Summary. Many explanations for the origin of Lichfield’s name have been suggested. The site of the 7th-century church-cathedral was named Licitfelda. In the 11th-century, the name began to change and by the 12th century the prefix Lich appeared. Lichfield took until the 17th-century to became the established name.
Two antiquarian papers, claimed the name of Lichfield came from a
Celtic-Anglo-Saxon hybrid with Lich derived from the Celtic word Luitcoit meaning grey wood. The colour
indicating the predominant species, or perhaps describing lichen-covered trees[1]. The
University of Nottingham ‘Key to English Place Names’ described Lichfield as a
grey wood using lēto as a British
prefix for grey and cē,d as primitive
Welsh for forest or wood coming together to give Lyccid. Six references were given[2]. A
grey wood description could also be applied to the Roman settlement Letocetum
(Wall).[3] However,
Lichfield could not have been a Welsh settlement in the mid-seventh century[4]. It is
possible this etymological explanation applied to a settlement name before the
seventh century, but such a settlement has not been established. Johnson
conjectured whether Lichfield was a toponym that began as an area-name and
became a later settlement-name.[5]
Other antiquarians emphasised the
watery nature of the area; Litchfield in 1776 was described as built in
the middle of a bog. [6] They
connected Lich to the Old English words lǽce meaning leech,
lecce meaning water and lacu indicating a pool, pond or lake.[7]
Clearly the conventional understanding of the original name is speculative and
questionable. The many derivations have been reviewed by Greenslade.[8]
The alternative explanation is the Mercian King Wulfhere with Bishop
Wilfrid of Ripon and the monk- scribe called Bede used an adjective to describe
the status of the early Christian Church site. This was Licitfelda, later
Licetfelda. Licit, later Licet, meant approval for
a Christian site in a field to build a church-cathedral. See the post, ‘Wulfhere and Wilfrid, and later Bede, name Lichfield,’ for a full reasoning.
Consequently, from the 7th to the
11th-century Licetfelda was Lichfield’s name. In the 1086 Domesday Book,
Lichfield was spelt Lecefelle, Licefelle and Licefeld,[9] and
clearly the name was going through some kind of recasting. During the next century
the name morphed from Licet or Licit to became Lich, though
exactly when the presumably soft-sounding Licet became the
harsher Lich is uncertain.[10]
In William of Malmesbury’s ‘Gesta Pontificum Anglorum,’ written early in
the 12th-century it was spelt Lichefeld (Lichefeldensis). Matthew
Paris, c. 1200–1259, a chronicler for St Albans Abbey wrote in a margin
of his copy of the ‘Book of St Albans’ the name of Lichefeld and Lichfeld.[11] He added, this meant the death of a
thousand Christians was located at Lichfield. Lichfield was interpreted
as the site of a field of corpses.[12]
Thus Liche, meaning corpse, was now connected to a folklore story
of slaughtered Christians somewhere in the area, see the post, ‘Lichfield's
founding myth’.
Book of St Albans marginalia. Hoc apud Lichefeld evenit. Inde Lichfeld dicitur quasi campus cadaverum. Lich enim Anglice cadaver sive corpus mortui dicitur.
In the Takamiya MS 62 of Bede’s Historia
Ecclesiastica, dated 1375‑1400,[14]
the spellings of Lindfsi, Lindfelth and Lythfeld are handwritten in the
margin and this might still be a transitional time of spelling, or the writer
was uncertain of the name.
Marginalia in the Takamiya MS
It seems the uptake of Lich was
not universal and immediate. According to Duignan[15]
in the 12th-century, the variants of the name were Lechesfelde, Lichesfelde,
Lichefelde and Licheffeld. The royal clerks preferred Liche,
and the variants Lichesfeld and Licheffeld.[16]
A grant from King Richard I to Bishop Muschamp dated 1202 has Lichefeld.[17]
In the 13th-century it was Lychefelde and Lichefeld. A
cartulary of Tutbury Priory, 1253, has the name abbreviated to Lich. In
1301, five citizens gave some land to obtain rent and pay for maintenance of a
water conduit in Lychefeld. Throughout this time of spelling Lichfield
in various ways, its association with death and corpses persisted. In the
16th-century editions of Foxe’s ‘Book of Martyrs’ the spellings were Lychefield,
Lichefield and Lichfield. By the 17th and 18th-century the town’s
name was written Lichesfeld,[18]
Lichfeld,[19]
and Litchfield.[20],[21],[22] The
current spelling of the name was finally established in Samuel Johnson’s
dictionary, 1755. He defined Lichfield, as the field of the dead, a
city in Staffordshire, so named from martyred Christians.
City arms on c.1720 map showing martyred Christians.
City Seal dated 1688. Shows three slain kings. Thought to have been made around 1620.
Using Lich denoting death and
recasting an Early Medieval name seems odd, but the story of slaughtered
Christians and their burial somewhere in Lichfield was fervently believed for
at least five medieval centuries. Some must have reasoned a gory ‘founding
myth’ attracted visitors or raised sympathy for the resident Christians? Did
martyrdom chime with outbreaks of the plague, loss from the great 1291 town fire,
or the slaughter in the Civil War? Could be the early origin of the name and
association with disliked bishops was a preferred re-interpretation by the dissident
townspeople. Maybe it was another example of removing Saxon tropes and adding
Norman. It is even possible the change from written Latin to spoken Middle
English caused a poor translation and the recast name simply evolved. Whatever
the mechanism it is clear the name has been recast, perhaps several times.
Summary of evolution of name
[1]
D. Horovitz, D. A survey and analysis of the place names of Staffordshire. Unpub.
PH.D. thesis University of Nottingham, (2003), 27. A grey-brown wood was first
suggested by A. L. F. Rivet and C. Smith, The place-names of Roman Britain (Princeton:
1979), 386–387.
[2]
V. Watts, Cambridge dictionary of English place-names (Cambridge: 2007), 372; R. Coates, A. Breeze and D. Horovitz, Celtic
voices. English places: Studies of the Celtic impact on place names in England (
Donington: 2000), 335; E. Ekwall, The concise Oxford dictionary of
English place-names (Oxford: 1960), 297: K. Cameron, A dictionary of Lincolnshire
place-names (Nottingham: English place-name Society:1998), 223, 275: A. D. Mills,
A dictionary of English place-names (Oxford: 1991), 298 and M. Gelling, Signposts
to the past (Bognor Regis: 2010), 57, 100–1.
[3]
J. Gould, 'Caer Lwytgoed: its significance in early medieval documents', Transactions
of South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society, 1991-1992, (1993),
33, 7–8.
[4]
W. H. Duignan, Notes on Staffordshire Place Names (Oxford: 1902).
[5]
D. Johnson, 'Lichfield and St Amphibalus: the story of a legend', South
Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society Transactions 1986--1987,
(1988), XXVIII,1.
[6]
W. Stukeley, W, Itinerarium Curiosum: or an account of the antiquities and
remarkable curiosities in nature and art observed in travels through Great
Britain (London: 1776), 61.
[7]
T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield (London:
1806), 2.
[8]
M. W. Greenslade (ed.), 'Lichfield: The place and street names, population and
boundaries ', in A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14,
Lichfield, (London, 1990), 37-42.
[9]
Folio 247r Domesday Book, National Archives reference E 31/2/2/1932.
[10]
D. Johnson, (1988), 28, 1. See note 5. Johnson stated, “Antiquarian speculation
on the meaning of the name may even have been partly responsible for the
emergence in the 12th-century of the modern spelling of the name.”
[11]
Matthew's interest in etymologies occurs on fol. 25v, digital image 57, of the
Book of St Albans in the library of Trinity College Dublin.
[12]
See note 5, D. Johnson (1988),5.
[13]
Ibid D. Johnson, (1988), 28, 6. The fragment was
first printed, apparently from the original MS., by Sir William Dugdale,
Monasticon Anglicanum, iii (1673 ed.), 219. The transcript contains
demonstrable errors elsewhere and is evidently not by Dugdale.
[14]
Kept in the Beinicke Library, Yale University. The name is on 48r page, digital
image 99.
[15]
W. H. Duignan, (1902), 91. See note 4.
[16]
Ibid D. Johnson (1988), 2. See note 5.
[17]
Magnum Registrum Album 223.
[18]
H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra. Volume 1 (London: 1691).
[19]
R. Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire (Oxford: 1686)
[20]
W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (1673). Volume 6, part 3, 1238. See
note 13.
[21]
W. Stukeley, (1776), see note 6.
[22]
T. Cox, Survey of the ancient and present state of Great Britain. (London:
1738).