A quiet chapel in the ruins of the old Cathedral will be opened up for Heritage Open Days used to be a busy church entrance in medieval times.

The Bishop Haigh Memorial Chapel is in the 13th century porch to the old St Michael’s church – which was a quarter of its eventual size when it became a cathedral.

The porch once led into the south nave aisle and is Early English Gothic style.

Following the bombing of Coventry Cathedral in 1940, it was switched so it could be used for worship.

Fragments of medieval glass shattered in the raids are still visible, and it was one of the areas singled out for preservation when the new cathedral was being designed.

Architects were given a free hand with the future of the ruins, with stipulation that the tower and two crypts had to remain.

During the 1960s the chapel was dedicated to the memory of Mervyn G Haigh, who was the third Bishop of Coventry following the separation of the Coventry and Lichfield diocese in 1918.