Lichfields Cathedral, three spires, founded in 800 AD and built from 1195. (Wikimedia Commons)
Lichfield Legends…
Me and my team of Legend Hunters are going to do a YouTube documentary, school teaching program and a Podcast about some Lichfield Legends later this year.
Lichfield has been around a long time, like a really long time since it was a Roman settlement, though there have been finds that refer to bronze age settlements.
A local Lichfield absolute goddess of knowledge about Lichfield and area is author Kate Gomez, “Lichfield Lore” herself. She knows so much and if you want to immerse yourself in knowledge about where I live, her work is exceptional: lichfieldlore.co.uk
Lichfield was seen as a place of thought leadership in England. We have Dr Johnson from here who created the world’s first meaningful English dictionary, with his friend and biographer, James Boswell. Elias Ashmole who founded the world famous museum at Oxford University and of course Erasmus Darwin who was grandfather to Charles Darwin. Erasmus wrote about the idea of evolution first and was a first rate physician and scientist.
Darwin was part of the Lunar society in Birmingham, founded by industrialist Matthew Boulton, the man who financed James Watt’s steam engine and so kick-started our industrial revolution.
This Lunar Society was about as intellectually high powered as you could get. It had: Boulton & Watt, Josiah Wedgewood, Joseph Priestley the gas guy, William Withering the Digoxin bloke, William Small who taught Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin. In 1792 Darwin was inducted into the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.
Well, we’re not doing them…
We are tracking down some amazing women, they are mainly real people but there are some folklore queens we just cannot miss out on!
How about being so pissed off with the Bishop of Lichfield you galloped up here from London so you could do a poo on the Bishops throne?
Or Ann Seward, an absolutely superb poet rated so exceptionally.
If you want to join the team, help make a video or do research let us know!
Email us via the Contact Page.