27 May 2012

A quiet time in the ‘pleasant backwater’ of Vicars’ Close, Lichfield

Vicars Close in Lichfield ... once described by Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “a pleasant backwater” (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

My weekends in Lichfield are essentially retreats, visiting the chapel in Saint John’s Hospital, and following the daily cycle of worship in the Cathedral, two places that have been spirituality formative for me since my late teens.

Throughout this weekend, I have felt as though I am staying in a “Spiritual Spa.”

On Friday evening, I was in Lichfield Cathedral for Choral Evensong in the Lady Chapel at 5.30, led by the Precentor, Canon Wealands Bell. The full choir was present, and there was a group of visitors from Calke Abbey. The setting was the Short Service by Byrd, with Rose’s Responses, and the anthem, as we come to the close of this Easter, was appropriately, God is gone up by Gibbons, based on Psalm 47. The Psalm was 119: 73-104.

I was back in the Cathedral at noon yesterday [Saturday] for the Eucharist, in the Lady Chapel, celebrated by the Revd David Primrose, the Director of Transforming Communities in Lichfield Diocese. The warm welcome from an old friend who was present brought together both the cathedral and the chapel of Saint John’s Hospital.

The three spires of Lichfield Cathedral in the summer sunshine this weekend (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

I have awoken to a beautiful sunrise, the song of blackbirds and the sound of wood pigeons in the tress this morning (Sunday 27 May 2012), which is the Day of Pentecost or Whitsunday, and I hope to be in the Cathedral for the Sung Eucharist at 10.30. The Precentor, the Revd Canon Wealands Bell, is presiding, and the preacher is the Chancellor, the Revd Canon Dr Pete Wilcox. Pete is currently Acting Dean of Lichfield while the dean is on study leave, but he is about to move to Liverpool Cathedral where he succeeds Bishop Justin Welby as dean.

The setting very appropriately is Missa dum complerentur dies Pentecostes by Victoria, and we have also been promised Victoria’s Dum complerentur dies Pentecostes and Bach’s Komm’, heiliger Geist. We also have Psalm 104: 26-end and Hymns 179, 311 and 175.

A secret corner

The entrance to Vicars Close is through an archway hidden behind the corner of a house in the north-west corner of the Cathedral Close (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

At the north-west end of the Cathedral Close, close to the Chancellor’s house, is Vicars’ Close, which I visit each time I’m here. Hidden behind the corner of a house creates a secret nook, a small archway leads into this quiet, undisturbed, and little-known corner of Lichfield.

This is one of my favourite places at this time of the year, when the boughs of the trees are full with leaves and buds, and the Tudor-style, black and white houses are seen at their best in the sunlight, with an array of colour in the flowerpots, on the pathways, on the ledges and on the lawn.

I was not surprised earlier this month when I received a lot of hits after changing both the banner photograph on my blog and the cover photograph on my Facebook page to a charming image from this sleepy corner that was described forty years ago by the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner as “a pleasant backwater, reached by a narrow gangway through a house.”

It is still that “pleasant backwater,” and it has a story that dates back to the mid-13th or early 14th century.

In 1241, the first statutes of the cathedral decreed that there should be a corporation of Vicars Choral, both laymen and priests, who would be responsible for singing the daily offices on behalf of the cathedral canons or prebendaries.

In 1315, Bishop Walter de Langton of Lichfield gave the vicars choral of Lichfield Cathedral land at the west end of the Cathedral Close. The land had previously been held by one or two canons, and Bishop Langton made his grant, which excluded a dovecot and a barn, so that the cathedral musicians could live within the close.

Between 1315 and 1500, the vicars built their half-timbered houses in college style, in four ranges of houses, around a double quadrangle or two courtyards.

The Upper Courtyard

Sir Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described Vicars Close as “a pleasant backwater, reached by a narrow gangway through a house” (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The upper courtyard is still known as Vicars Close and the houses there, which have their own sequence of numbers, are all Grade II* listed buildings.

The first vicars to occupy the site apparently built their own chambers or houses, although the dean and chapter subsequently assigned the houses to new vicars and authorised exchanges.

The common hall, mentioned in 1321, had a solar at its north end in 1334. A common kitchen was recorded in 1329. However, the vicars continued as before to dine daily with the resident canons until their dining rights were withdrawn in 1390.

The earlier common hall had become too small, so they had to build a new dining hall. Within a decade, in 1399-1400, the vicars were granted the “new house” that King Richard II had helped to build in the palace grounds a year earlier.

Material from this house appears to have been used to enlarge the common hall, which was rebuilt. Soon after, the vicars’ houses were repaired at the charge of Thomas Chesterfield, a canon of Lichfield, between 1425 and 1452.

This later rebuilding, subdivision and amalgamation of the houses, has obscured the original structures. The most complete row of mediaeval buildings surviving from that period is along the north side of Vicars Close, where the timber-framed houses are all of one bay. They have overhanging jetties to the south and tall chimney-stacks against the north wall.

Looking out onto the Vicars Close (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The houses on the east side of the courtyard and the eastern half of the central range are also timber-framed.

The vicars’ houses were left relatively undamaged after the Civil War in the mid-17th century left. A century later, in 1756, the vicars took down their common hall and built a new one at the west end of the central range. The new hall, 46 ft. by 25 ft. and 30 ft. high, was at first-floor level, approached by an oak staircase from the east, and had an oriel window facing Beacon Street.

The Vicars Hall seen from Beacon Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

The completion of the hall in 1757 was celebrated with a concert of music and dancing. The hall continued to be used for public assemblies until the late 18th century, when several of the Vicars Choral were regarded as musical celebrities. Dr Samuel Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell, records that he was “very much delighted with the music” when he visited the cathedral in 1776.

By 1800, the common hall had been divided, and the west end was turned into flats. Part of the ceiling decoration survives, but the staircase was removed around 1979 when No 4, on the south side of Vicars’ Close, was remodelled. Pevsner says No 4 is of little architectural merit. This was once the vicars’ muniment room, where they kept their sheet music and instruments, and he suggests this house was once the entrance to the common hall.

The newest house in Vicars’ Close is No 5 in the west range, which was rebuilt in 1764. No 8 and No 9 were restored in 1990. I am told some of the cathedral’s vergers and vicars choral still live in these unique, picturesque houses.

The Lower Courtyard or ‘Nether Vicarage’

Lichfield Cathedral, seen from the archway leading into the Lower Couryard – what Pevsner called the “Nether Vicarage” (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

An archway in the south-west corner of the Cathedral Close, between the Lichfield Festival Office at No 7, and No 8 where I stayed as a guest in recent years, leads into the second or Lower Courtyard – or what Pevsner called the “Nether Vicarage.” Unlike the houses in Vicars’ Close, these houses have numbers that follow the sequence in the Cathedral Close.

From the north side of the lower courtyard, it is possible to see the rear of No 2 Vicar’s Close with traces of mediaeval masonry and the rear of No 3 Vicars’ Close, with an over-sailing upper floor.

In 1474, Dean Heywood rebuilt the south side of the lower courtyard. The new work included a two-storey block comprising a chamber called “le drawth” for infirm vicars, a chapel where the vicars could study and pray and where infirm vicars could attend the liturgy, a muniment room and other small buildings.

The walls were plastered and the windows glazed. The block had its own entrance gate on the road from Beacon Street. Three timber-framed houses survive at the east end of the south range of the lower courtyard.

The gable end of a chamber over a latrine, on the north side of the west gate of the Close, survived into the early 19th century.

Of the 20 houses noted in 1649, only two in the lower courtyard near the gate of the Cathedral Close, together with the latrine, were described as completely ruined. The common hall was also badly damaged.

The houses along the southern range of the lower courtyard (on the left in this photograph) have been realigned so that they faced out onto the street leading into the Close from Beacon Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

In the early 18th century, most of the houses were considered to be in good repair. Half of the 20 houses recorded in the upper and lower courtyards in 1706 had tenants, living in them and theses wealthy tenants may have been responsible in the early 18th century for remodelling the houses in the lower courtyard in brick.

By 1732, this remodelling saw the houses along the southern range realigned so that they faced out onto the street leading into the Close from Beacon Street, instead of facing into the courtyard.

Two houses at the west end of that range (No 2 and No 3, The Close, which had once been one house, and No 4, The Close) were raised in height and given fronts of five bays. The eastern range of the courtyard was also remodelled, so that No 7 to No 10 now face the west front of the cathedral.

In 1758, Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Dr Erasmus Darwin, converted a timber-framed house on the west side of the lower courtyard into a large brick house with a front facing onto Beacon Street. The house, now known as Darwin House, has a central doorway and Venetian windows and was originally approached from Beacon Street by a bridge across the ditch. A double flight of stone steps later replaced the bridge.

In 1988, the house at the south-east corner of the lower courtyard (No 7, The Close) was converted into offices for the Lichfield Festival. That year, the ground floor of No 9 opened as a bookshop and coffee shop, and it still serves as the Cathedral Bookshop today.

The eastern range of the courtyard was also remodelled, so that No 7 to No 10 now face the west front of the cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)
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A tradition continues

The Lay Vicars Choral of Lichfield Cathedral are still a semi-professional body of singers, although most of them have a variety of jobs in addition to their daily singing at the cathedral. The nine Lay Vicars are the heirs to an ancient tradition dating back to the 13th century.

An early 18th century glass goblet survives as a relic from the great days of the Vicars’ Close and is on display in the cathedral. Knows as a Rummer, it has a capacity of 2½ imperial pints, and it was originally used to measure a daily allowance of beer – part of the commons – for each vicar.

I am told that once a year, the Lay Vicars still fill this goblet with beer and pass it around one another, drinking a toast to the memory of past members of the choral foundation. But I have a feeling they’re not allowed to bring it out of the Cathedral Close to any of the nearby pubs. I must ask later today.

A walk along the quaintly-named Cross in Hand Lane

Cross in Hand Lane, from Lichfield to Farewell ... but where did it get its unusual and charming name (Photograph: Patriock Comerford, 2011)

Patrick Comerford

Before his eventual exile in England, the German-born architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner visited England in 1930, and wrote home: “Englishness of course is the purpose of my journey.”

I am spending the weekend in the Hedgehog on the northern edges of the cathedral city of Lichfield, where Englishness is still to be found in late Spring, when, as the poet Housman wrote,

green buds hang in the elm like dust
And sprinkle the lime like rain.


Until earlier this week, the English rain was probably hanging on the buds and the hedgerows in rural Staffordshire. But the sun has come out in abundance over the last few days, and I am enjoying the early arrival of summer this weekend in Lichfield.

In his 1974 book on Staffordshire, Pevsner robustly defends this part of England against those who try to visualise Staffordshire as all Black Country and Potteries, and told his readers there was much more to Staffordshire.

The view from the grounds of the Hedgehog across the Staffordshire countryside and three spires of Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

From my room in the Hedgehog, on the corner of Stafford Road, Beacon Street and Cross in Hand Lane, there was a breath-taking view this morning south across miles-upon-miles of open, flat Staffordshire countryside.

From here, it is only a short stroll of less than half an hour into the cathedral and the centre of Lichfield. But there are many pleasant walks in the countryside nearby too.

This was an English afternoon for enjoying a jug of Pimms in the front of the Hedgehog, enjoying the warm sunshine. Later, as the temperature dropped slightly, I went around the corner this afternoon for a stroll along the quaintly named Cross in Hand Lane, which eventually leads to the delightfully named villages of Farewell and Chorley.

Cross in Hand Lane is a a quiet country lane ... was this once the main road to Stafford? (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

Hello to Farewell

According to the Victoria History of Staffordshire, Cross in Hand Lane was the main road from Lichfield to Stafford until 1770. Now it is just a quiet country lane, inviting you to stroll through fields and farmland, by country cottages, farmhouses and timber-framed barns and by babbling brooks before eventually saying hello to the small and delightfully-named village of Farewell, about 3 km north-west of Lichfield. The name, meaning “clear spring,” derives from the Anglo-Saxon name, frager, meaning “fair” or “clear” and wiell, meaning “spring.”

Farewell was not listed in the Domesday Book in 1086, but this had been an agricultural area even before then. The soil is a combination of gravel, clay and sand, particularly suitable for growing turnips, wheat and barley. Outside my window is a large field of rapeseed, but otherwise this landscape has probably looked the same for centuries.

The only blight on the landscape during this afternoon’s walk in the countryside was the distant sight of the cooling towers of the power station a few miles away at Rugeley, pushing above the horizon here or there.

Fields of green and gold along Cross in Hand Lane this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

A monastic community

In the mid-12th century, Bishop Roger de Clinton (1129-1148) of Lichfield was instrumental in establishing a monastic community at Farewell, and the original grant included the site of the Church of Saint Mary and the surrounding woodland.

The first members of the community were hermits or solitary monks, but they were soon replaced by a community of Benedictine nuns. By 1140 the church at Farewell, and other lands had been transferred to nuns. The nunnery was originally established as an abbey but was later recorded as a Benedictine priory. Farewell Mill was part of the estate of the priory in the 12th century.

From Serena in 1248, we know the names of 15 prioresses until the Reformation. The Benedictine priory appears to have provided education for the local children. In 1367 Bishop Robert Stretton visited the priory and would only allow boys up to the age of seven years at the priory, stipulating that each nun could only teach one child, for which they needed the bishop’s permission.

By the 1370s, the nuns were farming, growing crops and keeping a substantial flock of sheep. Other farmers in the village at the time were also raising cattle.

The last prioress was Elizabeth Kylshaw, who became Prioress in 1523. The priory was dissolved in 1527, the lands around it, including the mill, were transferred to the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield in 1527, and the income was granted to the cathedral to support the choristers. The prioress said “Farewell” to Fraewell and moved to Nuneaton, while the last four remaining nuns were moved to different nunneries.

In 1550, the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield granted the lands of the former Farewell Priory to William Paget (1506-1563), Lord Paget of Beaudesert, a former MP for Lichfield and one of Henry VIII’s leading courtiers, who was busy at the time acquiring extensive grants of lands in Staffordshire, including Cannock Chase and Burton Abbey.

A church on a monastic site

Saint Bartholomew’s, the parish church in Farewell, dates back to ca 1300, and stands on the site of the original monastic church. A small section of masonry with a small window beside the pulpit and organ may have formed part of the original Church and Priory of Saint Mary.

Saint Bartholomew’s was largely rebuilt in 1745, with the exception of the stone chancel. During this later rebuilding, several earthenware vessels were found in the south wall. The altar rails are said to date from the 13th century, along with the east window and the 16th century misericords that charmed Pevsner almost half a century ago.

The initials ER or EH are carved on the oak seats in the sanctuary. If they read ER, they may refer to the reign of Edward Rex or Elizabeth Regina in the second half of the 16th century, as Pevsner suggests. But if the initials read EH, as others suggest, could they represent the last Prioress of Farewell, Elizabeth Helshawe.

There was further restoration work on the church in 1848, when it was re-roofed. A mixed school opened in 1877 for 70 children.

Farewell Hall was built in the late 17th century by John Wightwick, perhaps on the site of an earlier manor house owned by the Bagshawe family. John Wightwick died in 1703. A water corn mill was erected in 1856, and it was working until 1940 when it was destroyed by a fire.

Trying to solve a puzzle

Cross in Hand Cottage and a pretty corner along Cross in Hand Lane (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)

On the way back from on this quiet country lane from Farewell to Lichfield, we passed a wedding celebration at The Swallows. As a slim crescent moon began to rise and take shape above the green and golden fields, it was hard to imagine that this had once been a busy thoroughfare. So how did Cross in Hand Lane get its strange name?

The Victoria History of Staffordshire says Cross in Hand Lane was the road from Lichfield to Stafford from the late 13th century until 1770. It branched off to follow the lane running along the north-west boundary which was still known as the Old London Road in 1835.

Many historians say it was named Cross in Hand Lane because pilgrims or travellers on their way to Lichfield and wanting sanctuary at the Benedictine priory would use this route, carrying a cross in their hand. Others say the priory and a cross may have stood out as one of the last stages on the pilgrim route between Chester and Lichfield.

There are records of a mediaeval cross between Beacon Street and Cross in Hand Lane, but there are no traces of this cross today. The story goes that the cross with the hand that was standing at the fork in the road in the 15th century was simply a post to point directions.

In 1770, the course of the road was straightened to avoid the hollow way in Cross in Hand Lane, and the road was diverted to follow a new line to the east, now the present Stafford Road.

Some historians say a little hamlet once stood half-way between Lichfield and the old Benedictine Convent of Farewell, and this hamlet was called Cross-in-Hand, because of the frequent monastic processions between the nunnery at Farewell and the cathedral in Lichfield.

Was this cavern-like place part of the ‘little caverned village’ of bygome days? (Photograph: Patriock Comerford, 2012)

The cavern of a ‘caverned village’?

One local chronicler says there were two yews near “this little caverned village” – but this afternoon I could see no trace of the yew trees, the cavern or the little village. Was the cavern the hollow way on Cross in Hand Lane that forced the course of the road to be straightened in 1770?

I came across a cavern-like site beneath the grounds of the Hedgehog, about 200 metres from the junction with the A51. It is on the right-hand side, opposite a pretty cream cottage. Neither Kate, who blogs on Lichfield Lore, nor Cuthbert Brown, in his Lichfield Remembered, have an explanation for the cave.

Was stone once extracted here?

Is it a natural feature?

Was it a water fissure where softer rock has been washed out?

Was it the cavern or hollow way on Cross in Hand Lane that forced the course of the road to be straightened in 1770?

A map from 1887 shows two pubs, a brewery and maltings on the spot where this hollowed-out place is visible today – it must have been a busy place then.

A man who lives in the pretty white cottage across the lane believes it was a humble dwelling place and he pointed me to the holes that may have held wooden beams and the black marks from what may have been household fires in the past.

The Sheriff’s Ride

As I continued back into Lichfield, I was reminded from my visit to the Guildhall in Lichfield earlier this morning that this area was both the starting and finishing point of the Sheriff’s Ride, an annual pageant in Lichfield on the Saturday nearest to 8 September.

The Victorian historian, Thomas Harwood, recorded that the Sheriff’s Ride dates from Queen Mary’s Charter of 1553, when Lichfield was separated from Staffordshire and made a separate county with a right to appoint its own Sheriff. The charter commanded the Sheriff to “perambulate the new County and City annually on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 8th September.”

These days, the custom continues with the sheriff and a full mounted retinue assembling at the Guildhall. They are followed by 150 or more riders on a 16-mile perambulation of the city boundary. The northern and eastern boundaries are reached in the morning before arriving in the grounds of Freeford Manor for lunch. Races after lunch reach a climax with an open race for the “Sheriff’s Plate.”

The ride then resumes to finish the circuit of the boundary, stopping for tea at Pipe Hall on Abnall’s Lane. When the sheriff and riders return to Lichfield, they are met by the Sword and Mace Bearers at about 6 p.m. and escorted down Stafford Road to the Cathedral Close, where they are greeted by the Dean, before returning to the Guildhall.

I wonder whether the pilgrims who made their way from Farewell down Cross in Hand Lane were met with the same pomp and ceremony by the mediaeval deans of Lichfield when they arrived at the cathedral.

Later this evening, that slim crescent moon was high in the clear blue evening sky as I strolled back past the cathedral and had dinner in the Olive in Tamworth Street.