St Editha was a Mercian saint who was Abbess of Polesworth in Warwickshire in the 10th century. Mercia was one of the old kingdoms and a powerful one; it covered much of the central part of the country before England was united under Æthelstan in 927. St Editha's family tree is unclear, but she may have been Æthelstan's sister. After a brief marriage, she was widowed, and took monastic vows. There are several churches dedicated to her in the Tamworth and Polesworth area.
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| modern statue of St Editha |
And now, there is a new pilgrimage route connecting St Editha's churches and going onwards to Lichfield Cathedral. Early on a Sunday morning, I set out to walk it.
The logistics had taken a bit of working out. I drove to Tamworth (free parking on Sundays!) and caught the 748 bus to Polesworth. It was my private chariot for the first half of the journey, clattering loudly over the speed bumps, although a couple of other people got on before I alighted.
Abbey Green Park in Polesworth is full of trees and grass and the River Anker. A line of people stood on a footbridge. I thought at first that they were fishing, but as I got closed I realised they were painting the bridge green.
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| first glimpse of Polesworth Abbey |
I had plenty of time before the 10am service at Polesworth Abbey, so I strolled round the village, reading poems on the poetry trail, and admiring the abbey gatehouse and school.
It was Harvest Sunday. Polesworth Abbey was well decorated with yellow pears and green ivy, and the priest told the story of Betjeman's church mouse, for whom harvest festival was his favourite time of the year. We sang, We plough the fields and scatter. I was invited to stay for soup afterwards but decided I'd better start walking.
The Coventry Canal led me to Pooley Country Park, which serves TEAS and is dominated by a mining spoil heap from the old colliery. I bought a TEA and took it up the hill to sit on a bench next to a tall metal pole - a stack of golden birch leaves, apparently. A couple of ladies doing a charity walk asked if I would take their photo.
Through the woods, which had new birches, old oaks, and enthusiastic mushrooms, and back to the canal towpath. Alvecote Priory was next on my list of places to visit. The bits of broken wall were pleasantly evocative but curiously uncared-for. The car park had been closed due to vandalism and there were no welcoming signs or mowed paths.
My next stop was Amington St Editha's, where I spotted my first St Editha's Way sign. I couldn't go into the church because there was an 85th birthday celebration happening, a lady with a guitar told me. But I was planning to return later for a service.
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| nature jazzing up a metal fence |
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| railway viaduct at Tamworth |
Amington is more or less a suburb of Tamworth, so I followed the canal past the backs of houses and pubs, and then a road past the fronts of houses and pubs, until I arrived at the very pleasant riverside park in the centre of Tamworth. Here the Anker meets the Tame, providing a natural fortified point for the Normans to build a castle on.
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| Tamworth Castle |
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| Diamond Jubilee garden |
Tamworth Castle is brilliant. I'd arrived with plenty of time to look around before it closed at 4pm, and there can't have been more than ten of us in the whole building, so it wasn't crowded at all. It's a mixture of architectural styles, added to over the years and all wodged together on top of the castle mound, and the rooms have been decorated to represent different parts of the history of the castle.
They had a few tiny and beautiful pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard, several mentions of St Editha, who possibly haunts one of the rooms, a walkway around the battlements, and a banqueting hall. What more could you want from a castle?
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| Go St Editha! |
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| Replicas; you couldn't photograph the originals |
As well as St Editha, Tamworth holds another Anglo-Saxon woman in high esteem: Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who died at Tamworth in 918. There are several statues of her around the town.
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| at the castle |
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| on a roundabout |
I checked into the Globe Inn, where I was staying the night, then drove back to Amington to attend the 5pm Holy Communion service at St Editha's. It was still Harvest Sunday; we sang three of the same hymns as at Polesworth Abbey that morning, including, yes, We plough the fields and scatter. I received a warm welcome and decided that both services had, in the words of the Ship of Fools Mystery Worshipper reports, made me glad to be a Christian.
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| Amington St Editha's |
Back in Tamworth, I got a Chinese takeaway for dinner, and, having decided I really couldn't manage a dozen spring rolls, chow mein, and a big bag of prawn crackers all at once, packed some of it up for lunch tomorrow.
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| view from my room |
5 October 2025
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