Lichfield

The three spires of Lichfield's cathedral rise above a city shaped by bishops, pilgrims and markets. Saint Chad established his episcopal seat here in 669, and his shrine drew worshippers into the heart of Mercia. In the twelfth century, Bishop Roger de Clinton fortified the cathedral close and laid out streets south of Minster Pool. Beyond the bishop's precinct, a weekly market and the guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist fostered a civic life of their own.

The destruction of Chad's shrine in 1538 deprived Lichfield of its pilgrim trade. During the Civil War, the fortified close became a Royalist stronghold; bombardment brought down the cathedral's central spire in 1646. Restoration followed under Bishop Hacket after the return of the monarchy. By the eighteenth century, coaches on the road towards Chester and Ireland brought fresh business to the city, while Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward gave Lichfield a reputation for literary and intellectual life.