Bishop Hedda founded Lichfield’s first cathedral in 700 to house the relics of St Chad, the Bishop of Mercia who had come as a missionary and had died in 672. In his History of the English Church and People the venerable Bede retold the life of the saint and described his shrine. The Anglo-Saxon cathedral remained until the beginning of the twelfth century when it was demolished and rebuilt by the Normans. Nothing of the Anglo-Saxon structure remains above ground, but the Cathedral owns two great treasures from the period: a volume known as The St Chad Gospels, which has been dated at 730, and a later eighth-century carving known as The Lichfield Angel.*
*From the Lichfield Cathedral guidebook
It glows with the sun shining on it and those blue skies in the background.
The colour changes completely when the sun shines on the Cathedral.
Stunning decoration. Age seems only to make such buildings look better.
I loved how it changed colour when the sun came out
What an imposing West Front – do you know what stone has predominantly been used, Cherie?
It is made from sandstone.
So many cathedrals like this in your fair country, Cherry. Sometimes it’s hard to keep them all apart!
I like each and every one that I have visited but some of them are similar.
Did you see St Chad’s across another pond?
No after the Cathedral and a short walk around the town we ran out of time and it had dropped rather chilly.