Eight myths

The cathedral history has been warped by plausible assertions made without empirical evidence. Repetition has then made them accepted. It is unfortunate, even embarrassing, the cathedral website persistently repeats some of these falsehoods.

 

1. It was King Oswiu of Northumbria who founded the site for a church at Lichfield.

Before the 20th century, the following was accepted. Oswy (now Oswiu), King of Northumberland (now Northumbria), about the year 656, having conquered and put to death Penda, King of the Mercians, converted his kingdom to Christianity, and established a bishopric in this place. Here he built a church, which was dedicated to St. Peter and St. Mary, and appointed Dwina (now Diuma), a Scotsman (now an Irishman), the first prelate of Mercia.^[1] This myth was so embedded it was written in Latin under the west window of the cathedral from the mid-17th century. Translated it stated, “Oswy is the founder, but the repairer was Offa. The fame of these Kings will be immortal. King Stephen, King Henry, Richard I and King John bestowed many gifts.”^[2]

 Statue of King Oswiu on the arch above the northwest door. He is holding treasure which could be for the churches he is said to have founded.

 

          Oswiu was the king of Northumbria, which included Yorkshire. Penda, King of Mercia, attacked and pillaged Northumbria, but on his return died, 654, possibly by drowning in a swollen Yorkshire River according to Bede. Stephen of Ripon in his biography of Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon described how the church at Lichfield (Licitfelda) was founded, and it does not include Oswiu. Bede does include Oswiu, but King Wulfhere and Archbishop Theodore were the chief instigators of the new church. Why would Oswiu commemorate the death of an enemy and then build a church at the centre of a huge, new diocese far from (400 miles) his northern diocese? He appointed the first bishop of Mercia, but there is no indication where Diuma had his mother church. Neither is there any evidence Kings Stephen, Henry I and II, Richard I and John did anything for the cathedral, except possibly paid for a chantry. Misinformation, or is it misrepresentation, is not new and the Victorians cared more for the romanticism of a story than its truth. The story being a pioneering Christian king, known to Iona and Lindisfarne, brought Christianity to the Mercian people rather than brought by missionary bishops invited by a new Christian Mercian king. 

          The remarkable feature of this myth is the way the first cathedral was founded (667-669) is clearly laid out in two reliable books, Bishop Wilfrid’s biography (712-13) and Bede’s book on English history (731) and was ignored.

2.     Bishop Headda built the first church in the year 700.

Little is known about Bishop Headda of Lichfield, c. 691 x 716–27. His length of episcopacy is uncertain and so is his origin. He had a close relationship with Bishop Wilfrid of Mercia, bishop of the Middle Angles, and it has been suggested it was Wilfrid who consecrated Headda.^[3] This relationship, senior Wilfrid and minor Headda, continued and lasted for eleven years, between 691/2 to 703.^[4] Strangely, Bede never mentioned Headda or his relationship with Wilfrid. The spurious date of 700^[5] is known from the 14th century and a text that is wholly unreliable. The text was in the Chronicon Lichfeldense, since lost, but copied in Warton’s, Anglia Sacra. Originally it was titled ‘The book of Alan de Assheborn, Vicar of Lichfield’ and dated in 1320s. Alan of Ashbourne wrote a tangled history full of fabled beliefs from c.1323 until his death in 1334.

Page 428 of Wharton’s Anglia Sacra. The translation is, ‘By this Bishop Hedda the church of Lichfield was built on the 2nd of January, 700, and the bones of Bishop Cedda (Chad) were transferred to the same.’           

 

This account conflicts with Bede who stated the grave of Chad was by the church of St Mary and on the site of the church of St Peter.^[6] Why 28 years later in 700 would another church be built? If the first cathedral church was built in 700, where did bishops Chad, 669–672, Winfrith, 672–c. 674 and Seaxwulf, c. 676–c. 691, have their church, as well as Headda in his early years of being a bishop? In the post, ‘Three conjectures on the early churches,’ it is conjectured the church supposedly built in the year 700 was in fact the shrine tower discovered in 2003 for housing Chad’s grave. The year 700 is 28 years after Chad’s burial and sufficient time for his bones to be recovered and placed in a reliquary shrine. A shrine tower, 7m x 7m, containing one grave is not (in today’s understanding) a church, but it might have been in the 14th century. Whatever the gloss given to this myth it still ignores the existence of the main church called St. Peter.

Headda with his supposed new church. The church resembles the early medieval church at Escomb, County Durham. The small statue in the north presbytery aisle demonstrates the myth clung to by the Victorians.

 3.     The cathedral was built cross-shaped for biblical symbolism. Its three spires represent the Trinity. The cathedral lies east-west and points to Jerusalem. The cathedral is straight.

The shape of the cathedral is a Greek cross (+) with small side arms, not the shape of a tau cross (T). This is because all four arms are buttresses for the massive central tower; it is an architectural necessity. The central spire is the tallest (78.65 m), the bell tower spire in the southwest corner is next in height (60 m) and the spire on the northwest tower is the lowest (59 m). This could be the trinity, but different heights provide a ranking which would be heresy. Three spires might also be because there were three towers, and other cathedrals had three towers, and some had spires; there was no fixed rule for cathedrals. The cathedral was built at the same time as the cathedrals of Wells and Salisbury and the Minster at York. All had three towers, though their spires varied. 

    The layout of the cathedral is nearer west-southwest to east-northeast; it is out of east-west alignment by 27^o. Also, there is a 2^o kink in the line of the cathedral. The building was subjected to the whims of kings, master-masons and architectural constraints and each added their own ideas.^[7] Why the cathedral is kinked is uncertain, though the commonest explanation is the builders had to follow the line of the bedrock.[8] It is quite possible that without accurate ways of measurement the builders did not get it right. Lichfield, like other cathedrals, is not perfect.

 

Misalignment of the cathedral.

Another kink in the north presbytery aisle. Some have speculated there was once a passageway or room attached to this north wall and its demolition left a kink in the wall.

 

4.     The cathedral was built in a Norman Gothic style

Soaring pinnacles, pointed arches, heavy, thick walls pierced by large open windows and arcades, flying buttresses, elaborate vaulted, stone roofs and windows subdivided by closely spaced parallel mullions (narrow vertical bars of stone) are some of the features associated with the Gothic fashion of architecture. Many have described it as Norman but they are wrong. Much of this architecture was inspired by Islamic architecture of the Middle East. It was borrowed by French stonemasons in the Ile de France, centred on Paris, from around1130 to 1170.^[9]  It did not originate in Normandy with Norman stonemasons. When it crossed the channel, it was known as ‘French work’ and never labelled Gothic until the 19th century and the Gothic revival in architecture around 1860.^[10] There are Norman cathedrals with round arches, small windows and very little in the form of pinnacles and pointed stonework, see Rochester Cathedral. There are many Early Medieval Churches with round, arched front doors. There was a transitional period in the 12th century with much crossover of styles. Indeed, much of the Gothic architecture was completed in the neo-Gothic revival by the Victorians and this is typified by Lichfield, Wells and Salisbury cathedrals.

     Lichfield Cathedral was built from the early 13th century (perhaps a start date of 1220) by Plantagenets, 1154‑1485, and postdated the Norman era by at least 50 years. There is no verifiable Norman stonework in Lichfield Cathedral. Misleading labelling originated from Thomas Rickman, 1776‑1841, who wrote a handbook[11] for clergy to help them to understand the ‘English Style’. He sub-divided it into Early English, Decorated English and Perpendicular English architecture. He then added an earlier fourth style following the Norman conquest, described it as Romanesque and called it Norman rather than English.[12] Coming after the long isolation of England during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars the name gave it a patriotic base, and has been difficult to change. [13]

  5.     The        Lindisfarne Gospels are earlier and superior to the       Chad Gospels

If you prefer Gospels that are colourful, have elaborate gold and silver artwork and are complete, then the Lindisfarne Gospels are the best. The Chad Gospels are incomplete having lost John and much of Luke, the artwork is simpler on eight surviving pages with no gold or silverwork (it might have been present originally but lost with use of the book), and handwriting differences indicating at least four scribes were involved. The Gospels contain excellent Chi-Rho and carpet pages, display interesting marginalia, have some text in runic-like form and have diminuendo for every one of the 20 lines on each of its 236 pages. Artwork is in pastel tones and replete with symbolic references. The two Gospels could not be more different, yet they have affinities.

Gospels written in different scriptoria are bound to differ and, of course, all are wonderful. The surprising aspect is the two gospels are similar in several ways. They were commissioned for Cuthbert and Chad. Both suffered an exodus away from the Viking onslaught. The layout of the carpet page is strikingly similar with the Lindisfarne having cormorant birds and the Chad crane-like birds. Similar styles with the carpet page, three incipit pages and the Chi-rho page with the equivalent in the Lindisfarne Gospels let Brown^[14] to write the artist must have studied the Lindisfarne book at first hand. It is better to see the two Gospels as comparable and written in the two powerful kingdoms of the 8th-century. Context suggests that the Chad Gospels are the earliest (Chad died in 672, Cuthbert in 687. The Lindisfarne Gospels were not finalised until 715-721). Dating any Gospels is not precise, but the simplicity of Chad’s Gospels compared with the intricacy of the Lindisfarne Gospels might be an indicator of its earlier provenance.

6.     The Gospels were removed by the Dean during the Civil War and were stored in London.

Another myth with the Gospels is they were returned to the cathedral after the Civil Wall in the bequest of Frances Devereux, Duchess of Somerset and wife of William Seymour. She gave to the cathedral around 400 books in 1674. The fact is the Gospels were returned by Precentor William Higgins. He wrote he had the gospels on 15 August 1658. Higgins had a home in Shropshire where he could have kept the book. Furthermore, he returned one book. Any mention of the existence of a second volume is misleading; it is more likely there once was an early Psalter.

 7.     The current rite of worship (Sunday, 10.30am) is centuries old.

 The authority of the Church of England is thought by many to be embedded in a very long tradition which grew from an ancient time. Consequently, the way of worship within the cathedral is supposed to have long roots from the far past. In fact, much of the ritual is no more than two centuries old and is essentially Victorian.

Following restoration from the Civil War, 1640s, most Anglicans agreed on the authority of the English Church, but there was a rapidly growing number of Dissenting Churches.  By the 1820s to 30s internal divisions were giving three distinct, even sharply different, approaches to Christian belief and worship, namely Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic and Liberal interpretations.^[15] In response to this division High Anglo-Catholic Churchmen began to resist further reform. A small group based in Oxford between the years 1833 and 1845 led a campaign, known as the Oxford Movement, to return to the theology and practice lost since reformation times, 1530s.^[16] Their philosophy was called Tractarianism after a series of publications called ‘Tracts for the Times’ published from 1833 to 1841. This included neo-Gothic aesthetics,^[17] revived colourful ceremony and intense sacramentalism. Essentially, it was the doctrine of the church standing alone with its own authority and having its own traditional practices unfettered by actions from the state. This doctrine derived from the idea priests connected in time to the Apostles by ordination through the laying on of hands known as ‘Apostolic Succession’. It meant the ordained ministry could not be beholden to civil or State authority. By 1845, the movement conflicted with the bishops and it splintered into factions leading some to join the Catholic Church. However, many Anglican priests were strongly asserting a doctrine of real presence and of eucharistic sacrifice. The eucharist was only valid when celebrated by a priest or bishop.^[18] For some Tractarians, life was in anticipation of death and judgment.^[19] Penance was important.

Tractarianism is thought by some to have led to Ritualism and Ceremony. The church service now adopted frequent procession, colourful dress, use of incense and above all the centrality of the eucharist in worship. Choral music in cathedrals and church bands in smaller churches became an intrinsic part of a service. Coloured altar frontals, candles on the altar and choristers in surplices appeared. A credence table with the chalices and receptacles of communion stood alongside the altar. The host, now wafer bread, was raised above the head in a prayer of consecration. The wine was mixed with water. A modern Anglo-Catholic liturgy and worship became widely accepted, especially in cathedrals.

This High Church Revival spurred new relations with the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, inspired artists, poets, writers and musicians,^[20] and new neo-Gothic architecture became the fashion with G. Gilbert Scott, his sons George and John and grandson Giles prominent especially at Lichfield. The connection between the Oxford Movement, Ritualism and neo-Gothic architecture was obvious.^[21] This Victorian movement is the background to current worship in the cathedral, but most, not all (such as saying the creed and some responses), is relatively recent.

A further change resulted from the first World War. A new cult of sacrificial death entered into churches. Language formerly restricted to Christian martyrs and Christ was extended to include ordinary people killed in the war. Loss was glorious, death for King and country was the highest sacrifice and all for the pursuit of peace. Demand for prayers for the dead was an annual event. Memorialisation took several forms. For veterans church became important.^[22]

 8.     Lichfield cathedral was a forgotten cathedral.

A recent archaeological account in a national journal described the cathedral as ‘forgotten.’^[23] It is true the Normans marginalised the cathedral and removed the bishop to first Chester and later Coventry. Furthermore. up to Reformation the cathedral was secondary in many ways to the larger monastic Coventry Cathedral. Then the cathedral Close became the centre of three ferocious sieges, 1643-1646, and could not at this time be described as forgotten. Between the Civil War destruction and the Victorian restoration, 1850s onwards, the cathedral was only an inner church in an outer, drab, much repaired frame of a building. Visitors to the nave would see a screened off choir, presbytery and altar, and hear a muffled sound of worship by clergy and known laypeople. However, describing the cathedral as forgotten is perverse because throughout these travails it remained a major centre for pilgrimage. Its origin, survival and Victorian recovery have depended on pilgrimage. For 12 centuries it has been firstly a major local and later a national pilgrimage centre with the relics and cult of Chad.^[24] It has also had national importance in being the ecclesiastical centre of King Offa’s large kingdom and has also received the rich refurbishment from Bishop Walter de Langton including, perhaps, the greatest saint’s shrine and best Lady Chapel in the country. Ownership of the Chad’s Gospels gives significance and now the finding of the (Lichfield) Staffordshire Hoard adds to its importance. The Lichfield Angel is the best kept early medieval stonework in Europe. Lichfield cathedral has been a place for mixed fortunes, but never forgotten.

 

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[1] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield, (London: 1806), 3.

[2] J. Jackson, History of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield. (London: 1805). 110.

[3] 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.

[4] 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.

[5] This dating appeared in the ‘Lichfield Chronicle,’ British Library MS Cotton Cleopatra D IX. It was later published in H. Wharton, Anglia Sacra, Volume 1. (London, 1691), 428. The source and detail for this date, January 700, and construction of a church are unknown. Sargent suggested St Peter’s church can be plausibly connected with a church built by Bishop Headda, see A. Sargent, Lichfield and the Lands of St Chad: creating community in Early Medieval Mercia (Hatfield: 2020), 53. If so, the church could have been built from the start of Headda’s episcopate, namely 691 onwards.

[6] See the post, ‘A sacred layout for the first cathedral.’

[7] See the post, ‘Building a cathedral.’

[8] A. Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England’, (London and New York: 1967 and 1986), 191, wrote ‘Lichfield Cathedral is built on a bed of sandstone which veers to the northeast.’

[9] Strangely, not in Scotland or Wales. Perhaps, the greatest example was the royal chapel of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. There were rivals in other parts of Europe; the cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo in Spain, the cathedral of Strasbourg near the French border with Germany and the cathedral of Cologne when it was finally completed.

[10] See the post ‘Gothic Cathedral’.

[11] T. Rickman, (1819) Attempt to discriminate the styles of English Architecture. (Cambridge: 2014).

[12] M. J. Lewis, The Gothic Revival, (London: 2002), 48.

[13] Ibid. 49.

[14] M. P. Brown, ‘The Lichfield/Llandeilo Gospels reinterpreted’. In R. Kennedy and S. Meecham-Jones (eds) Authority and Subjugation in writing of Medieval Wales. (New York: 2008), 57–70.

[15] Ibid. 237.

[16] Ibid. 239. The movement included John Henry Newman, John Keble, Edward Pusey and Richard Hurrell Froude.

[17] See the post ‘Gothic Cathedral’.

[18] Ibid. 241. With great emphasis on the eucharist came new forms of clerical dress including a white collar, black cassock, coloured vestments and a revived practice of personal confession and sacramental absolution.

[19] Ibid 246.

[20] Ibid. 255.

[21] M. J. Lewis. The Gothic Revival. (London: 2002).

[22] J. Morris, A People’s Church. A history of the Church of England. (London: 2022), 340.

[23] W. Rodwell, The forgotten cathedral. Current Archaeology, (2006), Vol. XVIII No. 1(205), 9--17.

[24] See the post, ‘Pilgrimage defines the cathedral’.

 

West front including the 'singing windows'

 Summary. The west front has a resemblance to the west fronts of Wells and Salisbury cathedral, but the front is now Victorian Gothic and an eclectic mix of statues. The front has had multiple renovations, especially after significant damage in the Civil War. The original part of the west door, lower statues, possible slit windows for choristers and spires earn admiration and awe.

    Visitors to the cathedral are often surprised by the west front. Twin towers,[1] tall spires, a flat, symmetrical elevation, numerous aligned statues and the great west window combine to give an unusual welcome.[2] It is an ‘architectural screen’ similar to the cathedral façades of Wells and Salisbury.[3] Five layers of statues, 113 in total (153 around the whole cathedral), two pointed spires with many pinnacles encourage the viewer to look to the heavens; the Gothic objective. The original frontage was probably more spectacular with gilded statues, Cobb thought there were about a hundred figures all gilded,[4]  and stonework painted red and green. Erdeswicke in the 16th-century described “a great number of tabernacles containing statues of prophets, apostles, kings of Judah and divers’ other kings of this land.” The original top statue was Christ seated.[5] The story of a seated Christ statue, 2.1 m (7 feet) high and 13th-century, found at Swynnerton Church as being the lost statue is plausible, but unlikely.[6] Willis gave an approximate date for the front as c. 1275,[7] but this was probably the start of construction and it took several decades for completion.

 

W. Hollar’s etching, early 16th-century. Note how all the niches are filled with statues. This is the earliest known image of the west front. Hollar's engravings were presented by Ashmole to Fuller's "Church History," published in 1655. Thanks to Univ. of Toronto Libraries.

 

Almost the entire front of the cathedral was destroyed in the Civil War; mostly in the 1646 heavy bombardment. There was a partial restoration completed by 1666, further reordering in 1749[8], twice in the19th[9] and more work in the 20th centuries; all of which means little is original. The statues are the third set, very Victorian in composition, and undoubtedly different from the original decoration.[10] The top statue of Charles II, added with post-Civil War restoration, was removed between 1877–84 and by 1977 stored forlornly by the South Transept door.

 

Charles II

 

                                             West front showing Charles II statue and a mistaken hood stone for a cathedra.[11]

West front post-Civil War. S. Shaw, The history and antiquities of Staffordshire, Volume 1. (London: 1798) who copied from Gale, 1720.

          Much has been written on Joseph Potter’s addition of stucco[12] to the eroding statues on the west front, 1820–2, and then the removal of the grey figures begun by G. Gilbert Scott and finished by his son, J. Oldrid Scott, 1877–84. Almost everyone expressed disdain[13] at the early restoration and later gave praise for the current, reddish, sandstone, figures. Many of the new statues were copied from sepia drawings taken before the 1820–2 restoration,[14] but there is an obvious Victorian bias regarding which figures were included and how they were portrayed. The apostles in the lowest tier sculpted by Mary Grant are considered the finest. Other figures were sculpted by Gilbert Seale and Walter Rowlands Ingram of London and 63 were executed by Robert Bridgeman of Lichfield. The figure (probably just the head) of Queen Victoria, was sculpted by her daughter Princess Louise and added in 1885.[15] Princess Victoria visited Lichfield in 1832. The doorways had bushy foliage added around the arches in the early 19th-century and this was removed by Scott and replaced with small statues. The smaller doors were studded and the studs replaced with shaped, wrought-iron decoration. The large central doors had ironwork at the bottom replaced. Hinges and ironwork could be late-13th century and by Thomas Leighton an ironsmith.

 

West Front, c. 1845. Old statues have been removed and the old west window has still to be replaced. C. Knight, Old England: A Pictorial Museum of Regal, Ecclesiastical, Baronial, Municipal, And Popular Antiquities. 2 Volumes. (London: 1845). p252.

 

Great west window being replaced in 1869. Like all the cathedral windows after the Civil War it contained various effigies and coats of arms of bishops and other eminent men.[16] The west window had the arms of England and the Earl of Chester and Clare. The new window was furnished by Clayton and Bell and consisted of six lights filled with figures of the Archangel Gabriel, St. Joseph, the Virgin and Child, and the Three Magi; under which respectively are scenes representing the Annunciation, the Angel appearing to St. Joseph, the Birth, with angels adoring; the Journey of the Magi, the Magi before Herod, and the Flight into Egypt. It is sometimes referred as the ‘Nativity Window’. John B. Stone, A history of Lichfield Cathedral (London: 1870).

 

West Front restoration in the early 1880s. The south side and tower have been finished.

                                              West front post-Victorian Reordering.

Four statues on the top left are 14th-century and believed to be original. Three are shown. They could have been queens of the kings involved in the early construction of the cathedral (Edward I, Henry III and Richard II are possibilities). Other cathedrals with kings on the front include Canterbury, Exeter, Lincoln and York.

 

 

For a detailed exposition with images of the 113 statues see the website  https://statues.vanderkrogt.net/object.php?webpage=ST&record=gbwm025

The current eclectic mix of statues contains King Richard II, reigning 1367–1400, (immediately left of Chad) and thus well after the front had been completed.

 

Confusion on the Early Medieval (Anglo-Saxon) kings to the right of Chad.

There was much uncertainty on who was being replaced from the second set of statues and there was also a deep Victorian bias. The line is: Peada, 655‑6, Wulfhere, 658-75, Æthelred, 675-704, Offa, 757-96, Egbert, king of Wessex, 802-39,

Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, 839-58, Æthelberht, king of Wessex, 860-65, Æthelred, king of Wessex, 865-71, Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, 871-86 and then king of the Anglo-Saxons to 899, Edgar the Peaceful, 959-75, Cnut 1016-35,

Edward the Confessor, 1042-66. Including the Wessex line of kings, 839‑886 is inexplicable, unless it was believed Æthelwulf’s father, king Ecgberht of Wessex, defeated and completely subdued the Mercians in battle in 825. If so, why is Ecgberht not figured. Why is Æthelstan, king of all Britain (rex totius Britanniae), 924‑39, missing? Woodhouse thought the figures removed in 1749 might have included Æthelstan.[17] There is a case for king Coelwulf II, 874‑880s, who consolidated the Mercians after defeat by the Vikings (Danes), and even Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians, c. 881‑911 who maintained the sub-kingdom and prepared the way for Æthelstan. The downgrading of Æthelstan and the lauding of his grandfather Alfred is a bias from medieval times repeated by many Victorian narratives.[18] 

           Work in 1878 included the lowering of the ground across the whole of the front of the cathedral. At one time there were railings across the front of the cathedral. Also, there has been an entire restoration of the southwest tower, exclusive of the sculpture.[19] Another bout of conservation is imminent.

 

Conjecture on Great Window extending above the stone vault

The top of the Great West window cannot be seen from the inside of the cathedral; the stone vault roof cuts off the top of the window. This has led to much speculation on whether the stone roof was added later and whether originally the window was so large. The plausible view is the window was built to be admired from the outside and being foreshortened internally was considered not a problem.

 

‘Singing Windows’

The west fronts of Wells, Salisbury and Lichfield Cathedrals[20] have statues with windows behind them. Behind these openings are passageways in which it is contended choristers, and maybe trumpeters, sang and played so that worshippers outside could hear and be welcomed on Palm Sunday.

 

St Chad with slit windows each side.

 

Gallery with ten slit windows, each now with glass.

 

Wells has four groups of three round holes plus two narrow slits in the middle. All are now glazed.

 

Salisbury has nine small quatrefoil windows almost hidden behind the sculptures. All have been filled in with cement.

 

Ascending spiral staircases in the west towers lead to a doorway below the level of the triforium. This opens with steps leading down into a passageway built into the wall, 1.8 m high (6 feet) and 0.6 m wide (2 feet). The chamber is lit by ten slit windows each 500 mm high (20 inches) and 75 mm wide (3 inches). Higher up the staircases, above the triforium and level with the sill of the west window, is a second passageway.[21] Having two passageways, also seen at Wells and possibly at one time at Salisbury, cannot be explained.

          The lower passageway has been equated with the ‘trumpet openings’ at Wells Cathedral and thought to be for broadcasting responses and perhaps music outwards to processing worshippers standing below on Palm Sunday. It is a re-enactment of the entry into Jerusalem.[22] The liturgy[23] specified seven choristers were to be ‘elevated’ and to sing ‘Gloria, laus, et honor’[24] as the congregation approached the west front of the cathedral, having processed both inside and around the outside of the cathedral taking in the cloister and the lay cemetery.

The company of angels is praising you on high; and we with all creation in chorus make reply. The people of the Hebrews with palms before you went; our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.   ‘All Glory Laud and Honour’

 

Conjecture on the existence of ‘singing windows.’

At York, the same liturgy was used with the choristers elevated on a temporary platform raised on the front of the Minster.[25] At Wells the openings are at different heights from the floor suggesting it accommodated two heights of choristers. The hidden voices would appear as if coming from the angels sculptured on the front. At Salisbury there was an elaborate procession.[26] Passages, both internal and external, exist elsewhere,[27] but the majority, especially northern churches, do not appear to be churches that used the Sarum liturgy prepared around 1210. Consequently, singing from the gallery has been questioned.[28] Furthermore, the procession relied on the particular layout of the cathedral and since this varied, it cannot be assumed the procession stopped at the west door at the right time in the Missal. Mahrt thought the opposite and worked out the Gloria would be sung at Wells just as the procession reached the west door.[29] Another objection is it would have made the procession ‘dither under the west front.’[30] Finally, the construction of a passageway and openings for one service seems extravagant. Especially since the voices would sound muffled and echoey when compared with being in an open space. If singing windows are mythical, it raises the question why build two passageways with openings? If they are for some kind of maintenance, why make them so small? Explaining the purpose and function of the singing windows at Lichfield depends on linking them with the Sarum liturgy used at Wells and Salisbury Cathedrals. If it was used, it strongly suggests the original façade of the west front, that is pre-Civil War, had angels in the arcades where the slit windows occur. The procession was entering the New Jerusalem with heavenly angels singing. It also links with Chad’s death when ‘the song of joyful voices was heard descending from heaven’[31] and that opens a new context for the use of the windows on March 2 and a figure of ascendent Chad surrounded by singing angels.

 

Conjecture on a date for an earlier lower west front

Rodwell, 1989, examined the stonework below the internal lower passage and conjectured it was Romanesque and earlier than the 1320s.[32] Moulding profiles and mason’s marks (over 200 have been recognised in the cathedral) led him to believe a date of 1220‑30 was more appropriate. It might also explain the two buttress foundations under the pavement and either side of the central door. If true, it means an earlier nave front was contemporary with that at Wells cathedral and earlier than Salisbury. It also gives doubt to the dates of the nave.

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[1] There are differences between the towers which has led to the speculation they were built at different times. It is more likely they were built by different masons and the lower ground on the south side was a complication. Furthermore, the south tower held the heavy bells and clock. The south side spire is a little taller than the north side spire. The first recorded bell in the southwest tower was in 1477. This ‘Jesus Bell’ was destroyed in the Civil War and removed in 1653. It was replaced after the War, but had to be recast again in 1688.

[2] J. Leland, 1540s, wrote ‘the glory of the church is the work of the west end which is exceedingly costly and fayre’. T. Fuller, Church History of Britain. Vol. 1. (London: 1842), Book 4, 499, wrote ‘the west front is a stately fabric adorned with exquisite imagery’.

[3] J. P. McAleer, The west front of Lichfield Cathedral. A hidden liturgical function. 52nd Friends Annual Report held in cathedral library. (1989), 26–9. There are similarities between the southwest spire of Lichfield Cathedral with the central spire at Salisbury Cathedral.

[4] G. Cobb, English Cathedrals: the forgotten centuries. Restoration and change from 1530 to the present day. (London: 1981), 140.

[5][5] Noted from Hollar’s etching, early 17th-century, appearing in Thomas Fuller’s book, Church history of Britain. Volume 1. (London: 1842).

[6] It depends on a Royalist climbing the front and retrieving a very heavy statue in the middle of a siege. That assumes it avoided damage from cannon and musket and could be taken north without discovery. In contrast the statue is in a stone similar to that used for the cathedral and it has red paint on the sleeve; the cathedral was painted in red and green.

[7] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’. The Archaeological Journal, (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.

[8] Several statues in a poor state were removed. R. J. King, Handbook to the cathedrals of England. (London: 1864), 271, claimed most of the statues were taken down.

[9] 1820–22 and 1877–84.

[10] Apart from four (two and six are quoted elsewhere) at the top left-hand corner where cannon and musket appear not to have reached out of a total of 113 now present. Wells Cathedral has 297.

[11] J. Gould, ‘Saxon cathedral or 17th-century niche in Lichfield Cathedral?’ South Staffordshire Archaeological and Historical Society transactions for 1976–7. (1976) 18, 69–72.

[12] A proprietary formula labelled ‘Roman Cement’ which was very hard wearing, had low shrinkage, but was brittle. Roman Stucco is made with a natural cement by burning limestone in a traditional kiln. 

[13] A. W. Pugin wrote a censorious letter in 1834 describing brown, (grey?) cracked cement and heads devoid of expression. The letter was published by B. Ferrey, Recollections of A. W. Pugin and his father Augustus Pugin. (1861), 85–6.

[14] R. Prentis, The restoration of the west front, 1877–1884. Unpub. article in Cathedral Library (2007), 11.

[15] Possibly Chad with a resemblance to a previous archbishop. 

                 

[16] T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield. (London: 1806), 51.

[17] J. C. Woodhouse, A short account of Lichfield Cathedral. (London: 1885), 38_­‑42 (8th ed.)

[18] S. Foote, Æthelstan. (New Haven and London: 2011), 234‑42.

[19] G. H. Holderness, ‘The cathedral a hundred years ago.’ (1977). Unpub. article in cathedral library.

[20] These are the only medieval cathedrals without any Norman architecture. Lichfield differed from the other two in having its frontal twin towers in line with the nave aisles so the west half of the cathedral is a rectangle. At Wells and Salisbury, the towers project out on the sides of the west end.

[21] J. P. McAleer, The West Front of Lichfield Cathedral: A hidden liturgical function. Friends of Lichfield Cathedral 52 Annual Report. (1989), 26–9.

[22] P. Z. Blum, ‘Liturgical influences on the design of the West End at Wells and Salisbury’. Gesta (1986), 25, 1, 145–150.

[23] It was a reformed liturgy first used at Sarum cathedral during Bishop Osmund's prelacy. 1087-1099. It was commonly used throughout southern England and most likely included Lichfield.

[24] It is possibly a 9th-century hymn and a modern translation is the hymn ‘All Glory, Laud and Honour’. One distinctive feature of Lent in the medieval church was the refrain from singing ‘Alleluia’ known as ‘locking the Alleluia’ as a mark of deepening the solemnity of Lent. Therefore, singing this hymn on Palm Sunday was marking the beginning of Easter and its celebration. This ceremony might have originated in Early Medieval times.

[25] H. Gittos and S. Hamilton (eds) Understanding Medieval Liturgy. Essays in interpretation. (London and New York: 2017), 228.

[26] According to N. Orme, Going to church in Medieval England, (New Haven and London: 2022), 274–5. The procession started in the choir with the carried cross, candle holders, incense bearer, someone holding the relics, the holy sacrament inside a pyx, clerks with palm branches, clergy and then the laity. They left the church, and in the churchyard heard the Gospel of Luke describing Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. They re-entered the cathedral with the choristers singing Gloria, laus, et honor. In a description of the procession, 1542, it stated the Gospel was read beside a Palm Cross. After the hymn was sung the cathedral doors were opened only when the priest banged on the door with the foot of the processional cross. Another account has people being given palms which were taken home and attached to their house-door believing this would drive away the Devil.

[27] Examples include Lindisfarne Priory, Rochester, Colchester, Arbroath, Holyrood, St Andrew, Kelso and Elgin. See note 2. Kilkenny has been since added.

[28] C. Hohler, The Palm Sunday procession and the west front of Salisbury Cathedral. Private letter written early 1990s and considered by M. S. Andås, Ø. Ekroll, A. Haug and N. Holger (eds.), ‘Architectural and ritual constructions. The Medieval Cathedral of Trondheim in a European Context’. Ritus et Artes (Turnout, Brepols: 2007), 3, 279–284.

[29] W. P. Mahrt, Review of Façade as Spectacle: Ritual and ideology at Wells Cathedral. (Leiden and Boston: 2004).

[30] M. Spurrell, ‘The procession of Palms and west-front galleries’, The Downside Review. (2001), 415, 136–7.

[31] Historia Ecclesiastica Book 4, chapter 3. J. McClure and R. Collins, Bede: The ecclesiastical history of the English People. (Oxford: 2008), 176.

[32] W, Rodwell, ‘Lichfield cathedral. Notes on the gallery and other features at the west end of the nave.’ (1989), Unpub. article in the cathedral library.