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About Lichfield
Lichfield is a small city in Staffordshire,
110 miles northwest of London and 14 miles north of
Birmingham. Famous for its three-spired Cathedral,
Lichfield lies in pleasant country, on a small stream
draining eastward to the Trent, with low hills to
the east and south. It is the main town in the Lichfield
district. The population of the district according
to the 2001 census is 93,237; of the city itself 27,900.
At Wall, 3 miles to the south of the present city,
there was a Romano-British village called Letocetum
(from the Celtic for "grey wood"), from
which the first half of the name Lichfield is derived.
It was based on a Roman fort next to Watling Street
which was used in the first centuries AD, until about
AD 160-170, when the fort's mansio was destroyed by
fire at the same time the forum in Wroxeter was also
destroyed by fire. This suggests a revolt of the local
British. The history of Lichfield
in the following centuries is obscure. The Historia
Britonum lists the city as one of the 28 cities of
Britain. In the Welsh poem The Lament of Cynddylan,
Caer Luycoed or Lichfield is said to have been taken
by the sword by pagan opponents, most likely the Mercians
to the east. The first authentic notice of Lichfield
occurs in Bede's history, where it is mentioned as
the place where St Chad fixed the episcopal see of
the Mercians in 669. In 786, Pope Adrian I raised
it at the request of Offa, King of Mercia, to the
dignity of an archbishopric, but in 803 the primacy
was restored to Canterbury. In 1075 the see of Lichfield
was removed to Chester, and thence a few years later
to Coventry, but it was restored to Lichfield in 1148.
At the time of the Domesday survey, Lichfield was
held by the bishop of Chester, where the see of the
bishopric had been moved in 1075: it is not called
a borough, only a small village. The lordship and
manor of the town were held by the bishop of Chester
until the reign of Edward VI, when they were leased
to the town corporation. There is evidence that a
castle existed here in the time of Henry I, and a
footpath near the grammar school retains the name
of Castle-ditch. Richard II gave a charter (1387)
for the foundation of the gild of St Mary and St John
the Baptist; this gild functioned as the local government,
until its dissolution by Edward VI, who incorporated
the town in 1548, vesting the government in two bailiffs
and twenty-four burgesses; further charters were given
by Mary, James I and Charles II (1664), the last,
incorporating it under the title of the "bailiffs
and citizens of the city of Lichfield," was the
governing charter until 1835; under this charter the
governing body consisted of two bailiffs and twenty-four
brethren. Lichfield sent two members to the parliament
of 1304 and to a few succeeding parliaments, but the
representation did not become regular until 1552;
in 1867 it lost one member, and in 1885 its representation
was merged in that of the county. By the charter of
James I, the market day was changed from Wednesday
to Tuesday and Friday; the Tuesday market disappeared
during the 19th century; the only existing fair is
a small pleasure fair of ancient origin held on Ash
Wednesday; the annual fête on Whit Monday claims
to date from the time of Alfred the Great In the English
Civil War, Lichfield was divided. The cathedral authorities
with a certain following were for the king, but the
townsfolk generally sided with the parliament, and
this led to the fortification of the close in 1643.
Lord Brooke, notorious for his hostility to the church,
led an assault against it, but was killed by a deflected
bullet on St Chad's day, an accident welcomed as a
miracle by the Royalists. The close yielded and was
retaken by Prince Rupert in this year; but on the
breakdown of the king's cause in 1646 it again surrendered.
The cathedral suffered extensive damage from the war.
During the 18th Century the city became a centre of
great intellectual activity, being the home of many
famous people including Samuel Johnson, David Garrick,
Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward, this prompted Johnson's
remark that Lichfield was "a city of philosophers".
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