The Beginning St Chad's Church was founded by Chad in AD 669.  There has been a church on this site for over 1300 years.  In the year 669 Chad came to Lichfield to be its first bishop and he settled his habitation at a secluded place in a shallow, watery valley where a stream divided to form a small island.  Here he founded a small monastery, beside a well of spring water. This was where he baptised his converts, and close by he built a church which he dedicated to St Mary.  After his death, this little church was re-dedicated in his name and has continued the work of God to this day. Chad died in 672 and was buried near the church.  In 700 his bones were removed to the new cathedral in Lichfield which had just been completed; his shrine became a centre of pilgrimage.  The present location of the bones is uncertain, however, there are some bones, thought to be of St Chad, in Birmingham Roman Catholic Cathedral. The Early Church Nothing remains of the original Saxon church, but it is thought to have been a small building built of stone or wood with a thatched roof and small windows. The church was rebuilt in stone during the twelfth century and parts of this building are incorporated into the present building. It comprised of a nave, chancel and two side aisles that were covered by a single steeply pitched roof. This roof came down below the top of the windows which were set in gables, the line of which can still be seen, together with the rounded Norman window arches on both the inside and outside wall of the south aisle. The entrance to the Norman church was through the west door where the tower now stands. Thirteenth Century During the thirteenth century much work was done to the building. The outer walls were built up to the level of the tops of the windows enabling a shallower pitched single span roof to be put in place. As a result of this, the gables disappeared and the Norman windows were replaced by the existing pointed arches. At the same time the rounded pillars that support the nave were rebuilt. Those on the south side are hexagonal and date from the earlier part of the century, while those on the north are octagonal and are thought to have been built during the latter part of the century. The mouldings, caps and bases differ in every detail. The trefoil-headed south door in the porch was built during the early years of the century and is thought to be the earliest part of the present structure. The tower was started towards the end of the thirteenth century and completed in the fourteenth century. During its construction a small window, high up on the western wall of the nave had to be blocked up. Its remains can still be seen above the tower arch. It is thought that this window was part of a priest’s chamber against the west wall of the church, enabling the priest to watch the interior of the building and the altar lights. In 1257, Agnes, daughter of Hugh Robus, an eminent citizen of Lichfield, endowed a chantry in which masses were to be said for the souls of Roger de Wesenham, Bishop of Lichfield and his predecessors. This was at the east end of the north aisle, where the vestry stands today. It was abolished at the time of the reformation. Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries many small changes took place. The window’s in the chancel illustrate the changing styles of church architecture. The middle lancet window from the thirteenth century is flanked on one side by a fourteenth-century widow in the decorated style and on the other by a fifteenth- century perpendicular style window. The east window is another fine example of the decorated or geometrical style constructed about 1300, The stained glass was designed by Richard T. Bayne and manufactured by Heaton, Butler & Bayne, probably at the beginning of the twentieth century. It is believed that Dr Johnson frequently attended services at St Chad’s. Catherine Chambers, his mother’s maid-servant, and Lucy Porter, his step daughter are both buried in St Chad’s [note the tablets on the south wall of the choir]. The altar rail is a good example of seventeenth-century woodwork. The Civil War In 1643 the Cathedral Close was besieged, first by the Parliamentary forces under Robert Lord Brooke, and then by Prince Rupert and the Royalists. During the first siege the Parliamentary troops occupied St Chad’s, using it as a storehouse for their scaling ladders and equipment. Although no fighting took place here, the church was considerably damaged by cannon ball, musket and wanton destruction. The worst damage was to the roof which had to be completely rebuilt. This took the form of three separate roofs over the nave and the two aisles, very much as it is today, and the brick clerestory was added at this time. The use of brick was probably due to the fact that the cathedral was being rebuilt at the same time and this must have made it difficult to obtain the necessary supplies of stone and skilled masons. Holes in the main stone work were filled in with red bricks and tiles. The Perpendicular style font dates from about 1450. This was moved from the rear of the church to its position in the Lady Chapel in the late 1990s to make way for the present carpeted welcome area. The altar and the chest in the Lady Chapel date from 1658 and 1669 respectively. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, church life was generally at a low ebb in England. At St Chad’s there was only one service a week, on Sunday evenings and Holy Communion was celebrated only three times a year There was no choir and the psalms were intoned by the clerk who sat in the bottom deck of a two-decker pulpit. St Chad’s only had a curate at this time who was responsible to the vicar of St Mary’s Church. He preached from the top deck of the pulpit after taking off his surplice and donning a black gown. The congregation sat in high box-pews, which had seats on all four sides thus, some sat with their backs to the preacher. Each pew was occupied by members of a particular family who paid rent for it. The families would be shown to their pew by the official ‘Pew Opener’ who unlocked it for them. Those who could not afford a pew sat on benches placed down the central aisle. There are small holes in the nave pillars indicating where the box pews were fixed. In 1840 it was found necessary to rebuild the north aisle. This was done in the Victorian ‘Gothic’ style, which makes an interesting contrast with the mediaeval Gothic of the south aisle. However, it was not until the Reverend John Graham’s time (1854—93) that major work was undertaken to restore the building to a sound condition. Starting in 1862 the chance and the chance] arch were thoroughly restored, the brick clerestory was removed from where it extended over the chancel and a new roof was constructed. The choir vestry was built and the churchyard was enclosed with a wall and railings. All this cost £7,200, a tremendous sum for the parish at that time. John Graham’s next project was to build a rectory and so make the parish independent of St Mary’s. In so doing the incumbent was a rector in his own right. The west window was restored in 1875 and central heating was installed. The box pews were gradually phased out, although a few remained until 1905 and the double-decker pulpit was replaced. Twentieth Century Changes The present pulpit dates from about 1900 but the recess in the floor was made in 1916. The window at the east end of the south aisle was made by William Wailes of Newcastle in memory of Anne Wright Gresley. It was installed in 1864 and provides the background to the Lady Chapel altar. The Lady Chapel was dedicated in 1952 as a memorial to those who died in the Second World War The small statue of St Chad in the niche over the south porch door was the gift of Lady Blomefield in 1930. In 1949 the Deacon Memorial screen was built across the tower arch. It is in the form of a parclose screen, the theme of which intends to portray the life and interests of Alderman J. R. Deacon JP, ‘work, worship and citizenship’. The whole is surmounted by a statue of St Chad holding a model of the Cathedral and a bishop’s crozier in his right hand. The whole interior of the church was re decorated at this time. In 1952 a new roof and ceiling were put over the nave. Metal was used instead of wood which had been ravaged by death-watch beetle. Electric lighting was also installed to replace gas. Old crumbling buttresses were replaced in 1956 at the south-west corner of the tower and the chancel was restored. This involved much new stone for the walls, cills and mullions of the windows. The east window was removed, re-leaded, cleaned and replaced. The present choir stalls also date from this time. The tower timbers were replaced in 1957, a new floor installed in the belfry in 1982 and finally, in 1996, the font was moved to the Lady Chapel. The pews were removed from the hack of the nave and the north aisle. During this period a new inner porch and welcome area were built.