The Coventry Times was founded in 1855 by bookseller Edward Goode as a weekly, non-conformist publication, and featured standard newspaper segments like advertisements and local marriage and death announcements, as well as less common features like poetry segments. Its news coverage, meanwhile, ranged from bite-sized to in-depth in both domestic and international matters.

This was Coventry’s first penny paper, and in its first publication on June 29th of that year, there was a brief section addressed to new readers in which the writer shared the somewhat philanthropic intentions of the nascent paper. Its goal was to be a purveyor of knowledge and provide affordable access to information in an age where such things were generally reserved for the upper classes. It also took a stance against class boundaries whether in church or state, as summarised by the line, “Our object and aim shall be the progress of the people.”

In 1879, the paper was bought by publisher William Isaac Iliffe, in partnership with William Francis Dawson. Dawson retired in 1888, leaving Iliffe as sole proprietor by 1891. The Coventry Times was then sold by Iliffe in 1914 and incorporated into the liberal weekly Coventry Herald.