Patrick Comerford
I was in Lichfield on Thursday to join my friends in the local history group Lichfield Discovered as they celebrated with a ‘house warmer’ to mark their move into the old Grammar School on Saint John Street, across the street from Saint John’s Hospital.
Ever since my late teens, I have seen Lichfield as my spiritual home, and on each visit take time for quiet reflection and prayer in the chapel in Saint John’s and to follow the cycle of daily prayer in Lichfield Cathedral. This week, this included the mid-day Eucharist with prayers for peace at Saint Chad’s shrine in the Lady Chapel and Choral Evensong later in the day.
These regular visits to Lichfield are part of recharging my spiritual batteries, putting me back in touch with the early experiences that would help to shape my adult faith and eventually lead to ordination.
But this is not as pious or sanctimonious as it might sound or seem. I make sure there is time too n these mini-retreats to meet friends, to reconnect with family roots, to eat lunch or dinner, and to go for long walks that are good for the soul and body, the heart and the stomach.
On Thursday, after the mid-day Eucharist, I first went for a walk around Minster Pool, then along Beacon Street and on into Cross in Hand Lane, one of my favourite walks in the English countryside, close to the junction of Beacon Street and Stafford Road on the northern edges of Lichfield.
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, where I regularly stroll through fields and farmland, by country cottages, farmhouses and timber-framed barns and by babbling brooks.
The lane eventually leads to the small and delightfully-named village of Farewell, about 3 km north-west of Lichfield. The name does not mean ‘goodbye’; instead, it means ‘clear spring’, and comes from the Anglo-Saxon name, frager, meaning ‘fair’ or ‘clear’ and wiell, meaning ‘spring.’
But spring has not yet come to Cross in Hand Lane, and there is still a winter look about the fields. The soil is a combination of gravel, clay and sand, particularly suitable for growing turnips, wheat and barley. This had been agricultural land ever since Anglo-Saxon days, and landscape has probably looked the same for centuries.
Many historians believe Cross in Hand Lane is so named because pilgrims or travellers on their way to Lichfield and wanting sanctuary at the Benedictine priory in Farewell 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. Others say that the cross with the hand that stood at the fork in the road in the 15th century was simply a post to point directions.
The course of the road was straightened in 1770 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.
Once again, I decided to have lunch in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn, near the corner of Stafford Road, Beacon Street and Cross in Hand Lane. I have stayed there many times in the past, and it has breath-taking views across miles-upon-miles of open, flat Staffordshire countryside and to the spires of the cathedral.
As I left the Hedgehog after a lingering and late lunch, the bare trees were silhouetted in black against a sky that was turning to a glowing orange thanks to the low and slowly setting sun. It was a suitable reminder on this short one-day retreat of the majesty of God and the beauty of God’s creation.
From there, it took less than half an hour to stroll back into the cathedral. But before going back into the cathedral, I went for a walk around Stowe Pool. The colours of the sky were a dark purple, with shades of orange in the aftermath of the sunset, and the light was still bright enough for me to take in the panoramic view that encircled Stowe Pool, with Lichfield Cathedral at the west end of the pool, the spire of Saint Mary’s slightly to my left, and Saint Chad’s Church behind me.
I then returned to Lichfield Cathedral and sat in the chapter stall for Choral Evensong, sung by the boys and girls of the Cathedral School choir.
After enjoying the ‘house warmer’ with Lichfield Discovered in the old grammar school, I caught a late evening train back to Milton Keynes. On the journey home, my heart was filled with joy as I reflected on the beauty of the world seen on Cross in Hand Lane and reflected in the skies and waters of Stowe Pool. At Choral Evensong, the choir had sung Psalm 34 which reminds us to ‘taste, and see, how gracious the Lord is.’
But my heart is also filled with a sadness that is tinged with anger as I think about the events unfolding in the United States these last weeks. Perhaps some verses of Psalm 34 at Evensong were also offering me consolation if not comfort:
Keep thy tongue from evil : and thy lips, that they speak no guile.
Eschew evil, and do good : seek peace, and ensue it.
The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous : and his ears are open unto their prayers.
The countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil : to root out the remembrance of them from the earth.
The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth them: and delivereth them out of all their troubles.
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