Lichfield Leasing

Did You Know?

In the Sixteenth century Henry Vlll the head of the church of England granted Lichfield the status of a City.

How did Lichfield get its name? Perhaps the most likely theory is that the name is taken from a nearby Roman settlement called Letocetum, established in the first century AD and located two miles south of Lichfield at the junction of the main Roman roads Ryknild and Watling Street.

In the year 669 the Bishop of Mercia (roughly the Midlands of England) chose to make his seat at Lichfield. After his death the Bishop was canonized (declared a saint) and his remains were kept in Lichfield. Many pilgrims came to see them. (In those days many people went on long journeys, which were called pilgrimages to visit things like the shrines of saints). However in 1075 the reigning bishop moved his seat to Chester.

The Bishops of Chester owned the village of Lichfield. Bishop Clinton (1129-48) decided to create a new town there. The bishop laid out some new streets. On one side of the town was a street where John Street and Bird Street now stand. On the other side was a street where Dam Street, Conduit Street, and Bakers Lane are today.

Medieval Lichfield did not have stone walls but it did have a ditch and an earth embankment probably with a wooden stockade on top. By the 13th century, little 'suburbs' had grown up outside the ditch.

Lichfield had a weekly market. By the late 13th century it also had a fair. In the Middle Ages, a fair was like a market but it was held only once a year for a period of several days. Buyers and sellers came from all over the West Midlands to attend a Lichfield fair.

In the Middle Ages the main industry in Lichfield was making woolen cloth. There was also a leather industry in the town. There were tanners and also men who worked in finished leather such as saddlers and cappers.

Photograph of a black and white building with the timbers visible alongside the white walls in the town, built in 1510. During the Civil War, the house was used as a prison to incarcerate both Royalist and Parliamentarian troops.

Home to Charles Darwin's grandfather, and birthplace of Doctor Johnson, it has a Square where markets have been held since King Stephen, and three people were burnt at the stake in the reign of Queen Mary.