Coventry to Adelaide – A word for Cov

As we fast approach our final term at school, the house sale, completing and booking flights and our Movecube, we are starting to get excited and look ahead to what our new life down under might look like. We are also reflecting on our lives in the UK and all it has provided us over the last four decades.

Specifically Coventry. 

We have written posts in the past about why we want to move to Australia, the new life we are looking forward to and why we have chosen Adelaide as the city we would like to settle in. Whilst many of the reasons to move to the other side of the world involve positive changes, we are by no means moving because we do not like where we live or the lives we have here. We just know that what we seek for our next adventure is something different. 

There are definitely things about Coventry that we will miss when we are thousands of miles away. Believe it or not! 

History and Heritage 

Coventry is well-known for its numerous historical sites and buildings, spanning hundreds of years. They are places we enjoy visiting as a family and make us proud Coventrians. 

Our favourite by far has to be our Cathedral, the old one! Bombed by the Germans during the Coventry Blitz, this fortress still stands proud over the city. Sure, there is no roof and most of the windows were blown out by the fires from the incendiaries, but the ruins are such a peaceful and reflective place to visit in our city centre.

The little museum beneath the altar is a great step back in time to the 1940s, where you can visit a replica school room, kitchen and Anderson Shelter. The artwork and sculptures around the building represent the city’s ethos of reconciliation and peace, and there is always something new to learn when we visit, even after the 100^th time!  

Next on the list is St Mary’s Guildhall. A Tudor building which has served many different purposes over its 700 years and stands perfectly untouched by bombs from the war, despite being right next to the old Cathedral across a narrow little lane. Last summer, we visited the Guildhall and pretty much had the place to ourselves for a 1:1 tour and activities for the kids. We learnt so much about Coventry, which we never knew before. One of the most interesting facts is that Coventry was the de facto capital city of England for a very short while during the War of the Roses, when the government met here. 

Coventry Transport Museum is another place we have frequented often-especially when our son, James, was younger, as he loved cars! Before World War II, Coventry was the hub of car manufacturing with factories such as Daimler, Armstrong-Siddeley, Alvis, Standard and Triumph. Examples of these vehicles alongside Peugeot (also a ghost of Coventry past), Jaguar and even an exhibition of Thrust II can be found here. 

In addition to our top 3 historical places to visit, we also enjoy going to the Herbert Art Gallery, which currently hosts Dippy the Dinosaur, a replica of a diplodocus. 

Whilst we know that Adelaide has some great art galleries and museums that we look forward to visiting, there is just nothing like the pride of sharing knowledge of your birthplace with your kids. 

Our Football Team 

I don’t even know where to start with this one. Coventry City Football Club. Sky Blue Army. Chris and I are lifelong supporters of the club, having watched them in the glory days of the Premier League, and we have stuck with them through their dark days all the way down to League Two. From Highfield Road to the Ricoh Arena, to losing our stadium to Wasps Rugby Club 🤮 and having to support them from Northampton and then two seasons at Birmingham (Yes, calling our ‘home’ ground St Andrew’s was painful) before heading back to what we now know as the Coventry Building Society Arena. 

Before James was born, our only claim to fame was winning the 1987 FA Cup Final against Tottenham Hotspur when Chris and I were too young to even know what football was. James has been fortunate enough to see them at Wembley 4 times! Coventry won the Checkatrade Trophy in 2017, swiftly followed by the playoffs for promotion to League 1 in 2018. 

As a family, we then visited Wembley together in 2023 for the playoff finals against Luton. Chris and I really thought that this would be the year we would see our team back in the top tier of football. But a brutal penalty shootout after 120 minutes of a stressful match was the end of that dream! 

However, 2024 saw another return to Wembley. This time against Manchester Utd in the FA Cup Semi-finals! What.A.Game! Unfortunately, due to a questionable VAR decision, we didn’t win that one either. But this was an incredibly proud day for us as a family and for us as a city. 

This club definitely has our hearts. It is going to be very difficult to give up the tradition of going to the match on a Saturday afternoon, instead swapping it for watching it on TV at some ungodly hour. But we will do it. Because we love them. 

Music

As a city, we have produced some incredible musicians over the decades. Without a shadow of a doubt, our favourite has got to be The Specials.

As the band profess, they are embedded in this country’s DNA. It isn’t just their music. It is everything they stand for. Everything they represent. It helps that we are fans of Ska music. But there is something eerily beautiful about Terry Hall’s tones that just doesn’t fail to get old.

The fact that they also sing about Coventry is something else to love about if you’re from here. 

Jerry Dammers of The Specials founded Two Tone Records, which the band were signed to. Also part of this record label was another Coventry band- The Selecter. Pauline Black, the lead singer, is now a Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands and visited our school a couple of years ago to plant a Jubilee Tree on our site. Whilst she was there, she visited a class I was covering, who had been learning about Coventry’s Ska scene. She sang ‘On My Radio’ a cappella, and it will definitely be one of the highlights of my career! Sorry to my family if you are reading this-I definitely don’t mention it a lot!

Finally, we have to give a special mention to The Enemy. Coventry born and bred and released some absolute belters in the noughties, one of which has made an epic comeback at our football matches. ‘We’ll Live and Die in these towns’ probably epitomises the exact reasons for us wanting to move to Australia. We don’t want to be a family that stays in the same place we were born forever. 

We want to get out, have adventures, take risks and live our lives to the fullest. 

So whilst Coventry will always have our hearts, we know that there is more out there than this city, and we are grabbing our opportunities with both hands.