailed to the pillory.
• Tradition has it that a table in the Guildhall's Old Council Chamber was the table on which Lord Lucy, of Charlecote Park, signed the arrest warrant for William Shakespeare on deer poaching charges.
• Mary Queen of Scots was brought to Coventry and detained in the Guildhall during the winter of 1569/70, after rumblings of a Catholic rising against Elizabeth I in the north. Elizabeth's letter, instructing the people of Coventry to take good care of her, still survives in the city archives.
• In 1603, the young Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James I, was dined in the hall and given a silver cup, which was 27 inches high and too heavy for her to lift.
• In advance of a visit by King James I, one Nicholas Barton and his son were paid 8d for watching all night in the undercroft to keep the cats from spoiling cold meats laid out for the official banquet.
• In 1619 a civic lottery was held at St Mary's. When the winner was announced an official accompanied by a trumpeter and two drummers carried the money to his house.
• During a banquet for James II in 1687, a hapless guest leaned on an over-loaded table, causing it to collapse and showering the royal party with food, including Coventry Custard.
• In the 1750s soldiers were billeted in St Mary's to guard the city's jail, believed to be under threat from the 200-strong Coventry Gang, determined to free members incarcerated inside.
• In the 18th century St Mary's was used frequently as a theatre. The great actress Sarah Siddons, who married in nearby Holy Trinity Church, performed there several times.
• Heavy rain forced the preacher John Wesley to request the use of the hall during a visit to Coventry in 1779. The mayor turned him down in favour of a dancing master.
• In 1861 the hall's kitchen was used a soup kitchen for starving ribbon weavers and their families, following a collapse in their trade.
• During Victorian restorations a layer of highly explosive saltpetre was found beneath the floor, dating from the hall's use as an armoury during the Civil War. One spark could have blown the building apart.
• Fear of attack by Zeppelins caused the city authorities to remove stained glass from the hall's great north window in 1916.Twenty five years later their fears were realised when the roof of the hall and the adjoining Caesar's Tower were damaged during air raids.
• Photographs taken at a civic banquet in 1989 showed a ghostly figure among the guests. The Guildhall has at least two other reported ghosts, a grey lady and a man in a black skull cap.