- published: 19 Jul 2012
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Coordinates: 52°41′01″N 1°49′36″W / 52.6835°N 1.82653°W / 52.6835; -1.82653
Lichfield ( /ˈlɪtʃfiːld/) is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly 25 km (16 mi) north of Birmingham. In 2008, its population was estimated at 30,583 and the wider Lichfield district at 97,900.
Notable for its three-spired medieval cathedral, Lichfield was the birthplace of Samuel Johnson, the writer of the first authoritative Dictionary of the English Language. The city's recorded history began when St Chad arrived to establish his Bishopric in 669 CE and the settlement grew as the ecclesiastical centre of the Kingdom of Mercia. In 2009 the Staffordshire Hoard, the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork, was found 5.9 km (3.7 mi) south west of Lichfield.
The development of the city was consolidated in the 12th century under Bishop Clinton who fortified the Cathedral Close, and also laid out the town with the ladder-shaped street pattern that survives to this day. Lichfield's heyday was in the 18th century when it developed into a thriving coaching city. This was a period of great intellectual activity, the city being the home of many famous people including Samuel Johnson, David Garrick, Erasmus Darwin and Anna Seward, and prompted Johnson's remark that Lichfield was "a city of philosophers".
The Bishop of Lichfield is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield in the Province of Canterbury.
The diocese covers 4,516 km² (1,744 sq. mi.) of the counties of Staffordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and West Midlands. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The Bishop's residence is Bishop's House, Lichfield. In the past, the title has had various forms (see below). The present bishop is the Right Reverend Jonathan Gledhill, the 98th Lord Bishop of Lichfield, who signs Jonathan Lichfield.
The diocese of Mercia was founded 656 by Diuma with its see at Repton. When Chad was made Bishop in 669, he moved his seat to Lichfield, thus the diocese was named after that city. In 691 the area over which the bishop held authority was divided to form the smaller dioceses of Lichfield, Leicester, Lindsey, Worcester and Hereford.
Actors: Philip Jackson (actor), Geoffrey Beevers (actor), Samuel West (actor), Geoffrey Palmer (actor), Greg Bennett (actor), Jeremy Child (actor), Robert Cooper (producer), Oliver Ford Davies (actor), Michael Cochrane (actor), James Laurenson (actor), Charlotte Holdich (costume designer), Geoffrey Whitehead (actor), Geoffrey Whitehead (actor), Christian Rodska (actor), Sylvestra Le Touzel (actress),
Plot: In a post-war election Margaret Roberts, University educated daughter of shop-keeper Alf from Grantham, is determined to get herself elected as a prospective Parliamentary candidate for the Consevative party but without any success. Although her friend Patricia wins a seat,the notion of a woman candidate is frowned upon by Old Guard members like Sir John Sowdon and she gets no support from fellow hopeful - who does get elected - Ted Heath. But she is tenacious and committed and, loyally backed by her business-man husband Dennis finally wins that coveted seat in parliament a decade on. She has successfully completed that long walk to Finchley.
Keywords: 1950s, british-history, election, english-politics, jaguar-car, member-of-parliament, parliament, satire, sex-discrimination