England 2002 - fedoradude's Photos

In 2002, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of traveling thru Ireland and the UK. England was the last of the 3 in our itinerary. We entered England from Scotland around Hadrian's Wall, then overnighted round Stratford-Upon-Avon and then down to Coventry, York and on into London for our last couple of nights.

These pics were done with a Canon film Rebel, the prints edited with Photoshop Elements and scanned in for your viewing pleasure here.

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fedoradude > The Union Jack. It is actually a composite of the flag of Scotland (St Andrew's white cross on a blue standard) and the flag of England (St George's red cross on a white standard).

fedoradude > At the England-Scotland border. Standing in 2 countries at once -England and Scotland.

fedoradude > The Coventry Cathedral in Coventry, England. During WW2, the allies had secretly captured the Enigma decoding machine from the Nazis which allowed the allies to read all their secret transmissions. The codebreakers had just cracked the Nazi code a day or 2 before a scheduled Nazi bombing mission against the English city of Coventry. This gave Churchill a real challenge; should he evacuate the city of Coventry to spare its population? If he did so,it would give away to the Nazis that their codes had been compromised and ultimately cost more human suffering and loss of life by prolonging the war. Or should he play dumb and sacrifice his fellow citizens to protect the secret? Ultimately, Churchill decided to not evacuate the city.

During the bombing, the cathedral was hit and burned. The only thing left were its outer walls. From which they used those outer walls as a basis for the rebuilt cathedral's design. As parishioners come up to the new cathedral they see the old bombed and burned portion still standing on their left. To get into the new cathedral they then turn away from the violence, despair, suffering and lack of hope and proceed to their right into a new, bright, happy, hopeful new world provided by Christ symbolized by his new cathedral. Quite an interesting architectural design.

fedoradude > A postcard of Coventry Cathedral showing the old, bombed and burned portion on the left and opposite the breezeway, the new cathedral.

fedoradude > The outer walls of the old cathedral wherein the altar used to stand.

fedoradude > The morning after Coventry and the Cathedral was bombed, when parishioners were trying to sort out the damage and see what if anything of the cathedral could be salvaged, One of the main roof beams was charred, had fallen and was laying upon the altar area. Someone took one of the giant beam nails that were laying about and scratched "Father Forgive" into the charred wood. A plaque engraved with such phrasing stands on that spot today to commemorate that act.

The Union Jack. It is actually a composite of the flag of Scotland (St Andrew's white cross on a blue standard) and the flag of England (St George's red cross on a white standard).