Lichfield
 Cathedrals |  Roman Britain |
Originally a Celtic settlement, ancient Lichfield was situated very close to the crossroads of two major Roman roadways - Ryknild Street (A38) and Watling Street (A5). As a consequence of this it became one of the important towns in this part of Saxon Britain, in fact, the king of Mercia appointed the missionary St Chad as the first bishop of Lichfield in AD669. Chad died in AD672 and was buried locally in St Mary's Church. Almost immediately he was venerated as a saint and in AD700 his relics were enshrined in the first cathedral of St Peter - both town and cathedral became a place of pilgrimage. A direct result of this was that Lichfield grew rapidly from a Saxon bishopric to being an ecclesiastical centre and a flourishing medieval town with a weekly market and several annual fairs. It was recorded in the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086 by the Normans, as Licefelle or Lecefelle , long thought to mean ‘field of corpses', but modern interpretation favours ‘grey forest'.
Little survives of the original Saxon structure or of the first Norman cathedral built on the same site in 1135 at the instigation of Bishop Roger de Clinton. The Lichfield Cathedral, so admired by today's visitors, was constructed between 1195 and 1325, and dedicated to St Mary and St Chad. The cathedral's West Front is rich with sandstone statuary; five statues on the north-west tower and the bas-relief of Christ in Majesty above the central pillar are from the original Norman cathedral. In the 14 th century the Lady Chapel was added at the East End. Here, the 16 th century stained-glass windows are among the best in England, brought to this country in 1802 from a dissolved Cistercian abbey in Herkenrode near Liege in Belgium. Inside are many treasures, especially within the cathedral library. These riches include the beautiful 8 th century illuminated manuscript The Lichfield Gospels , which include the complete gospels of St Mathew and St Mark. Here also is Sir Francis Chantrey's famous sculpture The Sleeping Child. However, the cathedral's most enduring image that remains imprinted upon the memory is of the three beautiful sandstone spires that rise gracefully above the treetops, reaching toward the heavens - known familiarly as The Ladies of the Vale . This remains the only cathedral in Britain with three spires. During the Civil War (1642-9) Parliamentarians laid siege to the cathedral, and in so doing demolished the central spire and severely damaged other sections of the structure. The building was restored during the reign of Charles II, but much rebuilding was again necessary in the late 18 th century because of decay.
The surrounding Cathedral Close, regarded as the most unspoilt in the country, is particularly picturesque and as the Close is separated from the rest of the city by Stowe and Minster Pools, it remains a peaceful haven of calm. Well-preserved 14 th to 16 th century houses, as well as the 17 th century Bishop's Palace, line this illustrious precinct. The Minster Pool is especially attractive, having been landscaped in the late 18 th century by Anna Seward - it has now been given over as a wildfowl reserve.
Although the town's appearance is essentially Georgian, the basic layout of the streets remain medieval. During the 18 th century Lichfield was a prominent city but failed to compete with other towns in extensive rebuilding programmes, as a consequence of which it still retains its medieval grid pattern streets attractively lined with elegant Georgian houses interspersed with striking black-and-white Tudor cottages. The Timbered Lichfield House in Bore Street dates from 1510 and stands next to the early 18 th century Donegal House and the mid 19 th century Guildhall. The latter was the meeting place of the city governors for over 600 years and behind its Victorian façade lie the remains of the city gaol, complete with stocks and cells - the City Dungeons can be visited on Saturdays throughout the summer months. The Swan Inn is another historic landmark, once a staging post for coaches its first recorded reference is in a document of 1535.
Lichfield's most famous son is Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84), poet, essayist, critic and compiler of the first comprehensive English dictionary. The son of a bookseller, Johnson was born in 1709 in a three-storey house in Breadmarket Street, now a museum and bookshop. The museum contains relics of his life including manuscripts, letters and his trusty walking stick, as well as an exhibition indicating how the house looked in the early 18 th century. In cobbled Market Square there is a thoughtful statue of the good doctor, balanced on the far side by an equally fine likeness of James Boswell (1740-95), his biographer. A piece of relief sculpture on the plinth of his statue displays a penitent Johnson. It recalls an incident when as a young man he was too proud to attend his father's bookstall at Uttoxeter on the latter's request. In old age, guilty of this lapse in filial duty, Johnson stood all day in Uttoxeter Market Place in the rain. Townspeople still honour his birthdate of September 18 th by gathering around his statue on the nearest Saturday to it. A third memorial in the square is to Edward Wightman, the last man in England to die at the stake having been publicly burnt for heresy in April 1612.
Dame Oliver's School, and the grammar school where Johnson was taught and in turn taught others, both survive. The grammar school also included among its pupils the essayist Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and the famous Shakespearean actor-manager David Garrick (1717-79). Johnson himself in fact taught Garrick Latin and Greek in 1736. Another notable person born in Lichfield in 1617 was Elias Ashmole, the antiquarian and astrologer who bequeathed his priceless collection of antiquities to Oxford University and founded the Ashmolean Museum in 1677. It is Britain's oldest public library.
Two miles south-west of Lichfield is the excavated bath-house of a Roman posting station, Letocetum , on old Watling Street. This remains an exceptional example of a Roman town bath-house, the most complete of its kind in Britain. There is a museum on site.