Happy
New Year to you all! Earlier this week, on January 2, it was the Feast Day of The
Thousand Holy Martyrs of Lichfield, who may – or may not – have been slain for
their faith. St Amphibaus (whose existence is equally questionable) and his 999
followers were slaughtered (allegedly) on the orders of the Roman Emperor
Diocletian at the start of the 4th century, on a site now known as Christian
Fields (what else could it be called!). And since the area, now a Local Nature
Reserve, is only a short drive away, and since I am trying to walk for at least
20 minutes every day, I thought I would pay a visit, accompanied by the Man Of
The House, and I took some photos there for today's Saturday Snapshot.
At
this time of year the countryside (I know this is not really the countryside,
but it’s certainly not an urban area) always looks rather dead, but the bare
branches against the sky looked really stunning, as did the bleached stems of
grasses and other plants, and there were lots of mosses and lichens to look at.
However, it was indescribably muddy, as a result of all the rain we’ve had, and
highlighted how much I need a pair of decent walking boots!
The
area is right on the edge of the city, and contains the remains of a Saxon
walkway known as The Dimbles – a dimble, apparently, is a raised earth walkway
with a ditch on both sides. Sadly, it’s very difficult to photograph this
feature, but as we wandered round it was interesting to think men and women
were living and working here some 1,400 years ago.
More
recently part of the site was once used for landfill, but by the time I worked in
Lichfield during the late 1990s, it had become a kind of unofficial wild area,
and there was an old lady called Bertha who lived there in a caravan – a little
like Alan Bennett’s ‘Lady in the Van’, I guess. She was something of a local
character, and had a collection of dogs which she wheeled around in a pram.
These
days it’s maintained by Lichfield District Council, with help from volunteers,
and there’s a surprising variety of landscapes, including grassland, woods,
hedges, and scrubby areas, as well as streams, and a recently created pool.
Work is still being carried out to improve the site, and hopefully there will eventually
be information boards to explain the history and tell visitors about the
wildlife and habitats. We will certainly return during the summer, to take
another look.
Meanwhile,
if you’re wondering about that story of the Martyrs, no firm evidence has ever
come to light to prove they existed, although it is thought that early
Christians may have met and worshipped at Christian Fields. And for many years
people believed Lichfield got its name from Lyke-field, ‘ field of dead’, but
it is now thought to mean ‘common
pasture beside grey wood’, which is not nearly as romantic.
Anyway,
the tale seems to have to have surfaced during the 12th century, but was largely
ignored until 1548, when the city was incorporated as a borough and needed a
badge, or coat of arms - what we would now call a brand image. At the same time
leading citizens were concerned that the Reformation had killed off the pilgrim
trade (in Medieval times people flocked to Lichfield to the shrine of St Chad, but
this was no longer possible in the Protestant England of Edward VI). The city fathers must have been looking for a way to win their visitors back that wouldn’t land them in trouble for appearing to have links with Catholicism.
So,
in what sounds like a pretty astute marketing ploy, they took up the tale of
early Christian Martyrs, and used an image of dismembered bodies on the city’s coat
of arms and the civic seal, and the massacre that may never have happened was woven into the city’s history. Whatever the truth of the matter, this particular site was used by the Anglo Saxons, and perhaps one day we may be able to discover more of its history. For more Saturday Snapshots see Alice's blog at http://athomewithbooks.net/
Information from http://www.lichfielddc.gov.uk and http://lichfieldlore.co.uk/
