Coventry, Lands End

You could be forgiven for thinking that you've arrived in a new town, considering the architecture around you. However, the Coventry Blitz of November 1940 destroyed most of the old buildings, including the beautiful 14th-century Cathedral.

Like many of the beautiful historic towns you've already seen on your travels, the Romans had a hand in the first civilised settlement. Another formed around a Saxon nunnery, although King Canute left that in ruins in 1016. However, Lady Godiva (she of the naked horse ride through the town) and her husband built a small town on the ruins, and by the 14th century, it was an important market town, gaining its charter in 1345. 

By Tudor times, Coventry was a site of artistic excellence as well, with prestigious theatres. It's widely thought that the plays Shakespeare saw there during his teens inspired him in his own works. Coventry continued to thrive, becoming a major trading and later manufacturing centre. The first council houses were let to tenants here in 1917, and Coventry's reputation as an industrial base continued to soar.

The town suffered more damage during the war than any other English town other than London, Hull, or Plymouth, and it was selected for destruction primarily because of its almost untouched mediaeval heart. The new town, however, and especially the new St. Michael's Cathedral - consecrated in 1962 with a performance of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem to mark the occasion - show that Coventry is growing and thriving.