Work and Play in Medieval Coventry

During the medieval period, Coventry's most important industry was cloth weaving. Cloth was bought and sold in the Drapery, a building next to St Mary's Guildhall. Coventry textiles were traded across Europe from this building.

Very little cloth has survived from the medieval period in Coventry. This scrap of wool cloth was found in the city, and may have been made there.

Thimbles are used to help push needles through cloth when sewing. These thimbles were cast from copper alloy.

These dimples would have been drilled by hand, and they stopped the needle from slipping off the thimble.

A third of all Coventry workers were employed in the cloth industry. Most worked in their own homes, although there were also professional cloth-making establishments. Highly skilled craftspeople spun wool into yarn, before weaving it into cloth. Children were also expected to help from the age of seven or eight. After weaving and fulling, the resulting cloth would be sheared to make clothing.

The design of shears had remained unchanged since Roman times, and simply consisted of two sharp blades and a spring at the back, which doubled as a handle.

This wool weight was used to weigh bales of wool or cloth before selling. It is made of lead and bears the royal coat of arms to show it is official. These were essential tools for wool and cloth merchants. Both cloth and raw wool were traded within England and sold abroad. 

Raw wool could be exported to be manufactured into cloth. The most renowned weavers were from Flanders. Larger merchants developed trading links with manufacturers abroad, while less wealthy traders dealt with travelling wool merchants within England.

A leather strap would be threaded through the hole in the top of this weight. The strap was slung over a beam to be counter-balanced with the equivalent weight of wool.

Misericord comes from the Latin word for relief. This misericord comes from Whitefriars monastery in Coventry.

Misericord designs varied greatly. Most depicted animals or characters from medieval folklore. The owl was a popular choice. Owls were meant to represent wisdom, but seeing one was bad luck!

By the 1300s, the longbow was used widely, as it was much faster to use than the crossbow. At around two metres long, longbows were very powerful. They could even pierce plate armour at a range of over 200 metres. In Coventry training took place at the Butts, which were to the south of Spon Street in the fields near the river Sherbourne. Butts is an archery term for targets.

An archer’s bracer and tab protected their arm and fingers from the bowstring when shooting.

Guilds put on mystery plays to teach people about the life of Christ, but they were often full of silly jokes. The term mystery comes from a corruption of the French word metier, meaning job or trade. Mystery plays were held once a year on a public holiday. The story of St George was often performed alongside mystery plays.

Actors wore masks like this one during plays. This is thought to be the only surviving object from the Coventry mystery plays. It has eyebrows scored on it and may have been brightly decorated.

This carving was originally located in St George’s chapel above Gosford gate on the city walls.

The story of St George slaying the dragon represents good triumphing over evil. St George’s Day was an important feast day, celebrated with a procession and a play.

In medieval England the game of chess was the pursuit of the wealthy educated classes who had the leisure time to indulge in board games. The term checkmate comes from the Persian shāh māt, which means ‘the king is finished’.This chess piece
was found during excavations on Bayley Lane in the centre of Coventry.

The inverted 'V' shaped motif is a stylised representation of a throne, which indicates that this piece is a king or queen.

The circle and dot design is an Islamic style and there was probably originally a top which is now missing.