Lichfield Cathedral

Today, Lichfield seems like an unlikely place to have one of the most magnificent of English cathedrals. It’s about 15 miles away from Birmingham and is a relatively small town. Lichfield owes its prominence to St Chad who built the first church in the 7th century. After his death, Lichfield became a site of pilgrimage which brought money into the town and enabled the building of the cathedral.

Another claim to fame is that Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame was born in Lichfield. In 1777, Johnson said to James Boswell, "Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford." This leads me to suspect that he was glad to have left the town.

The cathedral of St Chad and St Mary is the only medieval cathedral in England to have three spires. The sandstone for the cathedral came from a quarry to the south of the town. The exterior of the building has some magnificent statues, gargoyles, and carvings. Overall, I prefer the exterior to the interior.

The cathedral was badly damaged during the English Civil War when all of the stained glass was destroyed. In the early 19th century, medieval Flemish painted glass from a Beligum abbey was installed in the Lady Chapel. The majority of the stained glass in the cathedral is 1from the 19th century.

In the Victorian era, the cathedral underwent a major restoration under the control of George Gilbert Scott. who worked on a number of cathedral restorations.

In 2003, the Lichfield Angel was found under the nave. It was part of an 8th century stone chest that may have contained the relics of St Chad.

Here are some photos of the cathedral.