Lichfield

Cathedral city in Staffordshire, central England, in the Trent Valley, 25 km/16 mi northeast of Birmingham; population (2001) City 27,900; Non-Metropolitan District 93,200. It offers financial and banking services, and has a mixed industrial base. Substantial military barracks are located on the edge of the city. The cathedral (13th-14th century) has three spires. The writer Samuel Johnson was born in Lichfield in 1709.

The Early English and Decorated-style cathedral contains the Lichfield Gospels (a manuscript dating from the 8th century) and The Sleeping Children (1817) of Francis Chantrey. The birthplace of Samuel Johnson is now a museum. On the edge of Stowe Pool is the church and well of St Chad, who settled here in 669 and became the first bishop of Lichfield. There is a statue to Capt Edward Smith of the Titanic in the city park.

Famous people The antiquarian Elias Ashmole was born here in 1617. The writer Joseph Addison and the actor David Garrick lived in Lichfield.