Cathédrale de Lichfield

Lichfield / Royaume-Uni

La cathédrale de Lichfield est située à Lichfield, Staffordshire en Angleterre. Le présent édifice a remplacé une cathédrale romane du XIe siècle. C'est la seule cathédrale anglaise médiévale avec trois clochers. Le diocèse de Lichfield couvre l'ensemble du Staffordshire, une grande partie du Shropshire et une partie du Black Country et West Midlands. L'évêque actuel est le très révérend Jonathan Gledhill , le 98e Seigneur évêque de Lichfield. La cathédrale est dédiée à St Chad et Sainte Marie. Sa longueur intérieure est de 113 mètres , et la largeur de la nef de 21m . La flèche centrale est 77m de haut et les clochers de l'Ouest sont environ 58m . La pierre et le grès proviennent d'une carrière sur le côté sud de Lichfield. Les murs de la nef sont légèrement déversés, en raison du poids des voûtes ; quelque 200 à 300 tonnes ont été retirées lors de travaux de rénovation pour tenter de stopper le déversement. Lichfield a subi des dommages incalculables pendant la guerre civile, pendant laquelle tous les vitraux ont été détruits. En dépit de cela, les baies de la chapelle de la Vierge comportent certains des plus beaux verres peints flamands médiévaux. À l'intérieur de la cathédrale se trouve une tombe avec une inscription latine qui, une fois traduite, se lit comme suit : « Ce monument est consacré à la mémoire de Michael Johnson, un homme courageux, ferme, pleine d'entrain, indépendamment de dangers, très patient dans le travail .... Sa conversation était si châtiée, que ni douleur ni plaisir toujours amené à prononcer aucune parole qui puisse offenser les oreilles pieuses ou modeste. » Son épitaphe nous apprend que Johnson est né à Cubley, Derbyshire, en 1656 et mort en 1731. Michael Johnson était le père de Samuel Johnson de Lichfield.

Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum

Lichfield / Royaume-Uni

Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum is a biographical museum and bookshop located in the centre of the city of Lichfield, Staffordshire, in England. The building is a Grade I listed building situated at the corner of Market Street and Breadmarket Street opposite the market square.The museum opened in 1901 and is dedicated to the life and works of the author and lexicographer Samuel Johnson who wrote the first authoritative Dictionary of the English Language. Johnson's father built the house in 1707 and Samuel was born in the house on 18 September 1709 and spent the majority of his first 27 years in the house before leaving for London in 1737. The house was used as a commercial property for various trades between the time of Johnson's death in 1784 until the house was bought for the city by John Gilbert in 1900 for the purpose of retaining the building as a museum to Johnson. The house remains in active use as a museum.

Staffordshire Regiment Museum

Lichfield / Royaume-Uni

The Staffordshire Regiment Museum is a military museum in Staffordshire, England, preserving the history of the Staffordshire Regiment , its antecedent regiments and its successor regiment, the Mercian Regiment, from 1705 to the present. The Staffordshire Regiment was an Infantry regiment of the British Army, formed in 1959 by the amalgamation of the South Staffordshire Regiment and the North Staffordshire Regiment.The museum is adjacent to Whittington Barracks, the former home of The Staffordshire Regiment's antecedent regiments since 1881, and the current base for the Regimental Headquarters of The Mercian Regiment and the Defence Medical Services. It is located in Whittington, Staffordshire on the A51 Lichfield-Tamworth Road, 3 miles from Lichfield and 4 miles from Tamworth. The museum is 6 miles from the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire.

Erasmus Darwin House

Lichfield / Royaume-Uni

Erasmus Darwin was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher beginning his journals on Galapagos Islands, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet. His poems included much natural history, including a statement of evolution and the relatedness of all forms of life. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family, which includes his grandsons Charles Darwin and Francis Galton. Darwin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a discussion group of pioneering industrialists and natural philosophers. He turned down an invitation of George III's to become a physician to the King.