A weary pilgrim walks part of the way along ‘Saint Editha’s Way’ from Polesworth to Lichfield

Inside Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, central to the new pilgrim route, the 14-mile ‘Saint Editha’s Way’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I was back in Lichfield and Tamworth at the end of last week for one of those short pilgrimages and self-guided mini-retreats that a make a few times in the year, and that are important for my spiritual health and well-being.

But I was visiting Lichfield and Tamworth too to hear about the ‘Saint Editha’s Way’ pilgrim route, a 14-mile journey celebrating the story of ancient Mercia. The pilgrim route starts at Polesworth Abbey and weaves its way through along canal tow-path to Amington, through to Tamworth, including Tamworth Castle and Saint Editha’s Church, then on to Wigginton and through Hopwas, finishing at Lichfield Cathedral.

The total distance is about 14 miles and takes about five hours at walking pace or 1.5 hours on a bicycle. An interactive map of the route that can be download to your phones is available on the Footpaths App, just click here.

An interactive map of ‘Saint Editha’s Way’ illustrates the 14-mile, five-hour pilgrim route

Some people may decide to walk the whole of Saint Editha’s Way in one go, while others may walk it in sections over a longer period, perhaps over several days.

For a shorter route, walkers can start at Polesworth Abbey and stop at Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth – this is about 6.5 miles and takes about 2.5 hours. Alternatively, walkers can start at Tamworth and proceed to Lichfield Cathedral – this is about 7 miles and takes about three hours. There are good bus services along the whole route and regular connections between Lichfield and Polesworth, so walkers need not walk the whole way back.

There is information about the churches and castles on the route in the Pilgrim Guidebook, a special handbook for the journey with details about landmarks on the route and other tips and information. Much of it has been researched and compiled by Dr David Biggs, chair of the Tamworth and District Civic Society. I picked up my copy in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, on Friday morning and it is also available at Polesworth Abbey and Lichfield Cathedral.

Saint Editha was a 10th century princess in Mercia, one of several kingdoms making up what we now call England. Tamworth was the political capital of Mercia and Lichfield was the ecclesiastical capital.

Saint Editha was probably the sister of Athelstan, who was crowned first King of all England in 925 CE. Renowned for her charity and good works, she renounced royal luxury to live a holy life. She was married in Tamworth Church in 926 CE but was abandoned later by her pagan husband Sihtric, the Viking ruler of York and Northumbria. She then led a life of saintly devotion and good works in her convent in Tamworth until she died in the year 960.

She became a saint by popular acclaim, her shrine in Tamworth became a place of pilgrimage. The church in Tamworth was named in her honour in 963 by her nephew King Edgar when he completed the rebuilding of the church and its foundation as a collegiate church. Other churches in the area with her name include Polesworth Abbey.

The Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The mediaeval tradition of pilgrimages to Tamworth to venerate Saint Editha is recalled in an anonymous poem from the Middle Ages:

Over ye river broad, ye pilgrims onward speed
By olden Tamworth altars fare, for ghostly good to speed.
Soundeth ye church bells merrily, about ye lofty aisle
Through tinctured shapes of saints and kings ye shafted sunbeams smile.
Standeth ye marble of Saint Edith, all in bright array.
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus [pray for us sinners] each rich one doth say.
Gentles from embroidered silk scraps scattereth pence around
To simple men, with dusty feet, weeping upon ye ground.

The marble statue referred to was likely removed or destroyed in the Reformation in the 16th century. But a new statue of Saint Editha in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, was commissioned this year (2025) to mark the inauguration of the new pilgrimage route. She is depicted with a crozier, as an abbess, and a church, representing the churches where she is the patron.

A stop by the canal bridge in Hopwas, where the A51 crosses both the River Tame and the Coventry Canal (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The principal stopping points along the way include Polesworth Abbey in the heart of Polesworth, Saint Editha’s, Amington, a Victorian parish church with Burne-Jones glass, Tamworth Castle, Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, Spital Chapel, Wigginton, a mediaeval chapel that was originally part of a hospital, and Lichfield Cathedral.

The route meanders through beautiful countryside including Pooley Country Park, a substantial stretch of peaceful canal, the grounds of Tamworth Castle, and past the woods and fields of Hopwas. The route traverses several busy main roads, but the entire journey is along footpaths. Each stop along the route has a special pilgrimage marker, and entry is free at each stop with the one exception of Tamworth Castle.

Other sights along the way include Alvecote Priory, now an atmospheric derelict ruin, Saint Rufin’s Well in the grounds of Tamworth Castle, and Saint Chad’s Well in the churchyard at Saint Chad’s Church, Lichfield.

I travelled part of the way on Friday afternoon, from Tamworth through Hopwas and Whittington to Lichdield, but travlled by bus for most of the journey by bus. In Lichfield, I stopped to pray in the Chapel of Saint John’s Hospital before continuing on to Lichfield Cathedral.

Later in the afternoon, I walked along part of Cross in Hand Lanethe old pilgrim route along Cross in Hand Lane, the first (or final) stage on ‘The Two Saints Way’ between the shrine of Saint Chad in Lichfield and the shrine of Saint Werburgh in Chester. I had a late lunch at the Hedgehog before returning at the end of the day to Lichfield Cathedral for Evening Prayer.

Pilgrims who complete the route along ‘Saint Editha’s Way’ may present their handbook at the front desk of Lichfield Cathedral during visiting hours to receive a special stamp and certificate to prove they have successfully completed the Saint Editha’s Way.

The Pilgrim’s Prayer in the handbook:

O Lord of Heaven and Earth,
guide my steps as I journey through this land of Mercia,
where saints have walked and holy lives were lived.
I lift my heart to you, O God,
with the spirit of a pilgrim – seeking not only places, but peace.
Teach me, like Saint Editha, to set aside pride and vanity,
and to walk humbly with you in all things.
O Lord, as O walk this pilgrim way,
be my compass and my strength.
Through the prayers of Saint Editha and all the Mercian saints,
draw me nearer to your heart.
In the name of Jesus Christ the King of all things.
Amen.

The pilgrim arrives at Lichfield Cathedral in the afternoon summer sunshine

A will in the Bodleian in Oxford links Comberford Hall with the Battle of Bosworth Field and Stanley family intrigues

Comberford Hall, east of Lichfield and north of Tamworth … William Stanley was living at Comberford when he made his will in 1552 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I have been in Oxford three times in the space of six or seven weeks for medical tests, surgical procedures and hospital visits, with one overnight stay, and time too for walks by the river, Choral Evensong in Pusey House and browsing in the bookshops.

During some of those visits, I began thinking about the potential for resources in the Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts that might be important sources for my continuing research in genealogy and family history when I came across the will of William Stanley (1474-1552) of Comberford, Staffordshire, made in 1552.

William Stanley’s kinship with King Henry VII, although there was a 20-year age gap, is analagous to that of a third cousin: his father, Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, near Lichfield, was a second cousin of Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, who married the king’s mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort. William Stanley’s will is held the Bodleian Libraries as part of the Weld Family Papers, including deeds relating to the manors in Staffordshire held by the Stanley, Heveningham, Simeon, Weld and Eyre families, dating from 1293 to 1809.

This collection of papers in Oxford includes deeds, family papers, court rolls, list of charges and even an indulgence granted to Sir John Stanley by Michael Laskeis (?Laskaris), in return for a florin given to Laskeis to help him liberate his family at Constantinople in 1468. Among the wills in this collection in the Bodleian are two wills of Dame Ellen Stanley, widow of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, near Lichfield, dated 1516 and 1518, and the will of her son William Stanley of Comberford, between Lichfield and Tamworth, made in 1552.

The Bodleian Library, Oxford … a collection includes the wills of Dame Ellen Stanley, widow of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe, near Lichfield, and her son William Stanley of Comberford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

I wondered why William Stanley was living at Comberford Hall, and how he was related to one of the most powerful political families in Staffordshire, who were among the kingmakers during the wars of succession now known as the ‘Wars of the Roses’.

The Stanley family rose to political prominence first in Lancashire and Cheshire through Sir John Stanley (I) (ca 1350-1414), a younger son of Sir William de Stanley of Stourton.

John Stanley married Isabel Lathom, despite the opposition of John of Gaunt, and as heiress she brought him great wealth. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on three occasions (1386-1388, 1399-1401, 1413-1414), and was granted the Lordship of Mann or the Isle of Man by Henry IV in 1406, becoming titular King of Mann. He died on 6 June 1414 at Ardee, Co Louth, and was brought back to England and buried in Burscough Priory, Lancashire.

John Stanley and Isabel Lathom were the parents of both Sir John Stanley II (1386-1437), ancestor of the Earls of Derby, and Thomas Stanley (1392-1463), ancestor of the Stanleys of Elford and of William Stanley of Comberford Hall.

The Stanley coat-of-arms (left) in a stained glass window in the Chapter House, Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

The eldest son, Sir John Stanley II (1386-1437), was also titular King of Mann. He died on 27 November 1437 in Anglesey, Wales, and was buried in Saint Oswald Churchyard, Winwick, Cheshire. He married Elizabeth Harrington and they were the parents of three sons and two daughters, including: Thomas Stanley (ca 1405-1459), 1st Baron Stanley; Richard Stanley, Archdeacon of Chester (1425–1433); and Edward Stanley, Archdeacon of Chester (1454-1462) – at the time, Chester was part of the Diocese of Lichfield or Coventry and Lichfield.

The eldest son of Sir John Stanley II, Sir Thomas Stanley (1405-1459), was the titular King of Mann, 1st Baron Stanley (1456) and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1431-1436). He died at Knowsley, Lancashire, on 20 February 1459 . John Stanley and Joan Goushill were the parents of three daughters and four sons, including: Thomas Stanley (1435-1504), 1st Earl of Derby; and James Stanley (1478-1485), who was also Archdeacon of Chester when it was still part of the Diocese of Lichfield.

The eldest surviving son, Thomas Stanley (1435-1504), was the 1st Earl of Derby and became the stepfather of King Henry VII. He was the last of the Stanleys to style himself King of Mann. His first wife, Lady Eleanor Neville, was a daughter of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, a descendant of Edward III and a sister of Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (‘Warwick the Kingmaker’), creating a powerful alliance with the House of York. In 1472, when the House of York was back on the throne, he married his second wife, the widowed Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), whose son, Henry Tudor, later became Henry VII.

Lady Margaret Beaufort married Thomas Stanley in 1472 and founded Christ’s College and Saint John’s College, Cambridge … her coat of arms at the gatehouse of Christ’s College (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

After the death of her second husband Sir Henry Stafford, Lady Margaret Beaufort married Thomas Stanley in 1472. She founded both Christ’s College and Saint John’s College in Cambridge, and gives her name to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was a daughter of John Beaufort, 1st Duke of Somerset, and had previously married Edmund Tudor (1430-1456), 1st Earl of Richmond and half-brother of Henry VI, and then Sir Henry Stafford (1433-1471), son of the Duke of Buckingham.

Haselour Hall, one of the homes of the Stanley family in Staffordshire, became one of her homes too, and the house played a role in the War of the Roses. The house is within the boundaries of Lichfield District Council, 4.6 km from Comberford and from Comberford Hall, 12 km east of Lichfield and 8.3 km north of Tamworth. Haselour Hall is the house where Thomas Stanley’s son, the future Henry VII, is said to have spent the night before his decisive victory at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

Henry Tudor, then Earl of Richmond, is said to have spent a night at Haselour Hall, after slipping away from his march from Lichfield to the Battle of Bosworth Field with a small band of his guards before his decisive victory in 1485. While he was visiting his mother, Henry entreated Stanley, his step-father, to join him in battle against Richard III. Stanley, however, refused to choose sides, opting instead to remain neutral for a while longer before making clear his allegiance. This neutrality was so important to the Stanleys, that when Richard kidnapped one of Stanley’s sons to force him to join his ranks, Stanley replied laconically: ‘I have other sons.’

The Battle of Bosworth Field was the last significant battle in the War of the Roses. On the day of the battle, it is said that Stanley watched it unfold from afar, and when Henry defeated Richard III, Stanley rode down the hill from which he was watching, took the defeated king’s crown from his head and used it to crown Henry VII, only then pledging his allegiance to the new king. It was a decisive intervention that brought an end to the War of Roses and put the first of the Tudors on the throne of England.

Thomas Stanley died on 29 July 1504, and was buried in the family chapel in Burscough Priory. His descendants included the subsequent Earls of Derby. When Lady Margaret died on 29 June 1509, she was buried in Henry VII’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey.

Haselour Hall, one of the homes of the Stanley family in Staffordshire, played a role in the War of the Roses

Meanwhile, the second surviving son of Sir John Stanley who died in 1414 was Thomas Stanley (1392-1463) of Elford. He was Sheriff of Worcestershire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire, and MP for Staffordshire, and he was the ancestor of the Elford branch of the Stanley family, which continued until 1508.

Thomas Stanley acquired the Elford estates through his marriage to Matilda Arderne (1396-1423) of Elford. The most famous member of her family was Sir Thomas Arderne, who fought with the Black Prince at Crecy and Poitiers. Matilda and Thomas Stanley were the parents of a daughter and two sons: Anne Gresley, Sir John Stanley and George Stanley.

The younger son, George Stanley (ca 1440-1509) of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, High Sheriff of Staffordshire (1473), has been identified recently with the Stanley effigy in the South Choir Aisle in Lichfield Cathedral, despite its Victorian inscription.

Elford Hall, home of the Stanley family and their descendants, was demolished in 1964 (Photograph © Lost Heritage/Staffordshire Past Track)

The elder son, Sir John Stanley (1423-1474) of Elford, was married three times. He was first married in 1428 at the age of five and with a special church dispensation to Cecile de Arderne of Harden, and eventually the were the parents of a son, Sir John Stanley (1447-1508).

His second wife was Isabel Vernon (1427-1471), daughter of Sir Richard Vernon of Haddon, Speaker of the House of Commons, and they were the parents of three daughters and a son, Sir Humphrey Stanley (1452-1505) of Pipe. His third wife was Dulcia Leigh, and they were parents of a further son, Roger Stanley. When this Sir Thomas Stanley died in 1474, he was buried in Saint Peter’s Church, Elford, and his eldest son, also Sir John Stanley, succeeded to the Elford estates.

This eldest son, John Stanley (1447-1508) of Elford, is said to have joined his first cousin’s son Thomas Stanley (Lord Stanley) and Henry Tudor, the future Henry VII, at Haselour Hall on 21 August 1484 ahead of the Battle of Bosworth Field. Lord Stanley’s decisive intervention in the Battle of Bosworth the next day brought the first of the Tudor monarchs to the throne.

Local legend says John Stanley was the father of John Stanley, the last male heir of the Elford Stanleys, who was fatally injured ca 1460 by a tennis ball that severed his jugular vein. He is depicted in a monument in Saint Peter’s Church, Elford, that was completely restored in the Victorian period. The ‘Stanley boy’ has short hair and a simple robe, his left hand holds a round object, and his right touches the side of the face, while a Latin inscription on the plinth reads Ubi dolor ibi digitus (‘Where the pain is, there is the finger’).

The legend is retold by many local historians, including Sampson Erdeswicke (1603), William Wyrley and Thomas Pennant (1781). However, Sophie Oosterwijk has examined all the historical evidence and concludes the effigy is a post-mediaeval forgery and the unusual hand gestures may have been introduced by a 17th or 18th century forger to illustrate the legend even more convincingly.

Putting legends aside, John Stanley was the father of three daughters who eventually became co-heiresses to the Elford estates: Maud married Sir John Ferrers (1438-1484) of Tamworth Castle; Anne married Christopher Savage of Worcestershire; and Margery married William Staunton. Elford passed through the female line to William Staunton then to Richard Huddlestone, then to William Smythe and finally to Sir John Bowes.

This line of descent then continued in the Bowes, Howard and Paget families until the end of the 1930s. Henry Bowes Howard (1687-1757), 11th Earl of Suffolk and 4th Earl of Berkshire, built a new hall on the site of the old Elford Hall, ca 1720-1730. Elford Hall was finally demolished in 1964.

Pipe Hall near Lichfield … once home of the branch of the Stanley family that included William Stanley of Comberford Hall (Photograph © Pipe Green Trust)

Sir John Stanley (1423-1474) of Elford and his second wife Isabel Vernon (1427-1471) were also the parents of Sir Humphrey Stanley (ca 1452-1504), of Pipe Hall near Lichfield.

Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe Hall married Dame Ellen Lee, daughter of Sir James Lee of Stone, and they were the parents of four sons, John, William, Humphrey and George, and two daughters, Maud (Wolverston) and Alice (Swinnerton).

Sir Humphrey Stanley died on 12 March 1504 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. But antiquarians in the 18th century mistakenly identified him with the Stanley effigy in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral. His widow, as Dame Ellen Stanley, widow of made two wills, dated 1516 and 1518, that are in the collection of papers in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, that includes the will of her son William Stanley (1474-1552), who lived at Comberford Hall.

Their eldest son, Sir John Stanley of the Pipe Hall near Lichfield, married Margaret Gerard, daughter of Sir Thomas Gerard, and they were the parents of two daughter and co-heiresses: Isabel, who married Walter Moyle of Kent, and was the mother of an only daughter Mary, who married Erasmus Heveningham; and Elizabeth, who married Sir John Hercy of Grove, Nottinghamshire.

The Stanley effigy in the south choir aisle in Lichfield Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

A brass plate in the niche above the Stanley effigy in the South Choir Aisle in Lichfield Cathedral has long identified it as the tomb of John Stanley, son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe. But this appears to be a Victorian addition and so is not conclusive evidence of the effigy’s subject.

William Stanley (1474-1552), who lived at Comberford Hall, was the second son of Sir Humphrey Stanley of Pipe Hall and Dame Ellen Lee. He was born in Morpeth, Northumberland, in 1474, and he married the much younger Margaret Comberford (1494-1568), daughter of Thomas Comberford of Comberford and Dorothy FitzHerbert. She was a sister of Humphrey Comberford, of Comberford Hall and Master of the Guild of Saint Mary and Saint John the Baptist in 1530; Richard Comberford, putative ancestor of the Comerfords of Kilkenny and Wexford; Henry Comberford, Precentor of Lichfield Cathedral; and John Comberford of Wednesbury.

How did William Stanley come to live at Comberford Hall in the 1550s? He was then in his mid-70s and I can only speculate that this is because his eldest brother-in-law was living at on the Northamptonshire estates at Watford, Stoke Bruerne and Shutlanger inherited from the Parles family; the next brother, Canon Henry Comberford, was heavily involved in Church life; Richard may have died by then; and John was living on the family’s estates in Wednesbury.

William Stanley and Margaret Comberford had probably married late in life, when he was in his late 50s and she was in her 30s. They were the parents of an only daughter Dorothy.

Dorothy Stanley (1530-1587), who married her cousin Christopher Heveningham (1540-1574), daughter of Mary Moyle and Erasmus Heveningham. Dorothy and Christopher were the parents of Dorothy Heveningham and Sir Walter Heveningham, of Aston and Pipe, and the descendants of these lines of the Stanley and Comberford families continued to live in the Lichfield area for many generations.

But this is a story that involves continuous litigation, lost fortunes, and economic decline. And that is, indeed, a story for another day.

As an aside that brings me back to those recent visits to Oxford, the crest in the Stanley coat of arms gave rise to the popularity of the Eagle and Child as the name for public houses in England, often in former manors once held by the Stanley family. They include the Eagle and Child on St Giles in Oxford, currently undergoing extensive refurbishment. It is known for its literary associations and is affectionately dubbed ‘the Bird and Baby’.

The Eagle and Child on St Giles in Oxford, currently undergoing extensive refurbishment (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Thomas Guy: Tamworth’s generous benefactor, built an almshouse and town hall and rebuilt his old school

Thomas Guy’s almshouses in Lower Gungate, one of the architecturally interesting buildings in the centre of Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was back in Tamworth last week, speaking at a family commemoration in the Comberford Chapel in Saint Editha’s Church, I had a few hours for a long walk in the countryside in Comberford.

But I also revisited or saw again some of the interesting historical buildings in Tamworth, including Tamworth Castle, the Assembly Rooms in Corporation Street, the Town Hall on Market Street, the Moat House, the former Comberford family Jacobean town house on Lichfield Street, the former Peel School, nearby, the now-closed Castle Hotel, Lady Bridge, and some of the other buildings associated the Peel family.

Putting aside the Peel families and the families who successively owned Tamworth Castle and the Moat House, the town’s most generous benefactor and philanthropist was Thomas Guy (1644-1724), a former MP for Tamworth who is generally remembered as the founder of Guy’s Hospital in London.

Thomas Guy’s generosity is still to be seen throughout Tamworth: he founded Guy’s Almshouse on Lower Gungate, rebuilt the Free Grammar School across the street where he had once been a schoolboy, and funded building the Town Hall on Market Street. I am also interested in his family connections with Comberford through his mother’s uncle.

Thomas Guy paid built Guy’s Almshouse on Lower Gungate on the site of the former guildhall of Saint George’s Guild (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Guy’s Almshouse on Lower Gungate, is one of the most interesting buildings architecturally in the centre of Tamworth. The almshouses were established in the 17th century by Thomas Guy. Guy’s original buildings dated from 1678 when he drew up plans for a block of almshouses for the maintenance of 14 old women, who received 4s 6d a week, with lodgings, coal, medical attendance and medicine.

Thomas Guy was born in 1644 in Pritchard’s Alley in Fair Street, Southwark. His father, also Thomas Guy, was a lighterman, coalmonger and carpenter with a wharf on the banks of the River Thames. His mother, Ann Vaughton, was originally from Tamworth; she was the daughter of William Vaughton of Tamworth, a member of a very influential family.

For generations, members of the Vaughton family had been bailiffs, burgesses and church wardens in the ancient borough of Tamworth and in Saint Editha’s Church. After Lichfield was captured by the parliamentary forces on Sunday 5 March 1643, two people from Comberford died as they fought on the Parliamentarian side: Richard Vaughton of Comberford was killed as he was building a trench on the west side of Lichfield, outside the Cathedral Close, and he was buried in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, on 21 March 1643; Thomas Riccard of Comberford was slain in the Cathedral Close. This Richard Vaughton appears to have been an uncle of Thomas Guy’s mother, Anne Vaughton of Tamworth.

A sunny April afternoon in Comberford … Thomas Guy’s mother, Anne Vaughton, appears to have been a niece of Richard Vaughton of Comberford, killed in Lichfield in 1643 during the Civil War (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Guy’s father died when the boy was only eight, and his mother then brought him to Tamworth, her home town, along with his younger brother and sister. Thomas was sent to school at the Free Grammar School, then in Lower Gungate.

Thomas Guy returned to London in 1660 when he was 16 to be apprenticed to John Clark, a bookbinder and bookseller in Cheapside. After the restoration of King Charles II in 1660, London was an exciting place. But Guy soon realised that life was difficult for those who were poor or sick, or living in crowded conditions.

Meanwhile, back in Tamworth on 18 June 1661, his widowed mother married Joseph Seeley of Coventry in Saint Editha’s Church, and the couple probably continued to live in Tamworth.

After finishing his apprenticeship in London, Guy started his own small publishing house. The Bible and Oxford University proved to be the mainstays of his business, and he was soon elected a Freeman of the Stationers’ Company and an Alderman of the City of London.

But, as he prospered, Thomas Guy did not forget Tamworth, where he had grown up, or his extended family there – the Ortons, the Woods, the Vaughtons and the Osbornes.

Thomas Guy paid for the refurbishment of the Free Grammar School on Lower Gungate in 1677 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Guy paid for the refurbishment of Tamworth’s Free Grammar School in 1677, and a year later, in 1678, he bought land across the street from the Grammar School. The site on Lower Gungate had been the site of the guildhall of the Guild of Saint George, and there Guy built his almshouses for poor women, with generous provisions for the residents.

The original almshouses were built in 1678 at a cost of £200 and provided housing for seven poor women. Each resident had her own entrance and living room and the large central garden was used to cultivate vegetables. A large library also housed the books of the Revd John Rawlett. The almshouses were extended in 1692 to house men as well as women.

Thomas Guy first stood for election in Tamworth in 1690, but was beaten into third place behind Sir Henry Gough and Michael Biddulph. At his second attempt in 1695, he was returned as an MP with Sir Henry Gough without opposition, and Guy was elected MP for Tamworth six times.

Thomas Guy paid to build the Town Hall in Market Street (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Guy paid to build a new Town Hall in Market Street in 1701, and it was completed in 1702. The new town hall consisted of one large room supported by three rows of large pillars of stone with semi-circular arches, each row containing six pillars.

The entrance of the room stood at the east end of the hall and the space below was to be used to hold the weekly market. In the centre of the roof was a large wooden glaze lantern with a weather-fane, leading out upon a platform guarded by a wooden balustrade.

But when Guy lost his seat as an MP, he was deeply hurt at being rejected by his own people. He abandoned his plans to build a hospital in Tamworth, either on Albert Road or on Lichfield Street, and he moved his large fortune to London, where he founded what would become Guy’s Hospital.

A dejected Thomas Guy also threatened to pull down the town hall he had built in Tamworth and to abolish the almshouses. The burgesses sent a deputation to meet him in London with the offer of re-election in 1710, but Guy rejected all conciliation, saying Tamworth had been ungrateful to him.

He now abandoned all political ambitions and concentrated on making money to finance his philanthropic deeds in London. He died over 300 years ago, on 27 December 1724 at the age of 80, without ever seeing the completion of Guy’s Hospital in London, which opened in 1725.

Thoas Guy was buried in a vault in Saint Thomas’s Church, Southwark, but his body was moved to the chapel of Guy’s Hospital in September 1780, when the chapel was finally built. He never married and left his fortune to Guy’s Hospital.

Even on his deathbed, the rejection he felt in Tamworth still continued to hurt Guy. He stipulated in his will that inhabitants of Tamworth should not be allowed be accommodated in his almshouses. Only his own relatives, together with poor people from the hamlets of Wilnecote, Glascote, Bolehall, Amington, Wigginton and Hopwas – all areas that voted for him – were to become residents; Comberford is within the parish of Wigginton and Hopwas.

The clock on the front of the Town Hall was presented to the town in 1812 by John Robins, who later bought Tamworth Castle and the Moat House (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Meanwhile, the exterior steps on the town hall built by Thomas Guy were demolished in 1771 and two rooms were added to the rear on the east side. These were replaced in turn in 1811 by two larger rooms, funded in part by the first Sir Robert Peel.

The turret in the centre of the roof was another later addition to the building. The domed cupola with ornate iron weathervane once housed a lantern and also contained a bell to summon fireman. The louvered side of the turret indicate it may once have been used as a pigeon loft.

The clock on the front of the Town Hall was presented to the town in 1812 by John Robins, a London auctioneer claimed Tamworth Castle and the Moat House in lengthy legal proceedings over debts owed to him by the 2nd Marquis Townshend, who died in 1811. Robins moved into Tamworth Castle in 1821, and almost immediately sold the Moat House to Alice Woody and her son Dr Robert Woody.

Guy’s Almshouse was rebuilt in 1912 and 1913 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

In time, Guy’s original almshouse fell into disrepair and the trustees decided it should be replaced. The original buildings were demolished in the early 20th century, and the present buildings were built on the same site.

In 1912, the old residents were moved temporarily to The Paddock – the Jennings family house in nearby Aldergate, later the site of the bus garage. The new almshouses were built at a cost of between £5,000 and £6,000, and opened within a year, in 1913.

The old tablet from Guy’s original building, with an inscription about the foundation, was placed above the main entrance to the new almshouses building. The stone plaque recalls Guy’s pique and original restrictions, declaring: ‘Guy’s Almshouses for relations or Hamleteers.’ This restriction still applies in relation to the boundaries of the borough, as they existed in his day.

The restrictions remain in place: ‘Guy’s Almshouses for relations or Hamleteers’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Crowdfunding campaign plans to create a new Heritage Centre in the centre of Tamworth

The proposed building for the Heritage Centre at 30 Church Street, Tamworth, close to Saint Editha’s Church (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

When I was in Tamworth last week, it was exciting to hear about the plans to create a community-run, inspiring state-of-the-art Heritage Centre in the heart of the town, close to Saint Editha’s Church.

The proposed building for the Heritage Centre at 30 Church Street is ideal. It is in the very heart of the town centre, easily accessible with nearby parking, adjacent to the new Tamworth College and, originally designed as a bank, it offers excellent security features for important artefacts and documents.

The Revd Andrew Lythall, Vicar of Tamworth, says: ‘I am thrilled to be a part of this project and I know I speak for everyone at Saint Editha’s Church to say that we are excited to be a key stakeholder … in the development of a creative, permanent heritage hub for Tamworth.’

A crowdfunding campaign hopes to create a heritage centre that allows people to explore, celebrate, understand and take pride in the rich history of Tamworth, from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia to the industrial revolution and beyond.

Dr David Biggs, chair of the Tamworth and District Civic Society, has described it as a ‘wonderful and rare opportunity’ to make the most of the ‘town’s incredible heritage and history for the benefit of residents and visitors.’

The venture is is a collaborative enterprise involving Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth; Tamworth Castle Museum; the Tamworth Town Centre Forum; the Tamworth and District Civic Society; and other heritage and culture groups across Tamworth and the surrounding area. The Tamworth Town Centre Forum is managing the fundraising drive on behalf of Saint Editha's Church.

Tamworth Castle is part of the collaborative enterprise to establish the new heritage centre (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Many of Tamworth’s historical treasures are hidden from view because of a lack of exhibition space. The project aims to bring them into the spotlight, ensuring they are preserved and appreciated for generations to come.

The project hopes to make history more accessible by showcasing the best of Tamworth. The centre will feature an extensive collection of art, artefacts, relics, and historical finds – many of which have never been displayed before.

Lara Rowe, Tamworth Castle Museum and Archives Manager, says the new heritage centre ‘would enable us to increase access to the museum collections and archives, and would provide a valuable cultural asset for the town.’

The vision is for a new Tamworth Heritage Centre that serves as a museum and art gallery and a hub for education, tourism, and cultural activities.

Sarah Edwards, MP for Tamworth, says a ‘world class Heritage Centre will help put Tamworth clearly on the map and support a wider ecosystem of heritage, culture, arts and community programmes that are vital to maintaining a strong community.’

Tamworth's heritage, including Tamworth Castle, the Moat House and a timber-framed 16th Century house on Lichfield Street, celebrated on a sign at Tamworth Railway Station (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The funds raised in the crowdfunding campaign will go directly to:

• establishing the heritage centre in a prime town centre location
• creating interactive, inspiring exhibits showcasing Tamworth’s history
• curating educational programmes for schools and local groups
• developing a space for workshops, talks, and events
• creating a digital archive that provides access to Tamworth’s history.

The centre is planned to provide interactive exhibits, museum spaces, dedicated galleries, rolling exhibitions of other collections; a community learning zone with space for educational programmes, talks, and workshops, a research area, and a digital archive with virtual access to exhibitions, collections and research materials.

The centre will feature:

• over 150 sq m of permanent and temporary exhibition space
• a dedicated art gallery – the first of its kind in Tamworth
• research rooms for archival and historical research
• two self-contained offices for community groups and start-up ventures
• meeting space for the wider community
• over 100 square meters of museum-standard archival storage space
• completely accessible facilities
• a gift shop
• parking for six cars
• the potential to add a further 30 sq m of gallery space.

The organisers are raising funds to meet costs associated with buying the centre, and fitting out and converting it into a state-of-the-art heritage resource. They hope to complete fundraising by July and to open the centre in December 2025.

As a thanks to supporters they are offering these rewards to donors:

• £50: a special thank you letter plus a unique Heritage Centre badge
• £150: the above plus an invitation to the grand opening ceremony
• £300: the above plus your name printed in a special commemorative souvenir booklet
• £1,000: the above as well as your name on a special donors board in the centre.

Corporate sponsorship opportunities are also available.

It is anticipated that the centre would be open Tuesday to Saturday, 10 am to 2 pm, with the times extended for special events, functions and exhibitions.

More details can be found HERE

Planet Walk sculptures in Tamworth Castle Grounds: a walk around the galaxy

Walenty Pytel’s Planet Walk in Tamworth Castle Grounds marked the millennium in 2000 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I was writing yesterday about Fritz Steller’s paired mural ‘Communication and Documentation’ at the entrance to Tamworth Library. But Tamworth has impressive outdoors works of sculpture too, including Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd, near the train station (26 July 2023), and Walenty Pytel’s ‘Anchor’ sculpture in Saint Editha’s Square, commemorating Colin Grazier (23 February 2023).

The Polish-born sculptor Walenty Pytel also created the Planet Walk in the castle grounds, which was commissioned in 2000 to mark the millennium. The Planet Walk was the brainchild of Tamworth’s Town Twinning Association, and it is based on a similar trail created in Bad Laasphe, Tamworth’s twin town in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany.

Walenty Pytel designed the trail with the sun and nine planets in his studio in Ross-on-Wye. The distances between each of the planets was designed to relatively represent the distance between the planets in the solar system, to give some concept of the distance between us and our neighbouring – or not so neighbouring – planets.

Some of the original planets now seem to be missing. The trail takes 15-25 minutes to walk, and is easily followed by young and old alike, by with red rockets laid into the ground leading a trail around the galaxy.

Walenty Pytel is an internationally renowned artist and is recognised as a leading metal sculptor of birds and beasts. He created the Colin Grazier statue in Saint Editha’s Square, Tamworth, in 2002. His work also appears at the entrance to Birmingham International Airport and outside the House of Commons.

Earth is one of the planets in Walenty Pytel’s Planet Walk in the Tamworth Castle Grounds (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Pytel was born in 1941 in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Because of his blond features, the Nazis kidnapped him from his mother Jadwiga Pytel and had him adopted by a Gestapo officer and his childless wife. However, his mother escaped from a prison camp, snatched him from outside the couple’s home and fled Poland with him across the Alps to Italy.

He came to England at the age of five and later studied graphic design at Hereford College of Arts. After working in a publishing studio in London, he opened two studios in Hereford in 1963, initially focusing on paper sculptures for window displays but turned to metal two years later.

His first public commission came in 1965, when Hereford City Council paid £100 for Christmas decorations. Three stainless-steel angels arranged in a triangle for the centre of High Town and 400 thin metal stars were erected in the city. The works have been lost since then.

His creations are often inspired by nature and his work includes the Jubilee Fountain in New Palace Yard, Westminster, ‘Take Off’ at Birmingham Airport, and one of Europe’s largest metalwork sculptures, ‘The Fossor’ (1979), at the headquarters of JCB in Rocester, Staffordshire.

Pytel was commissioned to create four huge steel eagles for the Portuguese football club Benfica in 2005. A year later, his career was disrupted after a fall in 2006 resulted in a loss of memory. However, at 83, he has continued to receive commissions for public sculptures and he continues to live near Ross-on-Wye.

The trail around Walenty Pytel’s Planet Walk in Tamworth takes 15-25 minutes to walk (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Back in Tamworth to speak about the Wyatts of Weeford, an architectural dynasty

Visiting the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street, Tamworth, this afternoon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

I am back in Tamworth this evening, at the invitation of Tamworth and District Civic Society, to speak about the Wyatt family, an influential architectural dynasty originally from Weeford, between Lichfield and Tamworth.

I caught the train from Milton Keynes earlier this afternoon, and with a few short hours on my hands, I spent a little time in the library on some local history research, stopped briefly at Saint Editha’s Church, once the burial place of the Comberford family, walked around the town, and walked along Lichfield Street as far as the Moat House, once the home of the Comberford family in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The church was closed this afternoon so I did not get in to see the Comberford Chapel and the Comberford family monuments. But from there I walked back along the banks of the River Tame and the River Anker into the grounds of Tamworth Castle, where I admired some sculptures I had not seen before.

I have already spoke on the Wyatt family to Lichfield Civic Society, at a public lecture in Wade Street Church, Lichfield (24 April 2018) and I spoke to both Tamworth and District Civic Society, in Saint Editha’s Church, and to Lichfield Civic Society, once again in Wade Street Church about the history of the Comberford family in 2019.

That year marked the 400th anniversary of a royal visit to Tamworth, when King James I, stayed at Tamworth Castle and Prince Charles, the future Charles I, was a guest of the Comberford family in the Moat House.

I have known Tamworth and Lichfield since my teens, and they are an hour’s journey by train from Lichfield.

It is a pleasure to be invited back here for this evening’s lecture. But more about that later this evening.

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (111) 16 September 2023

The Unitarian Chapel on Colehill, now Victoria Road, was built in 1724, but was rooted in the story of the 17th century Puritans (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and tomorrow is the Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XV, 17 September 2023). The Calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today recalls the life and work of Saint Ninian (ca 432), Bishop of Galloway, Apostle of the Picts, and Edward Bouverie Pusey (1882), Priest, Tractarian, who gives name to Pusey House in Oxford.

Before the day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer and reflection.

This week, I have been reflecting each morning in these ways:

1, Looking at a Unitarian church I know;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The former Unitarian Chapel, Tamworth, Staffordshire:

The story of the Unitarians in Tamworth dates back to the presence of the Puritans in the early 17th century. While the Revd Samuel Hodgkinson was Vicar of Tamworth (1610-1629), the Revd Thomas Blake (ca 1597-1657) first arrived in Tamworth. Blake was a native of Staffordshire and graduated BA in Oxford in 1620. On Christmas Eve 1620, he was ordained priest by Thomas Morton, Bishop of Lichfield, at Eccleshall.

Bishop Morton was sympathetic to the Puritans, and in 1627 he licensed Blake as a preacher in Tamworth. In 1629, Blake succeeded Hodgkinson as the Vicar of Tamworth and master of the Grammar School.

As Vicar of Tamworth, Blake preached his brand of Presbyterian Puritanism with its dislike of bishops and catholic doctrines

However, William Comberford of Comberford Hall and the Moat House claimed the right of patronage in the parish, and between 1639 and 1642, he pursued legal actions to secure his claim to the patronage of Saint Editha’s and the college house. Comberford was unsuccessful in his action, and he and Blake soon also found themselves on opposite sides in the First English Civil War.

Blake was a strong supporter of Parliament and probably did not remain in Tamworth during the royalist occupation. His parish work was disrupted and it was in these years that he first earned a reputation for being controversial. His publications focussed on questions about infant baptism, and he debated publicly with other Puritans, including Presbyterians and Baptists, publishing pamphlets and sermons. One of the children he baptised was John Rawlett (1642-1686), later an Anglican cleric, preacher and writer with close sympathy with the Presbyterians.

Despite Comberford’s failure to eject Blake in 1642, Blake appears to have left the parish immediately after the case. There is a blank of two years in the Parish Registers during the Civil War from 1642 to 1644, for which Theophilus Lord wrote in 1644: ‘For some short time service there was not any.’

In 1643, Tamworth Castle was captured by a detachment of Parliamentarian forces under the regicide Colonel William Purefoy. William Comberford, who was High Sheriff of Staffordshire, escaped to Lichfield, and in his absence the Comberford home at the Moat House was ransacked by Cromwell’s forces, who mutilated the Comberford monument in Saint Editha’s Church, the Comberford Chapel was defaced, and sacked Comberford Hall.

However, Blake did not return to Tamworth, and in 1644 Cromwell’s Committee of Safety appointed Theophilus Lord as the Minister of Tamworth. Blake had moved from Tamworth to Shrewsbury, where he became a Puritan minister in 1645. A year later he was replaced as Vicar of Tamworth by Revd Ralph Hodges, who was appointed Vicar of Tamworth with Glascote and Hopwas in 1646. He was also appointed Rector of Birmingham, a position he held until the end of 1661.

Meanwhile, Blake was back in Tamworth by 1651, when he was writing and publishing Puritan tracts and pamphlets once again, and where he remained until his death. He was nominated by Cromwell to be an assistant to the commissioners of Staffordshire for ejecting ‘ignorant and scandalous’ ministers and schoolmasters.

In later publications, Blake advocated a more open and inclusive approach to Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. This position brought him into conflict with one of the leading Puritans of the day, Richard Baxter, and the controversy continued until Blake’s death.

Blake made his will in 1656, and one of the witnesses was Thomas Fox, a Puritan and Parliamentarian officer who would soon move into the Moat House, the former Comberford family townhouse on Lichfield Street. When Blake died in 1657, he was buried in Saint Editha’s Church.

What happened to the Puritan circle around Blake and their successors in Tamworth after the civil war, the Restoration and the ejection of Puritan ministers?

Samuel Shaw, who gave the oration at Blake’s funeral, was ordained by the Wirksworth Classis or Presbyterian assembly in Derbyshire on 12 January 1658 and became the Schoolmaster or Puritan minister in Tamworth. He was one of the Puritan ministers who were ejected from their parishes at the Restoration and he later became Master of the grammar school in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire.

Anthony Burgess, who preached at Blake’s funeral, had been the Vicar of Sutton Coldfield from 1635 until he was forced to take refuge in Coventry in 1642, and was replaced by the royalist Revd James Fleetwood. Burgess was a member of the Westminster Assembly in 1643, and returned to Sutton Coldfield. After the after the Great Ejection in 1662, he moved to Tamworth.

The parish of Tamworth remained vacant until 1662, when the Revd Samuel Langley was appointed Vicar of Tamworth.

The Puritans’ successors in Tamworth were the Presbyterians, who built their own meeting house. They had become Unitarians by 1690, and the former Presbyterian meeting house was replaced in 1724 by the Unitarian Chapel built on Colehill, now Victoria Road.

The adjoining former graveyard has some 18th and 19th century headstones, including monuments of the Lakin and Byng families and the gravestone of the Revd William Parkinson (1792-1857), who was the Unitarian minister in Tamworth for 20 years, from 1837 until he died on 3 June 1857.

The Unitarian Chapel was restored and altered in 1879-1880, when a new roof was installed and the chapel interior refitted and modernised. It is a two-storey brick building with a fine example of Flemish Bond brickwork, although this is only visible at the side as the front is pebble-dashed. The porch is a later addition.

With its Georgian windows, the Unitarian Chapel is still a well-maintained building. But the Unitarians in Tamworth dwindled in numbers in the 20th century, and their chapel was later used by the Royal Naval Association.

Luke 6: 43-49 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 43 ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit; 44 for each tree is known by its own fruit. Figs are not gathered from thorns, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

46 ‘Why do you call me “Lord, Lord”, and do not do what I tell you? 47 I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. 48 That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.’

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘Holy Cross Day Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (16 September 2023) invites us to reflect on these words:

We remember all those before us who have fought for our rights and continue to do so.

The Collect:

Almighty and everlasting God,
who called your servant Ninian to preach the gospel
to the people of northern Britain:
raise up in this and every land
heralds and evangelists of your kingdom,
that your Church may make known the immeasurable riches
of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Holy Father,
who gathered us here around the table of your Son
to share this meal with the whole household of God:
in that new world where you reveal
the fullness of your peace,
gather people of every race and language
to share with Ninian and all your saints
in the eternal banquet of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s Reflection

Continued Tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Æthelflæd and her spear continue to make their mark on the people of Tamworth

Luke Perry’s sculpture of Æthelflæd in the centre of the roundabout outside the train station in Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

Tamworth loves Æthelflæd. She greets you when you arrive off the train and start walking into the centre of Tamworth. She figures prominently in the grounds of Tamworth Castle. And she looks down benignly on all in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, the parish church in the centre of Tamworth.

Throughout this week in my prayer diary on this blog each morning, I am reflecting on the stained-glass windows in Saint Editha’s Church. Her window is the latest addition to the windows in the church five years ago (12 June 2018) as part of the programme organised by the Tamworth and District Civic Society to mark the 1100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflæd.

The striking sculpture of Æthelflæd stands in the centre of the roundabout outside the train station, at the junction of Victoria Road and Albert Road. It was created by the sculptor Luke Perry, who was commissioned to produce an iconic piece of art honouring Tamworth’s Anglo-Saxon past in a 21st century way.

Luke Perry is known for his monumental sculptures, especially his work celebrating under-represented peoples and the heritage of the Industrial Revolution, particularly in the Black Country.

The six-metre tall steel figure was put in place five years ago on 20 May 2018, in a meticulous operation involving a large crane, ropes and ladders. The result is an impressive, striking sculpture that greets people as they step off the train and points them towards the town centre along Victoria Road, inviting them to follow the direction of her spear to find out more about her story in Tamworth Castle and Saint Editha’s Church.

More than a century earlier, in 1913, a sculpture of Æthelflæd and her nephew Aethelstan, by the sculptor Edward George Bramwell (1865-1944), was erected n the Tamworth Pleasure Gardens, below Tamworth Castle, to commemorate the millennium of her fortification of the town.

The Æthelflæd memorial window by Robert Paddock in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Æthelflæd memorial window in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church in Tamworth portrays her as a Christian warrior queen in front of a fortified burh, surrounded by English oak leaves, within a solid oak frame in an internal opening in the chancel. The hand-made glass was produced by Robert Paddock of the Art of Glass Ltd of Hatton, Warwickshire.

In the window, Æthelflæd holds aloft a sword, cross-like, alluding to the pose of the statue of her father King Alfred in Winchester. The window is back-lit so that its rich colours change in appearance during the course of the day, and it is particularly striking in the evening.

The window is a tribute by their children to Norman and Mavis Biggs who both died in January 2017. For over half a century, they were involved in promoting, protecting and celebrating Tamworth’s heritage and history.

The window was blessed and dedicated by Bishop Michael Ipgrave of Lichfield, and a plaque was unveiled by Prince Edward on 12 June 2018 as part of service organised by the Tamworth and District Civic Society to mark the 1100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflæd.

Æthelflæd and her nephew Aethelstan … a sculpture by Edward George Bramwell below Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Æthelflæd, also known as Lady of the Mercians, was a daughter of King Alfred the Great. Today she may be ‘England’s forgotten Queen,’ but she was a formidable leader in a shadowy history of the dark ages.

She had no more children after her only daughter. When her husband Aethelred died in 911, she ruled Mercia alone, an astonishing early example of female empowerment. Planting cities, sponsoring learning and defending her people, Æthelflæd laid the foundations of a kingdom that would become today’s England.

She created and enlarged a series of strategic burhs or fortified towns as she pushed northwards through Mercia, rebuilding towns and churches that had been laid waste by the Vikings from the 870s. Her surviving and identifiable burhs are at Worcester, Gloucester, Hereford, Chirbury, Bridgnorth, Warwick, Stafford, Chester, Runcorn and Tamworth. She captured Derby from the Danes in 917, and took Leicester a year later without a fight.

Æthelflæd made Tamworth – seat of the Mercian kings until the Viking invasion of 874 – her base from 913, and rebuilt the church.

She died in Tamworth on 12 June 918, as she was about to launch a campaign against the Viking stronghold of York. She was buried in Gloucester beside her husband. Her daughter Aelfwynn briefly succeeded her as ruler of Mercia in 918, the first recorded example of female rulers succeeding one another.

Æthelflæd in the Cartulary and Customs of Abingdon Abbey, ca 1220 (Copyright © the British Library Board)

Æthelflæd’s campaign was continued by her brother Edward of Wessex and their nephew Athelstan, resulting in the creation of a united England. Athelstan – the first acknowledged King of all England – was brought up by Æthelflæd.

Saint Editha, the patron saint of Tamworth Church since 960, is said to have been the niece of Æthelflæd and was married in Tamworth Church in 926 to Sihtric of York by arrangement of Athelstan. After the failure of that marriage, Saint Editha founded a convent in Tamworth and led a saintly life in Tamworth.

The historian Michael Wood believes that without Æthelflæd there would not be an England (Angle-land) as we know it. Tom Holland describes her as the ‘Founding Mother of England’.

Æthelflæd invites people to follow the direction of her spear from the train station to Saint Editha’s Church and Tamworth Castle (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Daily prayers in Ordinary Time with USPG: (59) 26 July 2023

The first of three windows in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth, telling the story of the marriage of Editha of Mercia and Sigtrygg of Northumbria (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Patrick Comerford

We are in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar, and this week began with the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (23 July 2023). Today, the Church Calendar remembers Anna and Joachim, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Before this day begins, I am taking some time this morning for prayer, reading and reflection.

In the weeks after Trinity Sunday, I was reflecting each morning with Trinity-themed images from cathedrals, churches and chapels. That series came to a conclusion on Saturday (16 July) with my search for the mediaeval Holy Trinity altar in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth. This week, my reflections each morning involve:

1, Looking at stained glass windows in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth;

2, the Gospel reading of the day in the Church of England lectionary;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.

The second Marmion window in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth, shows Saint Editha and her nuns witnessing a vision of the Virgin Mary (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

The Marmion (Saint Editha) windows, Tamworth:

During this week, I am reflecting in this prayer diary each morning on windows in Saint Editha’s Collegiate Church, Tamworth.

A set of three windows on the south side of the chancel in Saint Editha’s Church, high above the High Altar, tells the story of Saint Editha and how she became the patron saint of Tamworth.

Saint Editha is said to have been the devout Christian daughter of Athelstane, King of Mercia, the expansive Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the Midlands that had its ecclesiastical capital in Lichfield and its civic and political capital in Tamworth.

However, the historical identity of Editha or Edith (Ealdgyth) and the dates of her lifespan are uncertain and questions about her historical identity are fraught with difficulties. Some sources say she was a daughter of King Edward the Elder, others say she was the daughter of Egbert of Wessex, while yet other traditions say she was a sister of King Æthelstan.

Saint Editha was to be given in marriage by her father, or her brother, in the year 925 to Sigtrygg, the Norse ruler of Northumbria in the North of England. It was not exactly a love marriage, and was planned as a symbol of peace between the two kingdoms. Fifty years earlier, the Vikings had invaded Mercia from the north, and had ransacked Tamworth.

The legend says that Editha refused to marry Sigtrygg unless he agreed to convert to Christianity. The marriage took place in the church in Tamworth, but Sigtrygg reneged on his undertaking, returned north without Editha. The marriage was never consummated and was annulled.

Saint Editha, who always wanted to be a nun, joined a convent near Tamworth at Polesworth, which may have been founded by that other Staffordshire saint, Saint Modwen, or Saint Modwenna, a female hermit who lived near Burton-on-Trent.

She later became the Abbess of Tamworth, and was known for her charitable deeds. She died in 960, and the memory of her inspired great devotion to her in Tamworth.

In yet another Danish invasion of the Staffordshire area three years later, Tamworth was destroyed once again. King Edgar of England rebuilt Tamworth, and at the same time Editha was declared a saint. The parish church has been dedicated to her ever since.

After the invasion of England in 1066, William the Conqueror gave the lands around Tamworth to the new lord, Marmion. One day after hunting in Hopwas Wood near Tamworth, Marmion fell into a sleep in which he dreamt that Saint Editha had struck him with her crozier of office, causing a deep wound. When he awoke, he found he had been badly wounded indeed.

When the wound refused to heal, Marmion decided to restore Saint Editha’s former nunnery to the Benedictine nuns, who build a new convent on the site.

In the late 19th century, Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893), one of the great Pre-Raphaelite painters of his day, was commissioned by Francis Willington of Colehill, Tamworth, to design the windows telling the story of Saint Editha. These magnificent windows, high up in the clerestory on the south side of the chancel, were made at the studios of William Morris (1834-1896), a Pre-Raphaelite and a member of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

The Willington family in Tamworth included Waldyve Willington, Parliamentarian Governor of Tamworth in 1645; John Willington, steward of the Townshend estate at Tamworth Castle in the 19th century, who lived at the Moat House, the former Comberford family home on Lichfield Street; and Francis Willington, Town Clerk of Tamworth.

From the east, the first window represents the marriage of Editha of Mercia and Sigtrygg of Northumbria. The left panel shows Athelstane taking Editha by the right hand to give her away in marriage. In the two centre panels, Sigtrygg is seen placing a wedding ring on Editha’s left hand. The pane on the right shows Ella, Bishop of Lichfield, blessing the marriage.

At the top of the window is a Norse galley as an emblem of Sigtrygg. At the foot of the window is the heraldic arms of Athelstane, the Willington family, Sigtrygg and the Bishop of Lichfield. The Willington arms are used here as Saint Editha had no heraldic arms.

The second window represents Saint Editha, whose nunnery was in Tamworth, as an Abbess with a crozier in her right hand in the first panel, and her nuns with her in the two centre panels, beholding a vision portrayed in the fourth panel of the Virgin Mary, patron of the Benedictine Order to which the nunnery belonged, with the Christ Child.

At the top of this window is a panel with the tower of Saint Editha’s nunnery. The nuns had no heraldic arms, so the four panels at the bottom of the window depict the arms of the Willington family, Guy de Beauchamp (1272-1315), 10th Earl of Warwick, and the Bracebridge and Waldyve families, who all claimed descent from King Athelstane of Mercia.

The third window deals with two subjects. The two panels to the left show William the Conqueror resting on a mighty sword, presenting Tamworth Castle to Marmion. The two panels to the right depict Saint Editha striking Marmion with her crozier for banishing the nuns. When he awoke and his wound failed to heal, he allowed the nuns to return.

The panel at the top of this third window shows Tamworth Castle. The four heraldic panels at the foot of the window depict the arms of William the Conqueror, the Marmion family and their successors at Tamworth Castle, and the Willington family.

Other churches dedicated to Saint Edith include Church Eaton in Staffordshire, Amington Parish Church near Tamworth, Saint Edith’s Church in Monks Kirby, Warwickshire, and a number of churches in Louth, Lincolnshire. Her feast day is 15 July.

Although Saint Editha’s Day was 11 days ago [15 July 2023], Tamworth Civic Society, which is celebrating its fiftieth anniversary, is celebrating Saint Editha’s Day and Cherry Fair today (26 July 2023), honouring the town’s patron saint and reviving a great historic tradition begun by a 16th century royal charter.

The day begins at the bandstand at 10.45, and a procession to Saint Editha’s Church, followed by a special Saint Editha’s Day service. People are invited to wear red for the Cherry Fair procession.

The third window tells the story of the Marmion family of Tamworth Castle and a vision of Saint Editha (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Matthew 13: 16-17 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said:] 16 ‘But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’

Saint Editha represented in a statue in the south-east corner of the chancel in Saint Editha’s Church, Tamworth (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2023)

Today’s Prayer:

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Reflections from the International Consultation.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by Michael Clarke of the West Indies.

The Prayer in the USPG Prayer Diary today (26 July 2023) invites us to pray in these words:

Help us Lord, that by understanding our past, we can help tackle modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

Collect:

Lord God of Israel,
who bestowed such grace on Anne and Joachim
that their daughter Mary grew up obedient to your word
and made ready to be the mother of your Son:
help us to commit ourselves in all things to your keeping
and grant us the salvation you promised to your people;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion:

Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name,
your servants Anne and Joachim revealed your goodness
in a life of tranquillity and service:
grant that we who have gathered in faith around this table
may like them know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge
and be filled with all your fullness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org