Cathedral and Close are finely set in the ancient City of Lichfield, which still bears the marks of Bishop de Clinton, who laid it out on a grid pattern in the 13th century. To the south is St John’s Hospital, once a Hospice for pilgrims visiting the Cathedral. Walk from here into the city and you pass the site of the Friary, suppressed in1538. In the Market Place, Johnson’s Birthplace stands next to St Mary’s Church, which is now the Heritage Centre, exhibiting much of the city’s colourful history.

Walk eastwards, past St Michael’s Church, with its very large churchyard, and you come to St Chad’s Church, built on the site of the ancient well used by St Chad in the 7th century. From here you can see, across the Stowe Pool, the three spires of the Cathedral pointing to Heaven, but the earthly focus of 1300 years of Christian history.