Country Images Magazine Derby Edition September 2017 | Page 13

Erasmus Darwin’s house where Th e Lunar Society met.
Above: Dr Johnson’s study.
Right: Diorama of members of Th e Lunar Society
Oats:
A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports
the people.
A narrow passageway with barely enough room for two people to pass, leads
away from the square. Beyond a small car park at its far end, the view of the
triple-spired cathedral opens above an attractive pond, the Minster Pool,
home for several varieties of ducks and swans. Th e fi rst cathedral was built
on the present site in 700AD by Bishop Headda to house the bones of St
Chad; they had become the centre of a sacred shrine the veneration of many
pilgrims when he died in 672AD. Th e burial in the cathedral of the kings
of Mercia, Wulfh ere in 674 and Ceolred in 716, further increased the city’s
prestige. In 786 King Off a made the city an archbishopric with authority
over all bishops from the Humber to the River Th ames: his fi rst appointee
was Archbishop Hygeberht. Aft er King Off a’s death in 795, Lichfi eld’s
power waned, but in 803 the primacy was restored to Canterbury by Pope
Leo III aft er only 16 years.
During the 9 th century, Mercia was devastated by attacks from Danish
Vikings. As Lichfi eld was un-walled, the Vikings had little diffi culty in
sacking the place and burning the cathedral. For safety the then Bishop Peter
moved the see to the fortifi ed and wealthier Chester in 1075. At the time
of the Domesday Book (1086), Lichfi eld is recorded as being held by the
Bishop of Chester; Lichfi eld was classed as a small village. It took until 1195
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