The first stop on my odyssey of oddities is Cofa’s Tree. Once upon a time, before Snapchat, cellphones, or even landlines, before telegraphs could ever have been imagined, trysting trees were all the rage. While the term likely conjures notions of risqué nights of debauchery, trysting trees were simply trees that, because of some prominent feature that made them stand out, made excellent meeting places. Before obtaining its suggestive modern meaning as “a private romantic rendezvous between lovers,1” a tryst was once defined in a less salacious manner – an “appointment to meet at a certain time and place.2”
Nestled in the heart of England, Coventry is most widely known as the town through which Lady Godiva gave new meaning to the phrase “riding bareback.” Although there are many interesting unproven theories about the origin of its name (some involving Lady Godiva herself), one such theory is that the name Coventry evolved from the Anglo-Saxon Cofentreo, meaning Cofa’s Tree. In fact, Cofentreo is mentioned in the The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles as early as A.D. 1130.
The names of towns were often created out of necessity by referencing prominent natural features of the surrounding areas, and it is therefore reasonable to deduce that Cofa’s Tree could have been one of the aforementioned trysting trees, possibly located on the land of an early settler named Cofa.
At the turn of the 21st Century, Coventry’s City Council joined with the Millennium Commission to begin a £50m urban regeneration project, The Phoenix Initiative. The images that you see here are of an art installation entitled “Cofa’s Tree” created by artist Chris Browne. The mosaic rests in the Priory Gardens amidst the ruins of Coventry’s first cathedral, which was originally founded as a monastery by Lady Godiva and her husband, Earl Leofric. The mosaic, which rests in a bed of quartz chippings, is created from medieval remnants uncovered during the on-site excavation of the former cathedral, as well as old car parts. The choice of materials rather ingeniously reflects the rebirth of Coventry, rising like a phoenix from the ashes of its failed automotive industry and devastation caused by bombing raids during the Second World War.
If you’re interested in history and want to learn a bit more about Coventry from someone that has put forth much more effort into researching than myself, I recommend checking out the Historic Coventry website.3
1 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/tryst
2 https://www.etymonline.com/word/tryst
3 https://www.historiccoventry.co.uk/history/history.php
Weird England 