Chad's grave-the evidence

Summary. Archaeological excavation at the east end of the nave in 2003 revealed the foundation to a shrine tower and within it a grave. Eight reasons are given for believing this was Chad’s grave. It should be marked.

 Context

King Wulfhere gained overlordship of Mercia c. 657-9, possibly by paying tribute to King Oswiu of Northumbria.[1] He then assisted in appointing the third and fourth bishops of Mercia, who came from the north, and most likely built their timber church in the vicinity, perhaps, along the Trent washlands.[2] Bishop Wilfrid, acting as bishop of Mercia, and Wulfhere, between 667 and 669, fixed a new site for a mother church-cathedral beside a stream on a Mercian mudstone slope for the fifth bishop of Mercia (Chad). They called the location Licitfelda, meaning the approved field. Bede 17–19 years later, confirmed the event.[3] See the posts, ‘Wilfrid, creator of the first cathedral’ and ‘Reasons why Lichfield (Licitfelda) had approval’. Bede recorded when Chad died in 672 two churches were present.[4] See the post, ‘Understanding Chad’s grave site’. This is the documentary evidence for two churches, St Peters and St Marys at Lichfield by at the year 672 when Chad was buried at Licetfelda.

Bede stated Wilfrid became the Bishop of the Middle Angles, ?690–692.[5] Then, with Bishop Headda of Lichfield, c. 691 x 716–27, a close relationship with Mercia continued and lasted for eleven years, between 691/2 to 703.^[6] Almost certainly Wilfrid encouraged the cult of Chad, its pilgrimage and Licetfelda as a sacred landscape. This was repeated with Cuthbert at Lindisfarne and in time with Wilfrid at Ripon. Major ecclesiastical centres had noted saints in special shrines.

 

Archaeological evidence

          In 2003, an octagonal hole, 7.5m wide, was dug in the floor at the east end of the nave to install a rising platform.[7] A foundation for a building c. 7 m wide north-south[8] and possibly the same length east-west was found. The walls mostly a metre thick suggested the building was relatively tall.[9] The east end had a tongue of natural clay and this was thought to have been steps into the shrine. Inside was a sunken, possibly lined, pit, 0.8m deep, c. 2m wide and slightly longer[10]; clearly a burial pit or hypogeum (underground tomb). Alternatives, such as a baptistry, were ultimately dismissed.[11]  Rodwell published the outcome of the dig for the cathedral library and later in a magazine.[12] Since the dig there have been implausible suggestions on whether the chamber was much longer and it attached to a church 20m away.[13] Bunce[14] has concluded local burial practices of saint’s graves between c. 600 and 850 in Britain and Ireland explain the variation in the types of shrines including unique Insular shrines. This might be a grave with Insular features. Crook has linked the shrine to that at Jouarre Abbey, northern France, which connects with St Columbanus and his Celtic mission, c. 630. 

 

Reconstructed diagram of the shrine tower enclosing the sunken chamber and showing how it was offset to the north. Only the left half of the shrine tower foundation (brown) was uncovered. Only three-quarters of the left side of the pit was excavated.

 

 

Photograph of the excavation area and the grave (outlined in red). Foundation wall is outlined in blue. The midline of the chamber is in yellow.

 

 

 Position of the grave in the current cathedral, 3.5m from the north pillar of the second bay.

The size and shape resembled shrine towers known in Ireland and dated 8th to 9th-century. Such buildings were well under 12m square and usually had a west-facing door.[15] Carver said they were narrow and tall, employed megalithic construction for the walls, enclosed a single room rarely larger than 6 x 4m and had a single western door with an east window.[16] A somewhat similar layout occurred for the Hexham and Ripon crypts.[17]

St Kevin's shrine tower at Glendalough, County Wicklow, Ireland.

 

Reasons for accepting this was Chad’s burial site.

1.     Every aspect suggests a shrine tower built to house the grave of someone special.[18] The shrine resembled those, at least 4, in Ireland[19] each dedicated to hold the remains of a saint. The archaeologist suggested burial offset to the north in a small room 5m square had some resemblance to Christ’s tomb chamber (2.5m long, 1.2m wide and 2.5m high) reconfigured in Constantine’s church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (which was different from the original rock tomb). The cobbled stone floor suggests many attended the grave. The possible east end door is characteristic for such monuments.

 

Adomnan’s 7th-century drawing of the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

 

2.     Bede recorded Chad’s relics were within a ‘wooden house’, on (ibidem) the original grave.[20] It is entirely plausible the wooden house was exchanged later with a stone sepulchre-chest, see the post ‘Chad’s relics.’ Within the grave and close by were found three pieces of stonework which fitted together to make what is now called ‘The Lichfield Angel’. The head of the angel Gabriel is very similar to the head of King Offa on his coins suggesting he ordered the new shrine chest. Its fine painted detail and being best stone from Ancaster, Lincolnshire, suggests wealth typical of Offa and his archbishopric. The style of Gabriel, especially his Romanesque tunic, closely resembles the incised Gabriel on the left end of Cuthbert’s wooden coffin buried and now exhibited in Durham Cathedral. This equates Offa’s shrine chest for Chad with the shrine and coffin of Cuthbert. See the post, ‘Lichfield Angel.’

3.     A substantial socketed, sandstone block was found next to the sunken chamber and could have been the base to a standing cross.[21] Alternatively, it could have supported an eternal flame from an oil lamp; this has been noted elsewhere with saintly burials such as with Brigid at Kildare in 5th century. Leviticus 6 v13 states "The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out." It was clearly an extra to the grave and a marker of some kind.

4.     Of the 22 people, some were priests, found above the shrine tower foundation in the 2003 excavation, some had requested burial near St Chad. For example. William Berford who died in 1450 requested burial near his uncle, Dean Stretton, and St Chad. The sunken chamber was not cut by later graves.[22] Rodwell noted broken fragments of incised floor slabs with indents of Purbeck marble and bluestone to show the high status of burials. This was a special grave site. It seems that even in medieval times there was an understanding where Chad was buried and this was largely forgotten, or ignored, until the discoveries of 2003.

5.     It makes sense that when the current cathedral was built the remains of Chad were removed from the nave area to be housed in St Peter’s Head Chapel on the south side of the choir. The nave then became an open area for the attendance of worshippers kept separate from the main church to the east of the crossing. Pilgrims and penitents could be ushered from the south door, along the south choir aisle to St Peter’s Head Chapel and then returned to the doorway. This explains the medieval practice of exhibiting relics, not graves, and why the grave was empty of bones in 2003.

6.     The sunken chamber had been infilled with soil and rubble and a tiled floor laid across. On top was a board, possibly a coffin lid, and on this was a little twisted skeleton of an aged man. He was thought to have been a pilgrim and the depth of burial suggested 15th century. Across his pelvis and legs was a tree branch around 3cm thick thought to have been his staff. By his right side of his thigh was the remains of a large round pouch or scrip and around his waist was a hint of a leather belt. It is either an odd coincidence or a deliberate burial of perhaps a distinguished pilgrim on top of Chad’s grave. No other pilgrim has been found.

7.     The grave is positioned in the centre of the current cathedral and close to the centre of the Close and therefore the middle of the 7th century settlement. If the layout of the monasterium was a series of rings as seen in Irish-Celtic monasteries and thought to be at Iona, see the post ‘A sacred layout for the first cathedral,’ then it is central to the site.

8.     A recent review of features seen in the excavation has supported the notion this was an early grave.[23] Rodwell[24] in 2006 wrote, “We now have fair reason to believe we have found the secondary burial place, that is after translation,[25] of St Chad.” No one has disputed this.

     Surprisingly, the location of the grave has not been marked or noted in the cathedral and visitors sometimes remark on this. Instead, pilgrims have finished their journey with prayers at the shrine at the east end of the cathedral. It would be fitting to have a portable cross or eternal candle above the site of the grave. There is no other ecclesiastical centre in England where the grave site of the patron saint is unmarked. This is important if it is thought significant to establish the cult in the way it was. Crook expressed it as, early Christian writers (in Roman times) knew the devout visited holy graves because in a mysterious way they believed the saint, though dead in body, continued to maintain contact with the earthly sphere through the physical remains that they had left behind.[]26The bones (and grave) provided a channel of communication between earth and heaven. The grave provided a source of spiritual power, such as healing infirmities.

[1] No battle or skirmish is known. Three ealdormen proclaimed Wulfhere king of the Mercians. See F. M. Stenton, Anglo-Saxon England, (Oxford: 1989), 84. Perhaps, Christian King Oswiu had an arrangement with Christian King Wulfhere.

[2] The cathedral seems fond of stating a church on the site since the year 700, but in fact there must have been a church on or close by in 659 and certainly one by 669. That is, over 1350 years ago.

[3] Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. The ecclesiastical history of the English People, 731. Bede listed this work as Historiam ecclesiasticam nostræ insulæ ac gentis in libris V, which translates to, The ecclesiastical history of our island and nation in five books.

[4] Ibid, Book 4 chapter 3.

[5] HE Book 4, chapter 23. This is often stated to be centred on Leicester, but there is no evidence for a see at Leicester before 737. It is unclear why Bede confined Wilfrid’s activity to the Middle Angles in the early 690s. See A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid, his cult and his biographer.’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 8.

[6] M. Capper, ‘Prelates and politics: Wilfrid, Oundle and the Middle Angles’. Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 262.

[7] A four-lobed shaped area of floor, 38 m², can be raised 300 mm in two stages to form a platform for the altar table to be higher and seen from the end of the nave. The eight-tonne floor uses six electrically operated, precision, screw jacks, not hydraulics. The perimeter stone is 170 mm thick, but the inner stone is only 20 mm thick. Manchester Cathedral copied the mechanism.

[8] Drawing shows a width of c .6.7 metres (22 feet or 1.5 short perches), see W. Rodwell, ‘Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral’. (Unpublished report held in Lichfield Cathedral Library, 2003), 15.

[9] A modern term for such a building is a shrine chapel. However, a shrine in Medieval Latin was called a cappella, which translated to chapele and by the 13th-century became a chapel. The word is therefore relatively recent. It is not known what the shrine tower might have been called.

[10] A squarish grave was not thought to be unusual, especially if it was a crypt-shaped chamber like that at Repton.

[11] No lead lining was found. Often baptism used a large lead pot. The river south of the cathedral was probably more likely to be used for baptism,

[12] W. Rodwell, Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. Lichfield, Unpub. report in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2003). Also W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral. 4. Archaeology of the Nave Sanctuary. 67th Annual Report to the Friends of Lichfield Cathedral held in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2004). Also W. Rodwell, ‘The forgotten cathedral.’ Current Archaeology, (2006), 18, 1 (205), 9–17.

[13] Rodwell thought the distance between the choir foundations and the nave foundations, c. 20m, was considerable and belonged to two separate buildings in an east-west alignment.[13] Sargent repeated the notion of one long church with the sepulchral of Chad at the west end and the altar of St Peter at the east end.[13] There is a difficulty with the alignment and the length of this church. Also implausible is the housing of a saint’s shrine at the west end of a church in the 7th-century; elsewhere the saint was buried in a porticus on the side of the nave and near the altar.

[14] M. Bunce, Shrines and special graves in Britain and Ireland c.600-850, (2022). PhD thesis University of Oxford.

[15] T. Ó Carragáin, ‘The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland’ The J. of the Royal Soc. of Antiquaries of Ireland, 133 (2003) 66.

[16] M. Carver, Formative Britain. An archaeology of Britain, fifth to eleventh century A.D. (London and New York, 2019), 569. Carver cites Iona (beneath St Columba’s House), Tighlagheany (Co. Galway), Teach Molaise (on Inishmurray) and St Columb’s (Co Meath) as examples, p. 570.

[17] R. N. Bailey, ‘St Wilfrid – a European Anglo-Saxon’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conferences, ed. N. J. Higham (Donington, 2013), 122.

[18] Rodwell, ‘Lichfield Cathedral. Archaeology of the Sanctuary’, 4.

[19] Possibly also Patrick’s chapel at Heysham on the Morecambe coast.

[20] Were the dimensions those of Christ’s tomb chamber at Jerusalem, namely, 2.5m long, 1.2m wide and 2.5m high?

[21] Rodwell conjectured it was one of four uprights with a canopy on top, but this is very speculative. Finding one post-hole cannot justify claiming a canopy needing several supporting columns.

[22] Around half of the 22 graves found were 13th to 15th-century. The youngest grave was 1810.

[23] A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad: creating community in Early Medieval Mercia (Hatfield, 2020), 117.

[24] See note 10, Rodwell (2006), 13

[25] Bede is clear the ‘constructa’ or wooden house was ‘ibidem’ on the same spot as the grave. Some Latinists of Bede have mis-translated this description. His relics would not have been taken into St Peter’s church, unless the church had a side chamber and Chad was a minor saint.

[26] J. Crook, English Medieval Shrines. (Woodbridge: 2011), 5.

Lichfield, Wells and Salisbury are post-Norman.

Summary.  Until recently many historians believed the second and third cathedrals were built during, or soon after, the Norman era. Yet there is no documentary evidence or architecture to support any Norman building. Construction for the present, third cathedral is deduced to have been in the early 13th century. This follows the same timeline as at Wells and Salisbury cathedrals and there are resemblances between the three buildings. All are post-Norman.

Twentieth century historians assumed there was a Norman second cathedral in Lichfield,[1] built in either the late 11th-century or the early 12th-century. Some gave only qualified or equivocal support for the dating.[2] If ever there was a second Norman cathedral, it would have lasted for no more than 110 years before the current cathedral was built early in the 13th-century. Since there are no clear and obvious remnants of Norman stonework from the second cathedral, it follows a monumental Norman cathedral would have been completely demolished to make way for an entirely new Gothic cathedral; something not seen with other cathedrals. Why past writers would want to invoke a Norman cathedral is an interesting zeitgeist.[3] Reasons to confute this myth are given in the posts, ‘Why the second cathedral must be Early Medieval’ and ‘Second cathedral has a short perch layout. It is Early Medieval.’ Two more reasons follow.

 

The Normans marginalised Lichfield

Four years after the Conquest in1066 at a Council held at Windsor, Leofwin,[4] the Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) Bishop of Lichfield, was summarily dismissed with a charge of carnal incontinence meaning he had a wife and children, but this was a ploy since other bishops were also married. It was backed by papal legates at the behest of Normans brought in to purge the English church. In actual fact, Leofwin had been too political and had maintained too close an association with the dissentient Earls of Mercia. He was never going to be compliant with the new Norman hegemony. At the next Council in 1075, headed by the new Archbishop Lanfranc, appointed by William the Conqueror, it was decided any bishops from villages were to be moved to populous cities, as cited in the disastrous Council of Serdica (now Sofia in Bulgaria) in 343 and repeated in the canons of the Council of Laodicea, Turkey, in 363/4. Citing a 4th century custom was another ploy to justify the move to oust unwanted cathedrals. This was not new, in 1050 the diocese in Devon based at Crediton moved to Exeter and in c, 1072 the diocese based at Dorchester-on-Thames moved to Lincoln. The Council in 1075 gave impetus to this reorganisation. The bishopric at Sherborne was moved to Old Sarum in Salisbury, Selsey was moved to Chichester, Wells went to Bath, Elmham in East Anglia was succeeded by Thetford and later Norwich, and Lichfield was transferred to Chester. In fact, Peter, consecrated bishop of Lichfield in 1070, some think earlier in 1067, had already moved to Chester by 1072 or 1073. The Council, two or three years later, was merely responding to what had already happened. A letter in late 1072 or early 1073 referred to the Bishop of Licifeldensis (Lichfield) who is now Cestrenis (Chester).[5]

William I with his Domesday Book

 

The Normans downgraded the cathedral to be The Church of St Chad, the designation of the Great Survey, 1086, and entered in the Domesday Book. William of Malmesbury[6], 1080–1143, justified this by writing “Lichfield was a tiny village (uilla exigua) far from the busy life of towns, in the midst of a woody district, on the banks of a brook. Its church was on a cramped site, revealing the mediocrity and self-repression of its men of old, a place unworthy of the dignity of a bishop.” He also added ‘the church was famous for its poverty.’ William was a Norman apologist.

 William of Malmesbury

The Domesday Survey, 1086,[7] recorded the cathedral had only five priests and was among the poorest of the English cathedrals. Furthermore, Lichfield lay at the centre of perhaps the poorest part of the entire diocese.[8] The downgraded cathedrals (Salisbury, Wells and Lichfield – Selsey and Elmham had disappeared) were now never likely to become wealthy and powerful.[9] Morris thought any Norman bishop would have been safer nearer a castle and this favoured Chester above Lichfield.[10] Wright saw the downgrading of Anglo-Saxon churches as engineered by the pope, since the papal court considered the Early Medieval church was obnoxious and the Norman Conquest was a signal victory for Catholicism.[11]

Then came another change in location of the bishopric with Bishop Robert de Limesey leaving Chester c. 1095, officially 1102, to site his see at Coventry. Why would the Bishop of Chester, now Coventry, want to build a large cathedral at Lichfield when there was much to extend and develop at Coventry and much to complete at Chester? Various reasons for the move have been given[12]  and all point to the development of a large cathedral in Coventry and consequently a further downgrading of Lichfield. Restructuring lasted until mid-12th century.

 Then for 18 years, southern England was caught in the civil war known as the Great Anarchy, 1135–1153. Most bishops loyally supported King Stephen against Matilda, though towards the end many called for a reconciliation. Some believe Bishop Roger de Clinton of Coventry and Lichfield was a strong supporter of the king, but some have conjectured whether he also thought more of Matilda’s claim to the throne. During this time cathedral building everywhere was paused.[13] The warfare might be the reason why Clinton garrisoned (walled?) the Close, c. 1135. It also explained why in The Deeds of King Stephen,[14] c. 1148, it claimed Clinton was heavily involved in the military.[15]  With documentary evidence for Clinton selling land to build monasteries,[16] possibly adding streets to Lichfield,[17] probably allowing piped water into the Close[18] and behind various other projects during his 19-year episcopate, it is odd there is no record of him founding, or repairing a cathedral.  

Bishop Roger de Clinton on the west front of the cathedral. Holding a church signifies he built churches. He founded a Savigniac monastery in 1135 that became Buildwas Abbey. He also founded Farewell Priory.

Reconstruction of Lichfield by mid-12th century as a garrison town with a castle-cathedral and gridded streets. It is an adaptation of the 1610 John Speed map. 

There is no documentary evidence for a Norman cathedral.

William of Malmesbury,[19] c. 1125, said Bishop Robert Peche (1121–1126) gave great benefit to Lichfield (magnorum apud Licetfeld edificationum) and this has been interpreted as constructed buildings. In 1691, it was written there were large buildings (magnas aedificationes) in Lichfield at the time of Bishop Robert Limesey, 1085–1117.[20] Bishop Robert Peche (1121-6), is said to have begun large-scale building (magnarum apud Licetfeld edificationum inchoator).[21]  Bishop Roger Clinton, 1129–1148, raised Lichfield both in workplace and in honour (erexit tam in fabrica quam in honore).[22] From these statements, antiquarians, mostly Victorian, have concluded it supported the idea of a Norman cathedral. A more measured Victorian County History stated, “Of the cathedral buildings little definite is known before the rebuilding in the 13th century”.[23] Greenslade used the word reportedly to suggest building began in the late 11th century instigated by Bishop Robert de Limesey.[24] The reality is there is no empirical or documentary evidence for a Norman cathedral.

In 1854, a foundation was found under the floor of the choir and presbytery and it has been claimed this was the second cathedral and it was Norman.[25] This was despite the publication by Robert Willis in 1861, who concluded, “we have no history to guide us in forming opinions save the most meagre indications”.[26]

Drawing of the foundation of the second cathedral.

Some writers were certain there never was a Norman cathedral. Clifton-Taylor stated of the 16 cathedrals existing at the time of the Reformation, only three show no Romanesque or Norman; they are Salisbury, Wells and Lichfield.[27] Pevsner and Metcalf were convinced the eastern part of the cathedral was built after c. 1195–1200 and so much after Clinton and just before the current cathedral was built.[28] Woodhouse[29] claimed the buttresses outside of the transepts appeared Norman, but these were changed in the 18th-century.

The historical narrative does not support a building of a second cathedral in Norman times and there is no record supporting such an undertaking. The reason is simple, the Normans ignored Lichfield, as they did in Salisbury and Wells. The current cathedral is like Wells and Salisbury and built in the Plantagenet era (1154-1485). Lichfield was constructed from early in 13th century to c. 1340, Wells in two stages c.1180-c.1260 and 1285-c. 1345, and Salisbury in the short time of 1220-58.[30] All are secular with no monastic attachment. All are in the Decorated Gothic style. The west fronts have the descriptive label of a ‘screen façade.’ Lichfield has paired towers and spires in line with the nave aisles, Wells has paired towers but not in line with the aisles and Salisbury has paired turrets topped with spirelets. Between the flanking towers were lancet windows. Lichfield had around 100 statues adorning the front (now 113), Wells has nearly 300 statues and Salisbury has 79 statues. All appear to have, or once had, a singing gallery with slit windows to the outside. All have a large central tower with Lichfield and Salisbury having a large spire. Lichfield had a bishop’s palace surrounded by a wall with a partial moat, whereas Wells has a palace surrounded by a wall and extensive moat. The three cathedrals have similarities in the layout of the choir and presbytery. All three are post-Norman.

                                                             Facades of Lichfield, Wells and Salisbury.

    A carbon dating of the second cathedral foundation, it is only 0.3m below the floor, called for by 4 top historians and supported by certain cathedral staff, would prove beyond doubt there is no Norman stonework at Lichfield. Hewitt (1882) wrote ‘documents are rare and tradition is vague’.[31] The history needs updating.

[1] Clinton built a cathedral about the time he was installed, as I guess. R. Plot (1686) 362, 367. Clinton repaired and much adorned the church. T. Cox (1738), 125. Clinton about the year 1140 built a new cathedral church. T. Tanner (1744), 485. Little or nothing of the old Norman work appears at this day. J. Bentham (1771), 36. Clinton added greatly both to the size and beauty of the church. S. Shaw (1798), vol.1, 233. Clinton pulled it entirely down and rebuilt it. J. Jackson (1805), 75. Clinton took down the ancient Mercian cathedral and rebuilt it. T. Harwood (1806), 9. Present fabric was begun by Bishop Clinton. J. C. Woodhouse (1811), 4. Clinton added to the extent and beauty of the cathedral. W. Pitt (1817), 90. Clinton either re-edified or greatly augmented the cathedral. J. Storer (1817) sect. e. Clinton took down the Mercian building and erected the present edifice. T. J. Lomax (1819), 11. Clinton is said to have rebuilt the cathedral. J. Britton (1820), 19. Clinton almost rebuilt the cathedral. S. Erdeswick (1820), 213. Clinton is said to have rebuilt a great part of the cathedral. W. White (1834), 65. A great part of the present cathedral was built by Clinton. W. Dugdale (1846), 1240. 1238.Clinton is reputed to have entirely rebuilt the cathedral. J. B. Stone (1870), 16. Clinton’s Norman cathedral has disappeared by degrees. C. Bodington (1899), 20. Clinton may have erected or helped to erect the Norman cathedral. A. B. Clifton (1900), 5. (Bells).

[2] The Normans rebuilt Lichfield Cathedral. All the Norman work has vanished with the exception of a few undistinguished carved stones. S. A. Jeavons (1962), 11. Nothing of the pre-Conquest church has been discovered but foundations of an apsidal building may be assigned to the 11th-century. A. R. Dufty (1963), 293. Clinton certainly rebuilt or more likely completed the rebuilding of the cathedral though nothing of his work now remains. C. C. Taylor (1969), 48. The antiquated Anglo-Saxon cathedral was pulled down and a new edifice in the very latest Romanesque style of architecture was built. R. Studd (1980), 32. A Norman cathedral was built between c. 1090 and 1150, but nothing has been found of the pre-Conquest church. P. Johnson (1980), 113. Work was probably completed by Bishop Clinton 1129–1148. M. Greenslade (1990) The Saxon church was quickly replaced after the Conquest by a new cathedral in Norman style, begun in 1085. R. Mead (2001), 132.

[3] Many Victorian writers repeated the myth of a Norman cathedral. Invoking Norman fitted with their zeal to build large churches, railway stations like cathedrals and public buildings with a great façade. It was a conservative antidote to their major advances in science and technology which challenged the existence of God. It was the zeitgeist of the Victorian Age. So, Lichfield Cathedral is mostly a Victorian restoration and harks back to the surge in cathedral building in Norman times.

[4] He was possibly related to supporters of the Early Medieval Earls of Mercia. On resignation he returned to be abbot of Coventry monastery.

[5] Lanfranc’s third letter page 42, see C. P. Lewis, ’Communities, conflict and episcopal policy in the diocese of Lichfield, 1050—1150’. In: P. Dalton, C. Insley and L. J. Wilkinson, eds. Cathedrals, communities and conflict in the Anglo-Saxon world. (Woodbridge: 2011), 61—76, for a full account of this time at Lichfield. See H. Clover and M. Gibson, The letters of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, Oxford Medieval Texts. (Oxford: 1979), for the letters of Lanfranc.

[6] Note the reference to a cramped site for the cathedral, presumably still restricted by a surrounding enclosure. The men of old is pejorative for Anglo-Saxons. William had a Norman father, an English mother and was a monk, but living in Norman times he distained most things Anglo-Saxon. T. Wright, Biographia Britannica Literaria. Anglo-Norman Period. (London: 1846) wrote it was the fashion for at least two centuries after the Conquest to speak contemptuously of everything Saxon.

[7] Great Domesday Book 247r Lecefelle/Licefelle NA E31/2/2/1932 (Phillimore ref. Staffs. 2,16)

[8] R. Studd, ‘Pre-Conquest Lichfield’. Transactions South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, (1980), 22, 31. Also F. Barlow, The English Church, (London: 1979), 36, 62, 117.

[9] The Normans were preoccupied by strengthening their defences in Mercia and this was seen with the building of castles at Dudley, Shrewsbury, Tamworth, Tutbury, Warwick and later Stafford and Bridgnorth.

[10] M. Morris, The Norman Conquest. (London, 2013).

[11] See note 6 and Wright (1846), 7.

[12] See note 5 and Lewis (2011), 75. The formation of a Lichfield-Chester-Coventry diocese, with Lichfield the minor partner, by Bishops Peter and Robert was a way of augmenting their limited resources, as well as reforming the diocese along monastic lines.

[13] H. Braun, An introduction to English Medieval architecture. 2nd ed. (London: 1968). Also K. J. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque architecture, 800–1200 (New Haven & London: 1978).

[14] Gesta Stephani an anonymous mid-12th-century history of King Stephen’s reign,

[15] T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain. (London: 1738) overstated this believing Clinton’s inclination was “to shine in armour”. This was supported with his involvement in the ill-fated Second Crusade,1147–1149, ending in his death.

[16] M. J. Franklin, Roger of Clinton (Oxford, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: 2004).

[17] C. C. Taylor, ‘The origins of Lichfield’, South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, (1969),10, 43–52.

[18] J. Gould, ‘The twelfth-century water supply to Lichfield Close’. The Antiquaries J. (1976), 56, 1, 73–79.

[19] William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum. (Rolls Ser.), 311 (Cambridge University Library: 1125). It conflicts with his assertion that Lichfield was a small village (uilla exigua).

[20] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. Volume 1(London: 1691), 433. This was possibly from Thomas de Chesterfield, 1347.

[21]  See note 3.

[22] Ibid, Wharton (1691), 434.See note 20.

[23] M W Greenslade and R B Pugh (ed),  'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3,  (London, 1970), 140-166. 

[24] M. Greenslade, Lichfield: The Cathedral. In: A history of the County of Stafford: Volume 14, Lichfield. (London: 1990), 47–-57.

[25] W. Rodwell, The Norman quire of Lichfield Cathedral. Its plan and liturgical arrangement. 50th Annual report to the Friends of Lichfield Cathedral. In Lichfield Cathedral Library. (1987), 10-14.

[26] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’. The Archaeological J., (1861), 28I, 17–8.

[27] A. Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England. (London: 1986), 15.

[28] N. Pevsner and P. Metcalf, The Cathedrals of England: Midland, Eastern and Northern England. (New York: 1985), 182, 187-8.

[29] J. C. Woodhouse, A short account of Lichfield Cathedral (Lichfield, Thomas George Lomax: 1811).  

 [30] Lichfield cathedral is one of nine non-monastic cathedrals of the ‘Old Foundation’. That is, they all have an early beginning and were set up without a monastic attachment. Of the nine (St Pauls, York, Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, Lincoln, Salisbury, Wells and Lichfield) only Hereford and Lichfield cathedrals still occupy the same site as their original church.

 [31] J, Hewitt, Handbook of Lichfield Cathedral, (Lichfield: 1882), 2.