London Midland Railways are doing a special offer from 9th. to 24th February - go anywhere for a day on their routes for just £15 - or, even better, just £9.90 if you have a Railcard (I have). So I went on the Internet to reserve a ticket; the only Saturday available was the 9th., so I booked it, and on the day was at Euston by a quarter past eight to pay for my ticket and catch the train.
The first one to leave after I got my ticket was going to Crewe, which everyone has been through, but few people have actually been to. Apparently there's nothing much there anyway - it's main function is as a railway junction, and the station is quite a way from the town itself.
After a very pleasant journey, I got off at Stone, which is an interesting place. There is no ticket office - the station building, with its own distinctive architectural style to the design of Sir Henry Arthur Hunt, was opened on 1st. May 1849 by the North Staffordshire Railway Company and was refurbished in 2003 with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Railway Heritage Trust and the Onyx Environmetal Trust and turned into a community centre. The timetable on the notice-board is six months out of date, and all the train times have been changed, so that they now run half an hour later than the times advertised. So it's got a character all of its own even before you leave the station.
The town is about ten minutes' walk from the station, and is quite pretty, with lots of little shops, including rather a lot of charity shops - the usual British Heart Foundationand Cancer Research, and also a couple of local ones, like Katharine House Hospice - for such a small place. There is a small market selling a very limited range of items, and a large Co-op on the High Street and a Morrisons set back from it on the other side. It looks as if they have two Post Offices, one in the Co-op and another on the opposite side of the road, but in fact the one on the opposite side of the road is closing and moving into the Co-op next week.
The church is dedicated to St. Michael and St. Wulfan, and is set on a small hill away from the High Street, with several acres of land around it. It's quite imposing, and there has been a church there for centuries, but unfortunately it was locked, so i couldn't go inside. However, I did go to the Craft Fair which they were having in their hall, which is on the High Street. Most of the things on sale were new and being sold by small businesses. But there was an interesting selection.
Just away from the high Street there were obviously some nice walks along the canal, but I was starting to feel hungry by then, and as there didn't seem to be any really nice places to eat, I went back to the station - which is when I discovered that the timetables were out of date. I had to wait absolutely ages, as a train was just pulling out as I arrived.
Eventually the next one arrived, going back to Lichfield, which was where I had decided to go next. It's not far, but the London idland Station, Lichfield Trent Valley, is over a mile from the town, so I had quite a long walk. It was worth it, though.
Lichfield is a very attractive place, with everything you need in a town - piles of nice shops and restaurants, a market, a museum, several churches, a lake, and of course a cathedral. It has the honour of being the first place in England to have a proper water supply, which dates back to the 13th century.
I found a very nice little cafe to have lunch in - by then it was after three o'clock and I was starving! The staff were very attentive and the food was excellent - and very reasonably priced as well.
Then, having eaten it was time to explore the town. They still have some houses dating back to the sixteenth century, when Lichfield was an important coaching stop. St. Mary's Church has been turned into a museum, with a cafe attached, but I decided not to go to the museum - there was an entrance charge, and I really didn't have time to see more than a small proportion of what was there. So that is a stop for the next time I'm up there.
The cathedral is a bit outside the town centre, and is quite large; you have to walk right around it before you come to the entrance. Lichfield Cathedral was very much involved in the Civil War, changing hands more than once, and losing most of its treasures during a period when the Roundheads were in charge - they are reputed to have taken everything and sold them. Roundheads tended to be like that!
One of the unusual features is the Stations of the Cross by Ghislaine Howard, which are large and rather strange - without the explanation no-one would know what they were supposed to represent. They are propped up all around the church so no-one can miss them
A new Diocesan Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor were being licensed at Evensong that evening at 5.30 p.m., so there were plenty of clergy running around getting ready for the big service. I had a quick look at the order of service, and one thing that struck me forcibly was that their ordained surrogates were all male - there was just one lonely lay lady among the long list. Rather unusual outside London; in the country almost every church seems to have a female priest on the staff, even if she's only part-time. I was thinking of staying for Evensong, as it would usually be over in three quarters of an hour at the very most, but changed my mind when I saw it was likely to be rather lengthy - I didn't want to leave too late, as it was quite a walk back to the station, and one is never sure how well lit streets are going to be outside London. I remember having to find my way in almost pitch darkness in Yelverton in Devon many years ago.
Lichfield is definitely a place for a second visit, not just to see the museum, but also to spend more time in the Cathedral, whcih has been there - well, some of it, anyway - for 1300 years.
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