Lichfield Cathedral

Three spires, known as the Ladies of the Vale, rise over the close and make Lichfield the only medieval English cathedral to keep all three. The building is red sandstone, largely thirteenth and fourteenth century, and it was fought over and wrecked during the seventeenth century, losing its central spire and all its medieval glass; the present glass in the Lady Chapel is sixteenth-century Flemish, bought in the 1800s from a dissolved abbey near Liège. The Lichfield Gospels, an illuminated manuscript of around 730 with full-page carpet pages and a portrait of St Luke, are kept in the chapter house, one of very few Anglo-Saxon books still in the church it was made for. The Lichfield Angel, a carved limestone panel of about 800, was found under the nave floor in 2003.

What you actually see

• The three spires - the only complete medieval trio in England.
• The Lichfield Gospels - an illuminated book of around 730, kept on site.
• The Lichfield Angel - a carved panel of about 800 found beneath the nave in 2003.
• The Herkenrode glass - sixteenth-century Flemish windows bought in the 1800s.

When to go

Year-round; entry is free and the cathedral opens daily. The Gospels and the Angel are displayed in the chapter house with seasonal hours. The Lichfield Festival runs in July.

Honest expectations

The Gospels are shown one opening at a time in a case, not browsable. Much of the medieval carving on the west front is Victorian replacement after seventeenth-century damage. Tower tours are infrequent and book quickly.

Nearby

Lichfield's Georgian centre and the Samuel Johnson birthplace are a short walk; Birmingham lies south.