The year 1200

Summary. The year 1200 was a transitional year for an old second cathedral, and a new expanding town catering for pilgrimage and servicing for many priests. It was the town that motivated construction of a new Gothic cathedral.

     The year 1200 was a transitional year of change from an old second cathedral to either planning or possibly beginning a third, larger cathedral. Similarly, the town was coalescing from hamlets to an organised, coherent township. Inevitably, in this fluidity there is much uncertainty with dates and order of change, but the following is known about the cathedral, The Close and the town.

AI rendition of the second cathedral in 1200 in a poor state.

Boundary

In Early Medieval times there must have been a ditch and bank around the area, now known as The Close, to keep in livestock. The separate Licitfelda (Lichfield) settlements could even have had a ditch and palisade like the excavated enclosure at Tamworth thought to be c.913.[1]

Ai enhabced imagined enclosure at Tamworth (originally called Tomeworthig). 

Between 1129 and 1135, there is some evidence of a ditch being dug around the coalescing settlements. This was at the beginning of Bishop Roger de Clinton’s episcopate, 1129-48, and plaques around the town attribute the town ditch to his time.[2] Archaeology showed it was 5 m wide and 2.6 m deep in the section named Castle ditch. Various ditches have been found crossing Sandford Street and they vary from 10 m wide down to 4 m wide and 2 m deep. The line for this west end of the ditch is unclear. Within the ditch has been found a large collection of rubbish, including slag from the Sandford Street area showing this community was engaged in metalworking. A 10 m wide, deep ditch containing water would be defensive, but it is unknown whether it completely encircled the small town. The purpose of a large ditch, together with town gates, was more likely to deter traders entering the town and avoid paying a goods tax at the gate. The officers of the town were now directing change which was being called a manor or borough and residents were burgesses.

 Lichfield with new streets, piped water, gates and ditch. It shows prosperity. There were 5 gates listed in the Magnum Registrum Album (Great White Album of the cathedral). They were Bacun or Bachunneswich gate, Stowe or Stowey gate, Tamworth gate, Culstubbe gate and Santford or Sondord gate. The AI enhanced map shows a fortified Close completed c. 1299.

Piped water

Between 1140 and 1170, two springs of water at Manor of Pipe (now the Maple Hayes estate) were bought from William Bell of Pipe and the water conveyed through lead pipes, 1½ inches diameter (38 mm), surrounded by clay. They stretched the 1.4 miles (2.3 k) to the Cathedral Close.[3] It was one of the earliest medieval piped-water systems in Britain.[4] It happened either at the end of the episcopate of Bishop Clinton, or more likely in the time of the following Bishop Durdent since he was at Canterbury when a conduit for water-supply was laid. It is also claimed Canon Thomas Bradford, or Bradeford, secured a clean water supply to the Close, c.1263. The original line of the pipe is unknown, but probably entered the close near the north-west corner. This line was later changed and the pipe entered through the Beacon Street west gate. The pipe ended at the stone cross cistern in the north-west corner of the open space in front of the cathedral.

Conduit-head remains, once housed a pump, in the north-west corner of the Close built 1786.

 

Lichfield town or manor

If the cathedral Close was now bounded, perhaps, walled, it must have been necessary to clear away dwellings close to the previous palisade ditch. Bishop Clinton might have needed to garrison his soldiers, he was a warrior-bishop, and this necessitated the commandeering of dwellings. So where did the occupants go? Was this the spur to add five or six streets on an east-west axis and at least four streets on a north-south alignment on wet ground south of the cathedral? It was the formation of an early grid-town[5] and has always been ascribed to Clinton’s plan for Lichfield. It came towards the end of his episcopate and followed on with the next bishop. Strangely, the new streets were on a low-lying area that was wet and easily flooded, so why build there and not on the higher ground near Gaia or at Borrowcop? It has been noted the new town was roughly equidistant from the communities in the Close, at Sandford and Greenhill.[6] The town comprised of separated hamlets.[7]

 

At the Culstubbe Street gate (St John’s Street) stood two crosses known as Bishop Durdent and Bishop Pucelle, and it might be the gates came later. There were crosses at all the gates and this must have signified to pilgrims they had arrived at Lichfield.[8]

Lichfield's market, chartered in 1153, was held initially on Sundays, and could have existed unofficially long before the new town was laid out.

The river, name is unknown, gave good separation of The Close and cathedral from the separate hamlets and later pools added to this isolation. A deed[9] dated 1176 refers to 'a tithe of fish from the bishop's fishponds in Lichfield' known as Vivarium Lichesfeldense.[10]  Both Stowe Pool and Minster Pool were artificial ponds created to drive water mills. The Domesday record mentions two mills belonging to the church estate and a third serving the outlying members of the manor which suggests the ponds existed in 1086.[11]

Plan of Lichfield 1150 interpreted by Bassett.[12] Note the Close is traversed from Dam St to the North side. There is an extra entrance on the east side. There was a mill close to the Dam St entrance. It is thought the Dam Street causeway was constructed before the Beacon Street causeway. Note the grid pattern of roads for the new settlement. It is unclear whether the earthworks around Lichfield formed a complete boundary.

Slater's idea of the Close around the year 1100[13] This map has more detail that Bassett’s map suggesting the manor of Lichfield was more coherent and integrated. Slater thought the Stowe area was most developed.

Plaques giving a version of gates and ditches.

Cathedral. Strictly the church of St Chad after the Normans removed the bishop. The entry for St Chad’s church, Lichfield, in the Domesday Book, 1086-7, stated there were present five canons holding three ploughs.

The Early Medieval cathedral-church must have been in a poor condition by the year 1200 and its future an issue. It is thought the first three bays of the choir were repaired, with a date of 1185; later dates have been suggested. It has some Early English stonework. Most likely the small area was being isolated for worship to continue whilst around the area was being prepared for a new cathedral. Being a non-monastic, secular cathedral meant a lack of cloisters and outer chambers limited the options for where to continue worship. A chapel on the south side of the second cathedral, built adjacent but not connected, could still be standing at this time and is thought to have been used as a sacristy.[14] 

Bishop Clinton’s statue on the west front has him holding an early church (Wing, Buckinghamshire?) The second cathedral would have had a resemblance to the held church.

The cathedral-church was must have been neglected and financially poor. Some of the estates held by the bishop are thought to have belonged to the church and might be considered early prebends provided some tithe money. Portions of several manors, such as Baswich, Brewood, and Eccleshall, were said to have been held by the church and are known to have become prebends by the end of the 12th-century. Some historians have suggested a full prebendal system was created by Bishop Clinton in the 1130s, but others have argued the income went to the twinned monastery at Coventry. The relationship between the more important Benedictine Priory in Coventry and the smaller church in Lichfield was strained with bishops favouring Coventry. It is thought Clinton formed a ‘collegium canonicorum’ along the same lines as those founded at Lincoln, Salisbury, and York some forty years previously. Then in 1191, a constitution based on one created at the cathedral of Rouen, was adopted which gave a greater measure of independence for the cathedral with four individuals, dean, precentor, treasurer and chancellor, having some control, but still subject to the bishop and king. The earliest dates for these offices were dean 1140, sub-dean 1165, precentor 1177, treasurer 1140, and chancellor 1200. By 1195, there were 22 canons, and a statute laid down that each should reside in The Close for a minimum of 3 months each year. The preoccupation of the cathedral in the 12th-century seems to be a formalising of the priesthood and the financing and management of the cathedral now beginning to have restored status. However, there is not much evidence for the appearance of the bishop, Hugh de Nonant, 1188-98. The prebend of Wolvey was formed about 1200 by Bishop Geoffry de Muschamp, and more followed in the years to 1255. Around this time various churches were given to the Chapter of the cathedral and they raised funds from a destitute level.

Some accounts have Clinton founding a pilgrim’s rest-house called St John the Baptist in 1135, but the earliest record is a grant given in 1208; an inconsistency mentioned by Harwood.[15] The purpose of the house was to accommodate travellers, especially pilgrims, who arrived when the town gates were closed. Its position outside the town is seen in its current name of St John the Baptist without the Barrs. Its existence soon after 1200 does indicate pilgrimage to St Chad’s relics was ongoing.

AI rendition of an early drawing of St John’ the Baptist chapel and hospital.

Robert Wills examined some of the remains of a foundation of the second cathedral revealed in 1854 in August 1859, took measurements and published his findings in 1861.[16] The layout shows the features that date it to around the year 1200 and suggest this was the transitional church. The first three Early English piers from the tower were, in the original plan, octagons, with a triple clustered shaft added on each face. The third pier from the tower is half Early English and half Decorated. The walls, windows, and vaulting of both the choir aisles are Early English as far as the third pier of the choir. The sacristy has three Early English windows.

AI double chevron in north choir aisle archway which could be Early English.

The notion the cathedral dominated and motivated the town is wrong. The third cathedral does not begin construction until 15 or even 25 years after 1200.[17] Perhaps, there was some building with Bishop Geoffry de Muschamp, 1198-1208, since he might have been buried in the cathedral. It is more likely work commenced under Bishop William de Cornhill, 1215-23,[18] and he was recorded as being buried in the cathedral. In 1221, Henry III gave the Dean and Chapter twenty oaks from Cannock Forest to be used for rafters and timber for the church.[19]  If this was the start of concerted construction then the cathedral is 805 years old. By this time the town or manor had grown considerably. It is pilgrimage, hostelries, small manufacture in metals, leather and food supplying the palace, priests and acolytes in the cathedral, and local markets which drive prosperity and must have induced the construction of a new Gothic cathedral.[20]

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[1] The Roman town of Letocetum is centred on a defended area of some 5 acres astride Watling Street enclosed by a 4th-century wall 9 feet thick fronted by three ditches and backed by a turf rampart: J. Gould, ‘Caer Lwytgoed:  Its significance in early medieval documents’, Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions, (1993), 7.

[2] Clinton also fortified Coventry as part of the siege during the Anarchy. A ditch 1.58 m deep and 7.5 m wide has been excavated at the cathedral site in Coventry.

[3] J. Gould, ‘The twelfth-century water-supply to Lichfield Close’, Antiquaries J, (1976), 56, 1, 73–78.

[4] It is thought the earliest system was at Canterbury Cathedral.

[5] J. Blair, Building Anglo-Saxon England. (Princeton and Oxford: 2018) thought grids of 12th and 13th century towns were based on irregular parallelograms and conjectured they might have triangulated with ropes which would give poor measuring out. Grids of 40 feet and 41.25 feet have been identified in the street layout.

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

[7] The growth of Lichfield has been described as polyfocal, that is, disparate, unconnected communities occupying a common location and with time coming together as a town.

[8] The crosses deteriorated with time, or were knocked down by parliamentarian forces in the Civil War.

[9] Magnum Registrum Album of Lichfield Cathedral, no. 497

[10] H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, (1619), i, 442.

[11] T. R. Slater, ‘The topography and planning of Medieval Lichfield. A critique. South Staffordshire archaeological and historical society transactions for 1984-1985. (1986), 26, 11-35.

[12] S. R. Bassett. ‘Medieval Lichfield: A topographical review. South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society transaction. (1980), 22, 117, Fig. 5B.

[13] T. R. Slater, (1986), 26. See note 11.

[14] See the post, ‘Two early chapels.’

[15] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806).

[16]  R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’ The Archaeol. J. (1861) 18, 1–24. Willis visited the Cathedral in 1849 to examine window tracery. In 1854, he was invited to forward a drawing for the restoration of the choir area. Before publication Willis gave a lecture reported in The Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1861, vol 210, 296‑300.

[17] See the post ’Dating the cathedral.’

[18] Burial must have been close to the Early English choir area.

[19] See note 226 given in M. W. Greenslade and R. B. Pugh (eds.) 'House of secular canons - Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 3, (London, 1970), 140–166.

[20] Taking 110-140 years. Lack of written evidence makes this dating an estimate.

Chad's bone relics

Chad died on March 2 in the year 672

Summary. Chad’s bones, from the end of the 7th-century, were in a ‘wooden house’ on his grave. They were in a dedicated chapel by the 13th-century in separate reliquaries. In the 14th-century they were in a sumptuous shrine. All bones were removed at Reformation.

     Archaeology over five days under the floor at the east end of the nave in 2003 revealed Chad’s grave dug in 672.[1] His relics were translated by being placed on his grave (ibidem), and inside a small, wooden house (a constructa described as a domuncula feretrum),[2] which eventually was housed inside a shrine tower.[3]

Moore manuscript passage, Historia Ecclesiastica page 156, fol. 74v and translation. The translation follows the new explication explained in the post. ‘Chad’s burial’.

AI rendition of a ‘little wooden house’ in a shrine tower.

The grave was near the church of St Mary and on the site of the main church of St Peters. The wooden house was most likely replaced by a stone chest box during Offa’s reign, late 8th-century, and part of the stonework is the Lichfield Angel. It is assumed the relics were at this nave location until the tenth, eleventh or possibly as late as the twelfth-century.

Chad’s grave and shrine chapel photographed in 2003. The description is from Rodwell 2004. The foundation was mortared, but an adjacent wall was not. T. ó Carragáin believes the shrine chapels in Ireland were the earliest mortared buildings.[4]

 

During excavation a King Edgar silver penny was found within a pit. This suggested Chad’s relics were being accessed, perhaps relocated, perhaps kept in a new shrine, during or after this king’s reign in the 10th-century.[5]

 

King Edgar silver penny. Obverse has +EADGAR RE around a small cross pattée within an inner circle. Reverse has INGEL-RI for the moneyer Ingelrics based at Derby. He minted coins showing a rosette and with MO in the field which means money, coin or die and is a feature of Mercian mints. Little is known on this moneyer which makes it unusual. Thanks to Dane Kurth of wildwinds.com.

 

It is presumed the relics, now considered to be of a major saint in England, were moved from the nave when the cathedral was built early in the 13th century.[6] Willis suggested they were moved to a chapel behind the high altar; a translation seen in other cathedrals.[7] An endowment in 1176 for six shillings was given for a light to be kept burning at the saint’s shrine.[8] This could have been at Chad’s grave site in the nave, in a chapel behind the high altar, or possibly in an early chapel on the south side of the choir, see the post ‘Two early chapels’. Moving the relics from the middle of the cathedral to the east end has been explained by allowing pilgrimage without disturbing worship. The nave was a point of assembly for pilgrims who had entered the cathedral by the south door. They were then escorted along the south choir aisle to access the relics in St Chad’s Chapel and then later a shrine in the retrochoir by the Lady Chapel without disturbing the opus dei in the choir and presbytery.[9] The justification for moving Chad's relics, bones in a portable reliquary box, from the nave to a dedicated chapel nearer the high altar is based on the presumption of having a shrine within the inner church near the high altar. It is in line with practice seen elsewhere,[10] but it is unclear whether, or when, it happened.[11]

Layout of the cathedral showing the four locations of Chad’s relics,

 

Sometime, c. 1230,  the relics were moved to a suite of secure rooms added to the south side of the choir.[12] There is no evidence that the shrine was moved in either 1148 or 1296 as suggested in the entry for Chad in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.[13] This relocation is simply based on what happened to relics in other cathedrals.[14] Therefore, the best interpretation is the relics were probably in St Chad’s Head Chapel for a comparatively short time before being ultimately being placed in Langton’s shrine facing the Lady Chapel by at the latest 1378.[15] This shrine was sumptuous and cost Langton over £2K in 1303.

AI recreated Chad’s shrine much based on Becket’s shrine. If similar, pulleys lifted a pitched, wooden chest canopy upwards to expose the casket on an elaborate oblong plinth. On the plinth was a model church, presumably the cathedral. It was decorated with 6 rubies, 5 sapphires, 15 large emeralds, 16 pearls and many small stones. Some jewels were set in an image of Chad. It is unclear which relics were kept in the casket, if relics were still in St Chad’s Head Chapel. It is presumed there was an aperture to view the relics. Pilgrims would have left many valuable offerings around the shrine, such as rings, brooches and necklaces. Permission given from The Centre for the study of Christianity and Culture, University of York, 2018.

Another AI rendition of how Bishop Langton’s shrine for Chad might have looked.

A sacrist’s roll for 1335 revealed the relics had been divided into at least three parts;[16] it is not known when this division occurred. The roll described ‘a certain portable shrine’ which was taken far afield in search of offerings. Bells were rung when it left and when it returned to the cathedral. [17]  

His skull, now thought to be lined in gold, was in a painted, church-shaped, wooden box, called a chef, with a jewelled mitre above. It was kept in the Chapel of St Chad, late 14th-century.[18] This is not to be confused with a separate altar to St Chad concerned with the memory of Chad.[19]

 

AI Chad's skull reliquary in St Chad's Head Chapel

 

Head reliquaries also occurred at Canterbury (St Swithun, Blaise, Fursa and Austroberht), Lincoln (St Ursula), Chichester (St Richard), York (St Thomas and Hugh), Worcester (St Oswald and Wulfstan) and Perranzabuloe (St Piran). At Lichfield there was a special shrine keeper for Chad's relics, attested in 1481.[20] Alongside the head was the right arm encased in a silver-gilt reliquary shaped as a hand and arm with the fingers placed to give a blessing.

AI gen. arm reliquary being used to bless the sick

 

An inventory of artefacts held by the cathedral,1445, was lost, but an extract exists.[21] It lists an arm reliquary weighing 4.5 lbs. Some bones were in a portable box shrine encrusted with jewels, and kept in the sacristy. This could have been the reliquary used in the liturgy, displayed in processions and sometimes taken around the diocese to raise funds. It would enhance the liturgy on principal feast days, such as for the Virgin Mary, and on Chad’s death day of March 2nd. Possibly, some bones were kept by the high altar. Chad’s grave site was also venerated by pilgrims and there are citations in the years 1325, 1426 and 1450 of requested burial or prayer next to the tomb of St Chad. If this was Chad’s grave, it shows the location was known in the 15th-century and subsequently forgotten until re-found in 2003.

AI gen. of a priest holding Chad’s skull from St Chad’s Head gallery to show pilgrims below in the south choir aisle. It is uncertain whether this ever happened.

Reformation, 1534, proscribed the use of relics. Chad's shrine was destroyed, presumably soon after Becket’s shrine was dismantled in August 1538. Although the gold and precious jewels at Langton’s shrine near the Lady Chapel were removed (most likely Chad’s gold skull as well?), Bishop Lee petitioned the king to keep part of the shrine for the cathedral’s use. Despite this, some bones were lost. When it became apparent the relics held by the cathedral were to be destroyed, Arthur Dudley, a cathedral prebendary, secretly removed[22] the bones and left them with two nieces in his family, in Russells Hall, Dudley.[23] 

A priest securing the casket of Chad’s relics. Reconstructed from a window in St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham.

It is said the two sisters became afraid of holding onto proscribed relics when soldiers were hunting Catholic Priests in the area. They entrusted the bones to near neighbours Henry and William Hodgetts (Hodsheeds or Hoodsheeds[24]), Catholic recusants of High Arcal Farm in Woodsetton, Sedgley, Dudley. William died in 1649 and his widow gave some relics back to his brother Henry.[25] Just before Henry died in 1651, he gave some bones to the Jesuit priest, Peter Turner, who was administering the Last Rites.[26] It is thought the brothers had given bones to their wider family and in time were lost. On Peter’s death the remaining fragments, together with a written description, were given to a royalist and recusant member of the Leveson family in Willenhall. In 1658, a soldier’s raid on the Leveson house resulted in the loss of some of the bones. Why only some are taken is a mystery; it suggests the bone collection had been split up again and were held in different reliquaries. The remaining bones and paperwork were added in 1665 to a new casket with a dome lid, covered in red velvet and with silver hinges and locks. By c.1667, they were at a house called Boscobel owned by the Fitzherbert’s family. In 1667, a visitor from St Omer, France, was given ‘a particle of St Chad’s relics.’[27] There is a reference that some bones were taken to Flanders in 1669, and by 1671 were in Liège. By the mid-18th century, they were in the hands of Basil Fitzherbert of Swynnerton Hall, near Stoke-on-Trent, for safe-keeping. Basil died in 1797 and in time the family moved back to Aston Hall, near Stone, and left the casket in its closed chapel. There is a story that a key was found in Swynnerton Hall with a label stating the relics of Chad were now at Aston Hall. On investigation the key opened a chest in which lay six bones. In 1837, the chapel was reopened by Benjamin Hulme and he discovered a casket underneath the altar containing six bones wrapped in silk with the paperwork stating what they were.

AI rendition of finding 6 bones in a casket in 1837.

 

The bones were taken to Oscott, Birmingham, for examination. After careful consideration a report was sent to Rome where Pope Gregory XVI confirmed that these were the bones of St Chad and instructed, they be enshrined in the new cathedral in Birmingham. They were placed in a shrine designed by Pugin above the High Altar on the day of consecration on 21 June 1841.[28] The high altar reliquary contained a box with five incomplete bones. A sixth bone was housed in a separate reliquary displayed on the altar of St Edward’s side-chapel.

In 1995, Archbishop Couve de Murville arranged for a fresh examination of the bones by the University of Oxford Archaeology Unit.[29] The report concluded that one bone was 8th or 9th-century, but the other five were all of the middle 7th-century. Cut marks on the bones were evident and there was much degradation. The viability of DNA analysis was explored, but considered impracticable. Two of the bones were left leg femurs. It was thought a left femur; two tibiae and part of a humerus belonged to one body. The church holds it is reasonably certain that at least one and possibly three of the bones were those of Chad. In 1997, a Decree required the bones should be kept together and venerated collectively. However, one bone in November 2022 was returned to the cathedral and is now kept in a reordered shrine.

New shrine of Chad

 

It has been claimed some more bones were held by the Jesuits (Society of Jesus) and eventually archived at Stonyhurst College, Clitheroe, Lancashire.

 

Why were Chad’s relics so important?

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 they had left behind.[30] The bones and grave provided a channel of communication between earth and heaven. The grave provided a source of spiritual power, such as healing infirmities.

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[1] W. Rodwell, ‘Revealing the history of the Cathedral. 4. Archaeology of the Nave Sanctuary’, (Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 67th Annual Report: 2004) 25.

[2] According to Bede, Book 4, Chapter 3 of his history book – Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, (731). Presumably the translation was around 30 years after burial which means at the end of the century.

[3] W. Rodwell (2004), See note 1. Three-quarters of the shrine tower was revealed.

[4] T, Ó Carragáin, 'The architectural setting of the cult of relics in early medieval Ireland', The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, (2003),150.

[5] D. Lepine, ‘Glorius Confessor: The cult of St Chad at Lichfield Cathedral during the Middle Ages’. SAHS transactions, (2021), 52, 31. Lepine conjectured “towards the end of the 10th century, for reasons not understood, the shrine over Chad’s grave was deliberately dismantled, buried and replaced by a new shrine on the same site, but if so, nothing is known about the replacement”

[6] Ibid.  Lepine (2021) wrote with the building of the current nave the shrine was incorporated into the present cathedral building. Unfortunately, he placed this change of the shrine in the time of Bishop Limesey (1085–1117) and this is without any evidence and contrary to the accepted dating of when the second cathedral was built. It also ignores the suggestion of the shrine being moved to a chapel behind the high altar

[7] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral. The Archaeological J. (1861), 18, 1–24. See also W. Rodwell, ‘The Development of the Choir’, in Maddison (ed.), Archaeology and Architecture at Lichfield, 17–35.

[8] See note 5. Lepine thought the light shone in the nave by Chad’s grave site.

[9] F. B, Bond, English Church Architecture, (1913), 83.

[10] Lepine (2021), 31. See note 4. He quotes the following shrines moved to be near the high altar, St Richard at Chichester in 1276, St Hugh at Lincoln in 1280, St William at York in 1284, St Alban at St Albans between 1302 and 1308, and St Erkenwald at St Paul’s between 1313 and 1326.

[11] A. R. Dufty, ‘Lichfield Cathedral’, Archaeology J. (1963), 120. 294 suggested the shrine might have been moved by Bishop Roger de Northburgh, 1322-58, to a sepulchre south of the high altar.

[12] Ibid, Lepine (2021) rightly noted the surviving written sources of the 11th to 13th-centuries and the account of this period in the cathedral chronicle make no mention of any translation or remodelling of Chad’s shrine in this period.

[13] H. E. Savage (ed) The Great Register of Lichfield Cathedral known as Magnum Registrum Album. (being SHC, 3rd series, 1924), no. 740.

[14] For example, the relocation is reminiscent of the earlier movement of Thomas Becket’s relics at Canterbury. Becket’s tomb was originally located in the eastern part of the western crypt, then as part of the rebuilding programme after a fire, it was relocated to the centre of the eastern crypt. Finally, his remains were moved to a new shrine in the Trinity Chapel on 7 July 1220.

[15] Bodl. MS. Ashmole 794, f. 173v.

[16] D. H. Farmer, ‘Ceadda (d. 672)’ ODNB, online ed. ref/odnb/4970 (accessed 18 November 2019); D. H. Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints (Oxford, 1979), 75. No source is clearly cited by Farmer but it seems to have come from R. Hyett Warner, Life and Legends of St Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (669–72) (London and Cambridge, n.d.), 129–30. Thanks to D. Lepine for this full reference. The division of Chad’s relics is also referenced in J. C. Cox, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, (1886), 6, part 2, appendix 1, 199.

[17] The Sacrist’s Roll refers to ‘quodam feretro portabili’ some portable feretrum (shrine). Ringing bells was mentioned in a statute of 1190. There are references to various bones of St Chad being at churches around the country.

[18] Lepine (2021) stated this was probably a gilt bust reliquary, described in the 1445 inventory as ‘gilded and well decorated with various precious stones’, including collars and other gold jewels weighing 256 ounces, and made up of two parts which could be divided. Accompanying it was a ‘precious’ mitre which was hung above it.

[19] B. Nilson, Cathedral shrines of Medieval England, (Woodbridge: 1998) 56.

[20] J. Hewitt, ‘The Keeper of St Chad’s Head Chapel in Lichfield Cathedral and other matters concerning that Minster in the Fifteenth century. Archaeology Journal, (1876), 33, 72-3.

[21] R. N. Swanson, ‘Extracts from a Fifteenth-Century Lichfield Chapter Act Book’, in A Medieval Miscellany (being SHC, 4th series, XX, 2004), 129–70 (at 142–3). The extracts were copied by Revd. E. Williams, a Shropshire antiquary.

[22] Often the story is dramatized with removal of the bones in the middle of the night.

[23] According to a document written by a Jesuit priest in mid-17th century.

[24] J. Hewitt, (1876), 33, 72–82.see note 20..

[25] It is said the two brothers handed bones to members of their family and in time they were lost.

[26] H. Foley, Records of the English province of the Society of Jesus: historic facts illustrative of the labours and sufferings of its members in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. (London: 1875) iii, 794-97.

[27] Ibid 797, “On a loose paper was written an attestation of Father Richard Foster, Rector of St. Omer’s, dated January 20, 1667, at St. Omer’s, stating that being a Visitor of the Residence of St. Chad he took out of the box of St. Chad’s relics, in the house of a certain noble Catholic, a particle of St. Chad’s relics, and gave it to the Father Director of the English Sodality, to be exposed to public veneration, if the Bishop of St. Omer should think proper.”

[28] This account of Chad’s relics was given by Hewitt, see note 20.

[29] A. Boyle, ‘The bones of the Anglo-Saxon bishop and saint, Chad’. Church Archaeology (1998), 2, 35–8

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