Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated south-east of Stafford, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth, south-west of Burton upon Trent and Derby and 14 miles (22.5 km) north of Birmingham. At the time of the 2021 Census, the population was 34,738 and the population of the wider Lichfield District was 106,400.
Notable for its three-spired medieval cathedral, Lichfield was the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, the compiler of the first authoritative Dictionary of the English Language. The city's recorded history began when Chad of Mercia arrived to establish his bishopric in 669 AD and the settlement grew as the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia. In 2009, the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork, was found south-west of Lichfield.
The development of the city was consolidated in the 12th century under Roger de Clinton, who fortified the Cathedral Close and also laid out the town with the ladder-shaped street pattern that survives to this day. Lichfield's heyday was in the 18th century, when it developed into a thriving coaching city. This was a period of great intellectual activity; the city was the home of many famous people including Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Erasmus Darwin, and Anna Seward, prompting Johnson's remark that Lichfield was "a city of philosophers".
Today, the city still retains its old importance as an ecclesiastical centre, and its industrial and commercial development has been limited. The centre of the city has over 230 listed buildings (including many examples of Georgian architecture) and preserves much of its historic character.
Toponymy The origin of the modern name "Lichfield" is twofold. At Wall, south of the current city, there was a Romano-British village, Letocetum, a Common Brittonic place-name meaning "Grey wood", "grey" perhaps referring to varieties of tree prominent in the landscape, such as ash and elm.. In the post-Roman period, Letocetum developed into Old Welsh .
The earliest record of the name in English is the Vita Sancti Wilfredi of around 715, describing when Chad moves from York to Lichfield in 669. "Chad was made Bishop of the Mercians immediately after his deposition; Wilfred gave him the place (locus) at Lichfield (Onlicitfelda)". The prefix "on" indicates that the place given to Chad by Wilfrid was "in Lichfield", indicating the name was understood to apply to a region rather than a specific settlement.Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia (2002). The Oxford Names Companion. Oxford University Press; p. 1107. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, completed in 731, states that Chad acquired Licidfelth as his episcopal seat (sedem episcopalem)., s.v. Lichfield.
These and later sources show that the name Letocetum had passed into Old English as Licid, to which was appended the Old English word ("open country"). This word is the origin of the word "Lichfield".
The modern-day city of Lichfield and the Roman villa of Letocetum are just two miles (3 km) apart. While these names are distinct in modern usage, they had a common derivation in the Brittonic original *Letocaiton, indicating that "grey wood" referred to the region inclusive of modern-day Lichfield City and the Roman villa.
Popular etymology has it that a thousand Christians were martyred in Lichfield around AD 300 during the reign of Diocletian and that the name Lichfield actually means "field of the dead" (see lichfield). There is no evidence to support this legend.
History
Prehistory and antiquity
The earliest evidence of settlement is Mesolithic flints discovered on the high ground of the cemetery at St Michael on Greenhill, which may indicate an early flint industry. Traces of Neolithic settlement have been discovered on the south side of the sandstone ridge occupied by Lichfield Cathedral.
south-west of Lichfield, near the point where Icknield Street crosses Watling Street, was the site of Letocetum (the Brittonic *Lētocaiton, "Greywood"). Established in AD 50 as a Roman military fortress, it had become a civilian settlement (vicus) with a bath house and a mansio by the 2nd century. Letocetum fell into decline by the 4th century and the Romans had left by the 5th century. There have been scattered Romano-British finds in Lichfield and it is possible that a burial discovered beneath the cathedral in 1751 was Romano-British. There is no evidence of what happened to Letocetum after the Romans left; however, Lichfield may have emerged as the inhabitants of Letocetum relocated during its decline. A ("Fort Greywood") was listed by Nennius among the 28 cities of Britain in his Historia Brittonum,Nennius (). Theodor Mommsen (). Historia Brittonum, VI. Composed after AD 830. Hosted at Latin Wikisource. although these were largely historic remembrances of early Sub-Roman Britain.
Middle Ages
The early history of Lichfield is obscure. The first authentic record of Lichfield occurs in Bede's history, where it is called Licidfelth and mentioned as the place where St Chad fixed the episcopal see of the Mercians in 669. The first Christian king of Mercia, Wulfhere, donated land at Lichfield for Chad to build a monastery. It was because of this that the ecclesiastical centre of Mercia became settled as the Diocese of Lichfield, which was approximately northwest of the seat of the Mercian kings at Tamworth.
In July 2009, the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest collection of Anglo-Saxon gold ever found, was discovered in a field in the parish of Hammerwich, south-west of Lichfield; it was probably deposited in the 7th century.
The first cathedral was built on the present site in 700 when Bishop Hædde built a new church to house the bones of St Chad, which had become the centre of a sacred shrine to many pilgrims when he died in 672. The burial in the cathedral of the kings of Mercia, Wulfhere in 674 and Ceolred in 716, further increased the city's prestige.From: 'Lichfield: History to c.1500', A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990), pp. 4–14. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=42336 Date accessed: 24 July 2009. In 786 King Offa made the city an archbishopric with authority over all the bishops from the Humber to the River Thames; his appointee was Archbishop Hygeberht. This may have been motivated by Offa's desire to have an archbishop consecrate his son Ecgfrith as king, since it is possible Jænberht refused to perform the ceremony, which took place in 787. After King Offa's death in 796, Lichfield's power waned; in 803 the primacy was restored to Canterbury by Pope Leo III after only 16 years.
The Historia Brittonum lists the city as one of the 28 cities of Britain around AD 833.
During the 9th century, Mercia was devastated by Danish Vikings. Lichfield itself was unwalled and the cathedral was despoiled, so Bishop Peter moved the see to the fortified and wealthier Chester in 1075. At the time of the Domesday Book survey (1086), Lichfield was held by the bishop of Chester; Lichfield was listed as a small village. The lord of the manor was the Bishop of Chester until the reign of Edward VI. In 1102 Bishop Peter's successor, Robert de Limesey, transferred the see from Chester to Coventry. The Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield had seats in both locations; work on the present Gothic cathedral at Lichfield began in 1195. (In 1837 the see of Lichfield acquired independent status, and the style 'Bishop of Lichfield' was adopted.)
In 1153 a markets charter was granted by King Stephen and, ever since, weekly markets have been held in the Market Square.
Bishop Roger de Clinton was responsible for transforming the scattered settlements to the south of Minster Pool into the ladder-plan streets existing today. Market Street, Wade Street, Bore Street and Frog Lane linked Dam Street, Conduit Street and Bakers Lane on one side with Bird Street and St John Street on the other. Bishop de Clinton also fortified the cathedral close and enclosed the town with a bank and ditch, and gates were set up where roads into the town crossed the ditch. In 1291 Lichfield was severely damaged by a fire which destroyed most of the town; however the Cathedral and Close survived unscathed.
In 1387 Richard II gave a charter for the foundation of the guild of St Mary and St John the Baptist; this guild functioned as the local government, until its dissolution by Edward VI, who incorporated the town in 1548.
Early Modern
The policies of Henry VIII had a dramatic effect on Lichfield. The Reformation brought the disappearance of pilgrim traffic following the destruction of St Chad's shrine in 1538, which was a major loss to the city's economic prosperity. That year too the Franciscan Friary was dissolved, the site becoming a private estate. Further economic decline followed the outbreak of plague in 1593, which resulted in the death of over a third of the entire population.
Three people were burned at the stake for heresy under Mary I. The last public burning at the stake for heresy in England took place in Lichfield, when Edward Wightman from Burton upon Trent was executed by burning in the Market Place on 11 April 1612 for promoting himself as the divine Paraclete and Saviour of the world.Cobbett's complete collection of state trials and proceedings , 735–736.
In the English Civil War, Lichfield was divided. The cathedral authorities, supported by some of the townsfolk, were for the king, but the townsfolk generally sided with the Parliament. This led to the fortification of the close in 1643. Lichfield's position as a focus of supply routes had an important strategic significance during the war, and both forces were anxious for control of the city. The Parliamentary commander Lord Brooke led an assault on the fortified close, but was killed by a sniper's bullet on St Chad's day in 1643. The close subsequently yielded to the Parliamentarians, but was retaken by Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the same year, and the governorship granted to a local gentleman, Richard Bagot. On the collapse of the Royalist cause in 1646 it again surrendered. The cathedral suffered extensive damage from the war, including the complete destruction of the central spire. It was restored at the Restoration under the supervision of Bishop Hacket, and thanks in part to the generosity of King Charles II.