Towns

Coventry

West Midlands

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Old records mostly wrote about men: earls, kings and merchants. That doesn't mean women weren't here! These are women connected to Coventry that we know about. Can you find out about more?
G

Lady Godiva

Lived here
Her real name was Godgifu. With her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, she founded a Benedictine monastery here in 1043. She was the first woman mentioned in the Domesday Book. Legend says she rode through the city on horseback to protest against the high taxes her husband charged, though historians think the ride is a myth.
I

Queen Isabella

Gave land here
In 1344 she granted the Bablake lands, where Bablake School may have begun.
AB

Anne of Bohemia

Helped found the Charterhouse
The queen of Richard II. With her husband she supported the building of the Carthusian Priory of St Anne, Coventry Charterhouse, between 1381 and 1410.
E

Elizabeth I

Stayed here
The queen stayed at the Whitefriars in 1565 as a guest of John Hale.
AR

Ann Rollason

Worked here
A printer and bookseller who published the Coventry Mercury newspaper from 1813 to 1846.
ET

Ellen Terry

Born here
A Shakespearean actor, Dame Ellen Terry, born in Coventry in 1847.
PH

Pearl Hyde

Led the city
A Labour councillor who led Coventry's Women's Voluntary Service during the Second World War, and in 1957 became the city's first woman Lord Mayor.
MM

Mo Mowlam

Went to school here
A Labour politician who was educated in Coventry. As Northern Ireland Secretary she oversaw the talks that led to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
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Coventry's all-women roller derby team, first called the Coventry City Derby Dolls, was founded in 2014.