1949: Princess Elizabeth visits Coventry and Oxford
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Devastated during the Blitz, Coventry welcomes Princess Elizabeth, who has arrived to mark the regeneration of the city. She inaugurates a new civic scheme, lays the foundation stone of a shopping centre and visits an open-air display of cars and aircraft. This newsreel also shows the princess receiving an honorary degree at Oxford University, where she watches a masque performed by the dramatic society and a horse.
The Medieval Parish Church Cathedral of St Michael was one of the victims of a Luftwaffe attack on Coventry on 14 November 1940. The decision to build a new cathedral beside the ruins of the old was taken the next day and was intended as a symbol of hope for the future.