William Cook visits Samuel Johnson’s Lichfield house and Tamworth, home to Robert Peel and Queen Aethelflaed
Sometimes, it’s the strangest things that bring you back to places you’ve forgotten.
What brought me back to Staffordshire was seeing a statue of Sir Robert Peel in Tamworth, his adopted home town, concealed in a big black box to protect it from protestors. This surreal spectacle reminded me what fun I used to have in Tamworth, and how I’d love to go there again.
I first set foot in Staffordshire 35 years ago, when I scraped a place at Keele University, near Stoke-on-Trent. In the idle years that followed I got to know this enigmatic county fairly well. Two of my student friends got married and bought a house in Tamworth, and I spent many happy weekends there. They left Tamworth 20 years ago and, this year, they got divorced. This news was a shock – it felt as if a chapter of my life had ended.
And then I saw that statue of Sir Robert Peel, boarded up outside Tamworth Town Hall. It may sound daft, but something seemed to be calling me back to Staffordshire again.
Like most oldies, I try to see both sides in any quarrel. I was glad that the statue of Edward Colston was removed, and saddened when Churchill’s statue was defaced, but it seems the targeting of Sir Robert Peel was a case of mistaken identity. It was Peel’s father (also called Robert) who opposed the abolition of slavery, not his son, who created the modern Conservative Party and founded the Metropolitan Police (another sin in statue-topplers’ eyes). Here’s hoping his statue is uncovered as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, there’s lots more to see in Tamworth, and Staffordshire’s other market towns – such as Newcastle-under-Lyme, in the Potteries, and Leek, the gateway to the Peaks.
Staffordshire is one of England’s less fashionable counties. Sandwiched between Stoke and Birmingham, it’s a place people tend to pass through in a hurry on the way to somewhere else. But if you take the trouble to stop off and nose around, you’ll find plenty of surprises. Maligned, neglected Tamworth is a perfect case in point.
The ancient capital of Mercia, Tamworth has a long and illustrious history but, during the 1960s, its town planners had a jolly good go at eradicating it. Hundreds of antique buildings were torn down and replaced with modern eyesores. If you can ignore these monstrosities, there’s still loads here to discover. Twenty years since my last visit, Tamworth is on the up.
An unsung champion of the town’s rich heritage is David Biggs, chairman of the local Civic Society. His parents started the society in 1973 – he revived it in 2015. He met me outside the train station, beneath a striking modern statue of Aethelflaed (aka Ethelfleda), the formidable woman who ruled Mercia, repelled the Vikings and laid the foundations for modern England.
Our first stop was St Editha’s, Tamworth’s grand old parish church. Established in the eighth century as part of the palace of King Offa, it’s a spectacular mishmash of Romanesque and Gothic, with some stunning Victorian stained glass (by Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown for William Morris) and a fine, modern window, depicting Queen Aethelflaed, donated by David and his sister Susan in memory of their parents.
After a light lunch at the 15th-century Tudor House Café we dropped in on Sue Verity, a local artist, in her compact studio next door. Sue paints dramatic portraits and cityscapes (Peaky Blinders and Birmingham are her specialities).
It’s fantastic to see creative industries thriving here, even in the wake of COVID. Now big firms are cutting back, Sue believes it’s time for smaller businesses like hers to come into their own, especially in smaller places like Tamworth. ‘I’ve never been so busy,’ she says. ‘You feel the history around you every day.’
Back in the town centre, we met up with George Greenaway, an affable chap who runs an award-winning microbrewery called the Tamworth Tap. George led me down a narrow alley, into a cosy courtyard which he’s converted into an intimate beer garden.
How heartening that punters are prepared to pay a bit more to sup the ales he brews in such a convivial hideaway, rather than staying in and drinking supermarket booze in front of the telly.
We finished our tour high above the old town, standing on the battlements of one of England’s finest motte-and-bailey castles. The curator, Louise Troman, took time out to show me round. Inhabited from Saxon times through to the Victorian era, Tamworth Castle is intensely atmospheric, terrific fun for families, and the views of the surrounding countryside are sublime.
Tamworth, full of hidden treasures, is mainly a day-trip destination. If you’re planning a weekend away, make your base in Lichfield, 15 minutes away by car or train. Since my last visit, 20 years ago, this charming cathedral town has continued to flourish. The cathedral is beautiful, of course, and the setting makes it special – surrounded by handsome townhouses, framed by lush green fields beyond.
Apart from the cathedral, Lichfield’s main attraction is the large, ramshackle house where Samuel Johnson was born and raised. His father built it himself, to house his bookshop and his family. Though it was far too big and grand for a struggling bookseller, it was a perfect place for his precocious son to browse.
Today it’s a delightful museum, stuffed with Johnsonian ephemera – much of it acquired from the family of Francis Barber, the Jamaican slave turned manservant to whom Johnson left much of his estate.
After Johnson died, Barber left London and moved to Lichfield, but he fell on hard times and had to sell many of the items he’d inherited from Johnson. This suitably eccentric museum is a fitting home for them. I was thrilled to learn that Barber’s family still live in Staffordshire – the closest thing Dr Johnson has to direct descendants.
Equally enthralling is the house of Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin and an important scientist in his own right. Erasmus was a successful medic, with a thriving local practice, but he still found time for all sorts of experiments and inventions. He dreamt up countless prototypes, including a rudimentary robot. He even anticipated his grandson’s ideas about evolution.
Alongside luminaries such as James Watt and Josiah Wedgwood, Erasmus set up the Lunar Society, which provided the intellectual impetus for the Industrial Revolution. His grandson wrote his biography, acknowledging his immense influence; it was suppressed until the 1970s.
The best thing about Lichfield is simply wandering around town, admiring the gorgeous architecture and wondering what it’d be like to live here. The town is mainly Georgian, but there are many medieval buildings too, and it’s not just a place to gawp at – there are lots of quirky shops and cafés.
I ended up in the cathedral, just in time for evening prayers. There were only a dozen of us there, all social-distancing, so small and inconsequential in this huge and holy space. It made me think of all the other ups and downs this place of worship has endured – besieged during the Civil War, desecrated by iconoclasts…
These violent disputes put our current troubles in perspective – even the coronavirus. I returned to London feeling a lot calmer, determined to return as soon as possible.
