Hidden away on the kind of typical ’30s terraced street you find all over Coventry, is St Catherine’s Well. It’s a small stone chapel building on a raised platform, also of stone. The well is in the Coundon area of Coventry, and dates from the 1400s. At one point it supplied the west side of the city with water although it has long since run dry.
Chapel access
When I used to visit the well as a child you could walk straight in off the street, up the steps and get inside the chapel building – so long as there were only about three of you – it is very small inside. Sadly at some point it became necessary to bar the entrance to the chapel and add a tall fence in addition to the old stone wall. This has the undoubted benefit of preserving the well but it means it’s very difficult to get a good look at it.
In 2016 I was delighted to be able to be given permission (and keys) to open the well for Heritage Open Days so that people had the opportunity to get up close to it. The well is on Beaumont Crescent (near Morrisons on the former Alvis factory site). You can view the well from the street, looking through the gate at any time, or keep an eye out for openings such as Heritage Open Days.
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