Lichfield Cathedral in 1859

Lichfield was an EPISCOPAL SEE jointly with Coventry, and after the demolition of the abbey and conventual buildings at Coventry, became the sole seat of the diocese: the jurisdiction extends over the counties of Derby and Stafford, and a considerable part of the county of Salop, and comprehends 401 benefices. The ecclesiastical establishment consists of a bishop, dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer, the archdeacons of Salop, Stafford, and Derby, fifteen prebendaries, five minor canons, an organist, six choristers, and other officers. The bishop has the patronage of the archdeaconries, the chancellorship, the canonries, and twenty-one benefices, with an income of £4500 per annum.

The Dean and Chapter, consisting of the precentor and fifteen prebendaries, have the patronage of the minor canonries, nine benefices, with an income of 1311, of which one-fifth part is paid to the dean, and the remainder divided equally among the canons. The minor canons form a corporation of twelve members, including five minor canons, an organist, and six choristers, with an income of £770, equally divided among them, with the exception of the choristers, who have each £2 per annum less than the minor canons. 

The Cathedral, which had been reduced during the parliamentary war to a state of extreme dilapidation, was restored by Dr. Racket, on his preferment to the united sees of Lichfield and Coventry in 1661, to its original state of splendour and magnificence; various improvements have subsequently been made, and the choir has been greatly enlarged, under the superintendence of Mr. Wyatt, by the removal of the screen in front of the Lady chapel. The prevailing character of the edifice is that of the early English, approaching very nearly to the decorated style of English architecture; the west front is magnificently rich, and the spires of the western towers are in beautiful combination with the lofty central spire; the east end is hexagonal, and the whole exterior is highly ornamented in various parts with statuary and sculpture of exquisite design and elaborate execution; the interior presents various styles, with several later insertions.

The transepts display considerable portions in the Norman character, and the choir, which deviates from the line of the nave, is in the decorated English style; it is richly ornamented, and lighted with windows of beautiful tracery: the bishop's throne, and the prebendal stalls, are fine specimens of tabernacle-work. St. Mary's chapel, built by Bishop Langton, is an edifice of elegant design, lighted with nine lofty windows, of which the three at the east end are more rich in their tracery, and are ornamented with stained glass brought by Sir Brooke Boothby from the dissolved abbey of Herckenrode, in the bishopric of Liege; in the central window on one side is a painting of the Resurrection, by Egginton, from a design by Sir Joshua Reynolds: in this chapel was the rich shrine of St. Chad, which was demolished at the Dissolution. Among the monuments that escaped the ravages of the parliamentary troops are those of Bishops Langton and Pattishull.

There are, also, a monument to Dr. Johnson; a bust of Garrick; a mutilated statue of Captain Stanley, and a monument of exquisite beauty, by Chantrey, to the memory of the infant children of Mrs. Robinson, considered as a master-piece of sculpture, and which is unrivalled for beauty of design, intensity of feeling, and force of expression. A passage from the north aisle leads to the chapter-house, a decagonal building of great elegance, of which the finely-vaulted roof is supported on a clustered central column. Above it is the library, instituted by Dean Heywood, in which are the gospels of St. Chad, a Koran taken at the siege of Huda, and a folio edition of Chaucer, richly illuminated. The bishop's palace, on the north-east side of 
the Close, is a spacious edifice. 

 

[Description(s) from The Topographical Dictionary of England (1859) by Samuel Lewis - Transcribed by Mike Harbach ©2020]