Ventures with Verity Blue Badge Tourist Guide

17/03/2025

The final stop on my new self-guided audio tour of Birmingham.

Birmingham's 'Golden Boys'

But who were they?

Why were they important?

For the answers to this, and more see my tour available through the VoiceMap platform.

15/03/2025

If you want to explore Coventry at your own pace why not try a self-guided audio tour.

Voicemap.me.coventrywalk

Join us in celebrating English Tourism Week from 14th – 23rd March as we uncover the hidden gems of Coventry! While our city boasts popular tourist hotspots, there are also many other fantastic attractions waiting for you to explore.👀

The Coventry Music Museum
Dive into the rich musical heritage of Coventry at this independent museum, where passionate volunteers bring local music history to life. For a small entrance fee, enjoy exhibitions and even try your hand at music-making!

St Mary's Guildhall
Discover this remarkable medieval building that survived WWII. With immersive augmented reality tours, you'll uncover the many stories of Coventry's past.

Blitz Museum
Located near the Cathedral ruins, this free museum showcases wartime artefacts and offers insights into the Coventry Blitz of 1940.

FarGo Village Coventry
A vibrant hub for creatives featuring many independent businesses. Explore vintage finds and unique gifts at this cultural hotspot.

Blue Badge Tours
Experience an in-depth exploration of Coventry with Roger Bailey, an official Blue Badge Tourist Guide, as he shares 1,000 years of history in just one afternoon.

Whether you're a local or a visitor, Coventry is full of surprises this English Tourism Week. Discover our hidden gems and enjoy our famous landmarks, amazing restaurants, and rich history!

15/03/2025

Big Brum, just one of the stops on my new self-guided audio tour.
Visit Birmingham & West Midlands
VoiceMap

Big Brum - Birmingham's answer to Big Ben. However, if you listen to the Chimes it's not the more familiar Westminster Chimes. It's the Cambridge Peal. Just…

15/03/2025

Big Brum - a bit like a mini Big Ben but it doesn't play the more well known Westminster Chimes. It plays the Cambridge Peal!


See this and more on a self-guided audio tour.

22/01/2025

On my way into Coventry City centre and the cathedral to be filmed as part of a project with exploring the uses of 3D photography and headsets.
Coventry Cathedral Coventry Transport Museum

10/01/2025

Want to know more about how these angels were made and the building of the 'New Cathedral,?

Why not book a tour with me.

18/11/2024

Take a Hike!

I don’t know if this still has the same sentiment, but when I was younger if you said this to somebody, you were telling them to ‘Go Away’, ‘Leave me alone’ ‘That’s a stupid idea’ etc.

I was amused to find that yesterday in the US it was National Take a Hike Day.

This reminded me that although in many ways we share a common language with those over the pond, in many ways we don’t and this can lead to some confusion.

For some reason hiking isn’t a term used much over here in Britain.
We just tend to use the generic word ‘walking’ and then qualify it with what type of walking we are talking about. Walking in town, walking in a park, walking in the countryside.

However, this difference of language has caused some confusion when I am working with clients from the US and they want a countryside walk long our rights of way network. Sometimes they really don’t realise that it is what they would call a hike and the path may well be a bit uneven, a bit muddy and a bit overgrown. Oh… and there may be stiles to get over as well!

Much of my work comes through other agents, so if I can I try to make sure that I can have some direct contact with the client who is going for the ‘countryside walk’ and have even been known to meet them with some recent photographs of the condition of some of the path. White trainers really don’t cut it!

Is there a term used in your work which can lead to confusion between you and your customers?

08/11/2024

Sadly, no longer in the War Memorial Park, this was always my favourite bit of chainsaw sculpture.

However, the park itself is still beautiful.

20/10/2024

Coventry really is a great place to visit.

12/10/2024

Not once……..but twice unlucky.

Where am I talking about?

I’m talking about Coventry’s third spire.

Coventry is known as the City of 3 spires. These were the 3 city centre spires which survived the bombing during World War II.

One of them is the spire of Holy Trinity Church. The church itself suffered very little damage apart from to some of its windows.

The second is the spire of St Michaels, now part of the cathedral ruins.

The third one has 2 names. Sometimes it’s known as Greyfriars Spire and sometimes it’s known as Christ Church Spire. In fact it has a third name as it’s now Dhillon’s Brewery Spire Bar!

If you walk all around the spire there are some really curious parts to it. You see, this spire was once part of a 13th Century Franciscan or Greyfriars Priory. During the dissolution of the monasteries (which included priories as well) the priory was destroyed, but for some reason the spire and tower remained.

By the 19th Century, the population in the city centre had increased and it was felt that a new city centre parish church was needed. The land around the spire was cleared and Christ Church was built, using the area under the spire as the chancel. If you walk around the spire today, you can see the remains of this 19th Century building, which is in limestone, rather than the red sandstone of the spire and tower.

The church sadly was a victim of World War II bombing, not during the raid of 14th November but in the sometimes forgotten series of raids in early April 1941. Once again, the surrounding building was destroyed but the spire remained. As so many people had had to move out of the city centre, it wasn’t felt necessary to rebuild the church in the city centre.

What remains is now a Grade II* listed building with Historic England. Fortunately a use has been found for it as sadly, an unused building will gradually fall into disrepair, however important it may be.

You can now visit it as it is a bar, run by Dhillon’s a Coventry brewery.

The spire doesn’t feature on my usual Cathedral Quarter Tours, but we do go past it when I do a tour of the route of Coventry’s City Walls. Not only do I do this route as an in person guided walk on an occasional basis, but I also offer it as a Virtual Tour. Contact me if you have a group who would like to learn more about Coventry’s medieval city wall either in person or as a virtual tour.

Historic England Dhillons brewery group