Kings of Lichfield

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Borrowcop Gazebo
Down yon meridian fields afar
When Mercia led her chiefs to war,
Fell in one hour three monarchs brave,
And Lichfield’s bower protects their grave.
Her stately spires amidst the skies
Ting’d by the orient sun arise,
With golden vanes invite the gale,—
Triumphant ladies of the vale!
Extract from Needwood Forest by Francis Noel Clark Monday

Over the centuries, there has been a succession of structures on Borrowcop Hill.  There’s the (possible) Saxon Fort mentioned in my Lichfield Castle post; something called the Temple in the late 1600s; an arbour in the 1720s replaced by a summerhouse and finally the Gazebo that is still there today.  It was also the site of beacons, lit to warn of invasions. It’s hardly surprising given the views.

Lichfield tradition says Borrowcop is the final resting place of three Christian Kings, slain together with their outclassed army by the Romans in the time of the heathen Emperor Diocletian (around 288AD).  In John Jackson’s version of the legend, the bodies of the Kings were, “burnt and heaped upon a hill, according to the ancient custom of burial after a battle, and covered with a mound of earth, or tumulus, where, probably if dug into, the urns and ashes will be still discovered”.  However, a series of explorations have found no evidence of burials, although an anonymous source from 1819 is recorded as saying Erasmus Darwin recovered burnt fragments of bone from the site.
The legend gave rise to the theory that Lichfield meant ‘Field of the Dead’.  Perhaps being far more evocative than the currently accepted explanation for the name of ‘common pasture beside grey wood’, the ‘Field of the Dead’ theory still persists today.
Lichfield was incorporated by the protestant King Edward VI in 1548.  The following year, the city corporation chose to depict the ‘Martyrs’ legend on the city seal.  It’s been suggested that the corporation was keen to disassociate Lichfield from the Catholic connotations of St Chad. (The Victoria County History tells us that a previous seal is believed to have been a Bishop (presumably St Chad), with two angels either side and the Cathedral in the background).
You can still find the ‘Three Kings’ seal on the St John St railway bridge.  The legend is also portrayed on the the Martyrs Plaque, which originally adorned the front of the old Guildhall in 1707. The plaque was moved to a rockery in Beacon Park after the Guildhall’s victorian restoration.  After years of decay, the plaque was restored in 2010 and now stands in the Rose Gardens in Beacon Park.
St John’s railway bridge
Martyrs Plaque, Beacon Park (from Wikipedia)

 


Sources:
History of the City & Cathedral of Lichfield by John Jackson
English Heritage Past Scape
‘Lichfield: Town government’, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990)Public Sculpture of Staffordshire & the Black Country by George Thomas Noszlopy, Fiona Waterhouse

South Staffordshire Archaeological & History Society Transactions

Woe unto the bloody City of Lichfield

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Plaque on St Marys Church. Lichfield Market Square

 

You may have guessed from the fact that George Fox ‘stood without shoes on a market day in this Market Place and denounced the City of Lichfield’, that his visit was a little out of the ordinary! Here is the full story, based on the founder of the Quaker’s own version events.(1)

Following his release from Derby Gaol, Fox was walking with friends when he noticed the three spires of Lichfield Cathedral in the distance.Leaving his companions behind, he headed towards the City.When he was within a mile of Lichfield, he was commanded by God to remove his shoes.Leaving the footwear with some startled shepherds, he carried on into the City, where God once again spoke to him, telling him to “Cry woe unto the bloody City of Lichfield”. Fox made his way into the bustling Market Place, where he did exactly that.He continued to wander the streets of Lichfield, crying out the phrase over and over again.Whilst doing this, Fox had a vision that there was a channel of blood running through the streets and the market place appeared to him like a pool of blood.Eventually, he returned to the shepherds for his shoes, but found that the fire of the Lord was still in his feet where it remained until he washed them.

Spence, Robert 1871-1964.
“Woe to the Bloody City of Lichfield”
From Lichfield District Council collection


The reaction of the people of Lichfield is interesting. Rather than be frightened or hostile towards this strange man ranting in their midst, they seem to have been concerned.Fox says “friendly people came to me and said, ‘Alack George, where are thy shoes?'”. It’s not recorded but they may have asked if he’d like a nice cup of tea too!

Some people believe that Fox’s behaviour was caused by a fragile mental state, having been recently released from prison. However, Charles Haddon Spurgeon had a theory that it was some kind of PR stunt – no one would take notice of yet another dull sermon, but few could fail to ignore the dramatic ravings of a barefooted man in the snowy market place. Explaining the events of that day, Fox claimed that God had wished him to preserve the memory of the thousand Christian Martyrs slaughtered by the Romans at Lichfield in the time of the Emperor Diocletian. It had been their blood that had filled the streets and market place during his vision.

It’s been suggested that the martyrs Fox actually had in mind were those burnt in the Market Place for heresy.(2) Why would he claim otherwise? Perhaps, on reflection, he thought better of associating himself so publicly with heretics, having been so recently imprisoned for the same crime.

George Fox may have made a lasting impression in Lichfield, but surely not in the way he’d have hoped.  He founded the Society of Friends the following year, but according to a talk given by one of the Friends in Lichfield Cathedral in 1996, Quaker meetings scarcely feature in Lichfield history.(3)

Sources:

1Autobiography of George Fox
2.Classic Encylopedia (based on the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica 1911)
3.Talk in Lichfield Cathedral by Lichfield Friend Anthony Wilson

One Sweet Apple…..

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On my way up to Borrowcop Hill,  a house name jumped out at me  – Sweet Apple Cottage. Unlike its neighbours, it made no obvious allusion to its surroundings. It’s here on Borrowcop Lane.

Sweet Apple Cottage, Borrowcop Lane

The name is on the kind of plaque you often see on similar Victorian houses, together with the date of 1883, so I don’t think it’s a case of more recent owners just choosing a quaint name.
My first thoughts were perhaps it referenced an orchard.  However, a search on google has turned up one possible clue.  A place called Sweet Apple Court elsewhere in the country was named after a man called Sweetapple.  It’s apparently a Saxon surname, one that I’d never heard of until today.  So was there a Sweetapple in Lichfield that gave his unusual name to this house?  Or is there another explanation?

Pinfolds in Lichfield

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Last night on Twitter, I was complaining about slugs snacking on my tomato plants. Down at the allotments, we are all in competition with rabbits, pigeons and field mice as to who gets to the fruit and veg first. Thankfully, I do not also have to contend with cattle, as people in years gone by did! Stray animals were a serious threat to food production and so pinfolds and pounds were erected, where the rogue livestock could be impounded. The animals would be released to their owners on payment of a fine, although there were stories of animals mysteriously disappearing from the pounds overnight….!  In England in Particular’s section on pinfolds, they liken the animals to today’s wrongly parked cars! (1)

Here in Lichfield in the 1500s, the person responsible for rounding up and impounding the animals was the ‘Warden of the Fields’. By the mid 1600s, the job title had changed to ‘Pinner’. Two Pinners were elected in Lichfield, with one taking responsibility for St Chad’s parish and the other St Michael’s parish. They were appointed at the ancient manorial court of St George,  which still takes place every year.

We are lucky to have a well preserved pinfold here in Lichfield, located at Pinfold Road (where else?), where Beacon St becomes the Stafford Rd. The listed building description says the present structure dates to the 18th century, but that it has earlier origins. According to the County History, there was an earlier pinfold in Beacon Street by 1645, near the corner of the later Anson Avenue.  This was removed in 1809 and replaced by the Stafford Rd pinfold.

The County History also says that another pinfold stood at Greenhill in 1498 and it is thought it was relocated in the early 19th century to the junction of Broad Lane and Boley Lane. I have had a look at www.old-maps.co.uk and the Boley pinfold can be seen on a 1955 map of Lichfield, but has disappeared by 1966.  Sadly, no trace of it exists. The Greenhill pinfold can still be seen on John Snape’s 1781 plan of Lichfield .

 

The terms pounds and pinfolds both seem to be used interchangeably in Lichfield, although pounds is the more common of the two. A fantastic website called Pounds and Pinfolds has been set up, the intention of which “is to raise awareness of these modest buildings by identifying all of the surviving examples, recording their location and condition and encouraging their restoration or preservation”. Our pinfold doesn’t feature on the National Register that the website is compiling, so I’m sending details over to them for inclusion.

 
This little fellow must have been rounded up last night….

Sources

1.England in Particular by Sue Clifford & Angela King
2. www.thurgartonhistory.co.uk
3.History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield (1990)
4.www.lichfield.gov.uk

For what the bell tolls…

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Easter Hill is the former vicarage of Christ Church at Leomansley built in the 1840s, around the same time as the church.  The older front part of the house is divided into flats and the rear, added later, is now a separate house.
What has always puzzled me is the bell on the left side of the building, under the eaves.

I have always assumed the bell had a religious use e.g. to call people to church, but couldn’t understand why this would be necessary.  Christ Church has always had a bell and it is easily within earshot of its flock.  In 1851 there were only 27 households in Leomansley.  However, BrownhillsBob came up with the suggestion that it could be a firebell, used to alert the local brigade and distinct from the church bell.  Bob has informed me there is such a bell on the council house at Brownhills.  This secular use seems much more likely and definitely warrants investigation.

If anyone else has any suggestions as to what the bell could have been for, please let me know!

 

 

 

Lichfield Castle

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Lichfield Castle isn’t a spectacular ruin like Kenilworth nor a well-preserved motte and bailey like Tamworth. Our castle is a conundrum and the mystery of where it stood has intrigued people for centuries.

Almost 500 years ago John Leland wrote that there had been a castle of ancient time in the south end of the town, but that nothing remained.  He noted that there was a place called Castle Field , where there were dykes, but concluded that it was more likely that the castle would have stood in the Close, with the ground being somewhat castle-like.

Remains of North East Tower, as seen from Gaia Lane

Richard II spent Christmas 1397, in Lichfield Castle, consuming 200 tuns of wine and 2000 oxen.Two years later, the King’s fortunes had changed and he was imprisoned in Lichfield on route from Chester to London.Some accounts just say he was incarcerated in Lichfield Castle, others specify a tower in the Close and the County History of Stafford, says that the Richard was held in the Archdeacon of Chester’s house in Beacon Street. J Gould’s report on Lichfield Archaeology & Development says that if King Richard was imprisoned in the fortified Close, it would most likely have been in the North East tower, the footings of which can be still be seen. The tower was said to have been 52 feet high, 20 foot above the rest of the buildings.In some versions of the story it is reported that an unsuccessful attempt was made to escape through a window!

To add to my confusion, Thomas Harwood wrote in his History of Lichfield, that King Richard spent Christmas in the Close and that later he was imprisoned in the magnificent tower in the Close, built by Bishop Clinton. However, in Sampson Erdeswick’s Survey of Staffordshire (which I understand was written in the late 16th Century, with a version edited by Thomas Harwood published in the 1844) both the castle and Bishop Clinton’s fortifications are listed, seemingly as two separate entities ‘The castle, in which Ric. II. kept his Christmas in 1397, and in which, two years afterwards, he was confined; the city walls; bishop Clinton’s costly fortifications ; with the beautiful western gate, are all levelled. The castle stood on an eminence on the south side of Tamworth-street, the site of which is now occupied by small houses and gardens”.

The case for the Tamworth Street site seems to consist of the place names in that area (Castle Dyke, Castle Field (historic)) and (rather tenuously) a large amount of ox bones dug up in the 1800s in nearby ‘Oxenbury Field’ that were said to be the remains of Richard’s Christmas feast. It seems traces of old stonework found in this area were locally considered proof of a castle here but a report by the South Staffordshire Archaeological & Historical Society (SSAHS) discounts these as merely the cellars of domestic buildings.

English Heritage’s description of Lichfield Castle on Pastscape also says that no evidence was found by field investigators in the Tamworth St area, in 1958 or 1974. One explanation given to the placenames found in the area, is that they relate to an Anglo-Saxon fort on Borrowcop Hill. The description also includes the opinion of a Phillip Davis* on the matter “There is some doubt as to whether a castle existed in Lichfield. However, the tradition of a castle in the town is a very strong one. My personal view is that there was a timber castle of some sort in the town in the early 12th century (probably started at the same time as Tamworth and Stafford, i.e. circa 1070) but that the work by Clinton was probably done on the Cathedral Close, and the castle was basically defunct at this time.”

So, it seems there could have been two castles, with references to each becoming confused and muddled over the years.It seems the castle relating to King Richard was the fortified Close and there may also have been an Anglo-Saxon castle.As ever, this raises more questions.Why did the original Lichfield Castle vanish, yet Tamworth’s and Stafford’s castles still stand strong today?Was it abandoned after the fortification of the Close or before? Did it stand on Borrowcop Hill?The mystery of Lichfield Castle continues….

*I’m assuming this is the same Phillip Davis from  The Gatehouse Website

Sources:

Lichfield Close in the Middle Ages by William Beresford

The Reliquary and illustrated archaeologist vol 7

The Itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543.

Lichfield: The cathedral close’, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 14: Lichfield

SSAHS Transactions (1981-82)

Lichfield Archaeology & Development by Jim Gould FSA

History and Antiquity of the Church and City of Lichfield by Thomas Harwood

Erdeswick’s Survey of Staffordshire
http://www.pastscape.org.uk

The Wychnor Flitch

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Home for many years to the Levett family of Lichfield, Wychnor Hall is also home to an unusual marital custom that began in the reign of Edward III.  A couple, still happily married after a year and a day, could go to the hall, accompanied by some neighbours, who were prepared to testify to their marital bliss.

After the husband had sworn under oath that he ‘would not have changed for none other, farer ne fowler, richer ne powrer, ne for none other descended of gretter lynage, slepyng ne waking, at noo tyme; and if the seid X were sole, and I sole, I wolde take her to be my wife before all the wymen of the worlde, of what condytions soevere they be, good or evyle, as helpe me God, and his seyntys, and this flesh, and all fleshes’, the couple were presented with a flitch of bacon (which I understand is half a pig).

Apparently, the records show that only three couples were ever awarded the bacon.  The first couple argued so much over it on the way out, they had to give it striaght back!  The second couple hadn’t seen each other since their wedding day, as the husband was a seaman.  It’s said that the third couple were ‘a good-natured man and his dumb wife’.Thomas Pennant writing in the 1780s noted that ‘the flitch has remained untouched, from the first century of its institution to the present: and we are credibly informed, that the late and present worthy owners of the manor were deterred from entering into the holy state, through the dread of not obtaining a single rasher from their own bacon’.   However, in Horace Walpole’s letter to the Countess of Aylesbury, on Aug. 23, 1760 he states that ‘it is thirty years since the flitch was claimed’.

According to The Spectator in 1714, one hungry couple applied soon after their honeymoon.  However, it was deemed that insufficient time since their marriage had elapsed and they were sent away with just one rasher of bacon for their troubles.   I’m assuming things went a bit wrong for them, as they didn’t return to claim the full flitch.

The Wychnor Flitch by LadyJake (2008)

By the second half of the 18th century, the flitch was symbolic – a picture carved into the wood above the fireplace, in the main hall.  Apparently it still hangs there, as can be seen on  this photo, found on ladyJake’s Flickr photostream, which she has kindly given me permission to use here.

A Survey of Staffordshire, containing the antiquities of that county by Sampson Erdeswick
The Spectator 1714
Thomas Pennant’s Journey from Chester to London (from Vision of Britain website)

Liz and Lichfield

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I spent Easter Sunday at Kenilworth Castle.  I’ve always loved that castle, with its red stone ruins, associations with Elizabeth I and the centuries old graffiti.  And now I’ve found it has a few connections with Lichfield!
Some centuries old graffiti.

In 1575, after her famous last visit to Kenilworth, where Robert Dudley made his final (and of course unsuccessful) bid for her hand in marriage, Elizabeth’s next stop was Lichfield.  She arrived on 27th July and during her stay attended service at the Cathedral and had a trip to Alrewas.  No one seems sure where the Queen stayed (although it is suggested by the  Middleton Hall Trust, in Tamworth, that Elizabeth stayed there for two nights).   However, there are records of ‘Charges when the Queene’s Matie was at the Cyttye of Lich’ and amongst the payments for trumpeters, horses and paving and mending the market cross and guildhall, there is a payment to ‘Wm Hollcroft, for kepynge Madde Richard when her Matie was here’.  After Lichfield, the Queen carried on to Stafford, which was the furthest north she ventured during her reign!
As well as the Elizabethan links, Kenilworth is also connected to Lichfield via Geoffrey de Clinton, the founder of Kenilworth Castle.  If that names sounds familiar, it’s because his nephew was Bishop Roger de Clinton (appointed 1129), responsible for the fortification of the Close and for laying out the city of Lichfield as we know it.

(There is also a connection with my previous post about Drayton Manor.  Robert Dudley, married Lettice Knollys in 1578 and they are buried together at St Mary’s, Warwick, opposite the tomb of their three year old son).

Sources:

The progresses and public processions of Queen Elizabeth: Volume 1 – John Nichols       

Staffordshire Family History Resources

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Just a quick side step from the usual stuff.  Anyone researching their family history in Staffordshire should check out the Staffordshire Names Index from the Archives Service – http://www.staffsnameindexes.org.uk/
I’m working on the Wills project and it is an absolutely fascinating resource.  I thought that only well to do people would have left wills, but the archivist said this isn’t the case at all.  In fact, in the few weeks I’ve been doing it, I’ve seen people leave anything from the money in their pocket to diamond earring and gold rings! I’ve come across wills for weavers, labourers, innkeepers and nailers. If you can find one for your ancestors you may hit the family history jackpot, as it can provide you with details of other family members, occupations, place of residence, property and goods owned. 
Happy hunting!

Stand and Deliver!

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Perhaps the sun has gone to my head, but I’m going to bring part of this post to you in the form of a poem.  With apologies to Alfred Noyes, whose famous poem I have plundered, here is my story of Lichfield born highwayman Jack Withers, based on information found in Charles Johnson’s “General History of the Lives and Adventures of the most famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street Robbers etc” and in the Newgate Calendar.  

Young Jack Withers was a Lichfield lad,
Trained to be a butcher, same as his Dad,
And butcher he did, in a terrible way.
This is the villain’s story,
So bloody and so gory,
This is Jack Withers story, I tell to you today.

With no work in Lichfield, the city he departed,
And found himself in London with a band of thieves black hearted.
He found himself in trouble, and away Jack was sent,
Off to be a soldier,
A soldier, a soldier,
Off to be a soldier in the Flanders town of Ghent.

At the local Church in Ghent, coins were collected in a box,
Jack seized his opportunity and picked the holy lock,
His pockets bulged with coins, yet he still took more
And the money of the Virgin,
The Blessed Virgin Mary,
Fell jingling and a jangling upon the marble floor.

Jack was taken to the Cardinal, to receive his punishment
But told him that his heretical life, he did repent
His sinner’s prayers had been answered by a miracle tis true!
The box was opened by the statue,
The Blessed Virgin’s statue
And the coins had been a gift from her to start his life anew.

Jack abandoned then his colours and returned to his homeland
Where he took to the highways, upon which he would demand,
That travellers should, if they valued their life,
Stand and deliver,
Their worldly goods deliver,
Stand and deliver, or else meet his butcher’s knife.  

A mile outside of Uxbridge, an ill-fated Postman came,
Jack stole the man’s eight shillings; then to conceal his blame,
He slit the man’s throat open with his sharp butcher’s knife,
Gut filled with stones,
And thrown into a pond,
Jack the Highwayman and Butcher had taken his first life.

In the Norfolk town of Thetford, in April 1703,
Found guilty of foul murder and highway robbery,
Lichfield’s Jack Withers was condemned to be hung,
And no miracle could save him,
Save him, save him
No miracle could save him, from the gallows, Withers swung.

Whilst Jack Withers was born in Lichfield, he committed most of his crimes elsewhere.  However, there were other dangerous robbers in the area. On 30th January 1703, a gang held up the Shrewsbury coach in Brownhills, robbing the passengers.  A few days later, the same gang robbed two drovers returning from Newcastle Fair, murdering one of them and wounding the other.  Two days after the gang attacked none other than the High Sheriff of Staffordshire, accompanying his lady and servants from Lichfield Fair. The gang took sixty guineas, and cut off one of the servants’ hands. However, this latest attack was to prove the gang’s undoing. After a huge search nine of them were apprehended – three of them were women dressed in men’s clothes!
As you would expect, some of the tales about highwaymen in this area can be dismissed as nothing more than fanciful legend (there is a story about Dick Turpin jumping the tollgate at Brownhills, but as BrownhillsBob points out on his website this would have been chronologically impossible.) Others could be true – several pubs in and around Lichfield make claims that they sheltered the notorious Turpin and his associates.  Whitehall, on Beacon St, was once an inn called the Coach and Horses and according to a book by H Snowden Ward in 1893 it was a favourite rendezvous of Dick Turpin and his highwaymen.  “The inn was kept by Judith Jackson, a famous beauty and a powerful and unscrupulous woman, an efficient ally of Turpin and his men”. People who have visited Abbots Bromley may have noticed that at the Goats Head, a room is named after Turpin, to commemorate the night he spent there after supposedly stealing Black Bess from Rugeley Horse Fair. Also, Turpin’s partner in crime at one point was Matthew ‘Captain Tom’ King, said to have been born either at the Welsh Harp in Stonnall (now Wordsley House) or at the Irish Harp in Aldridge and both these highwaymen and others are said to have frequented these areas!
By coincidence,  a certain song was released 30(!) years ago this month. So, we started with a poem and we’ll end with a song.  All together now! “Stand and deliver! I’m the dandy highway man who you’re too scared to mention….”