revenue apart from oblations amounted to only _£_3 6_s_. 8_d_. per
annum and the whole came to less than _£_8. At the Dissolution the
house and its revenues came eventually to John Hales, Clerk of the
Hanaper to Henry VIII. Having amassed a great estate in monastery and
chantry lands, Hales founded the Free School in Coventry, the Church
of the White Friars being at first used for the purpose. Later, he
made of the Friary a dwelling and removed the school to St. John's
Hospital, granted to him by the king in 1545. Part of the church of
the Hospital still exists at the foot of Bishop Street, but the school
has been removed to new buildings in the Warwick Road.

Of the buildings of the White Friars there are considerable remains
incorporated with the Union Workhouse at the top of Much Park Street.
The east walk of the cloister, 150 feet in length, has a fine groined
roof of the fifteenth century. A range of vaulted apartments runs
alongside the cloister on the east side, divided midway by the
vestibule to the Chapter House now destroyed. The upper story above
the cloister and the range of rooms was, we may assume, the friars'
Dormitory. A huge fireplace and a bay window are part of John Hales'
reconstruction. The gateway to the south-west corner of the cloister
remains, and the outer gate of the precincts may still be seen in Much
Park Street.

[Illustration: ST. MARY HALL.]


ST. MARY HALL

The Gilds were so important a part of the religious and social life of
the city that it is imperative that some notice of their hall, which