For the first day of St Editha's Way, see here. I had walked from Polesworth to Tamworth and stayed in Tamworth overnight. Today, the journey continued to Lichfield.
I think I was the only person staying in the hotel last night. Certainly I was the only person having breakfast. I felt a little sorry for the two men who had had to get up early to cook and serve it to their one and only customer.
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| Tamworth Castle, Monday morning |
St Ruffin's Well was mentioned on the pilgrimage brochure as a place to see. I hadn't found it yesterday, so I went back to the castle area to take a look. I don't think there's been a well there for a long time, but there is a plaque tacked on to the wall of the shopping centre, giving an approximate location. I also wandered over to Borrowpit Lake while I was waiting for St Editha's Church to open.
St Editha's, Tamworth, is a very impressive building. Tall arches, painted ceilings, and modern wooden partitions for cafe and shop areas. A couple of people were packing up harvest donations, and someone was setting out cups for the cafe. I expected a display about St Editha's Way, or at least a stack of leaflets somewhere, but I didn't see anything. I did find the modern statue of St Editha, though.
It was still fairly early so I dropped into the library, right next door to the church - how civilised! The local history books were tucked away at the far end of the top floor. I spent a few minutes dipping into old stories about the River Trent, then decided it was time to get walking again.
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| in the library |
The next location on the pilgrimage route was Spital Chapel, north of the town centre. It's hidden between two roads, but unfortunately the gates to access it are only open between May and August. I couldn't see a thing.
My church visits the day before had been lovely - an immersive experience of a beautiful tradition not my own - but, I wondered, had it been a little too... nice? What about faith in the tougher places of life? Well, the next part of my pilgrimage took me across a 1960s housing estate, past two more churches serving their local area (St Andrew's Methodist and St Francis' Anglican), and then into an industrial estate. Tamworth Building Plastics and a Dulux Decorator outlet certainly provided a stark contrast to ancient chapels with stained glass.
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| Methodist Church |
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| Anglican Church |
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| Industrial estate |
I crossed the River Tame, with the hills of Hopwas Hays Wood rising in front of me. In Hopwas village is a pub called the Tame Otter - a neatly ambiguous name.
Going over the river seemed to have taken me from the territory of St Editha into the land of St Chad. My first St Chad's church was in Hopwas. It was built in a vernacular style, meaning it somewhat resembles a half-timbered cottage.
Behind the church, a path led into the woods. This area is an MoD firing range; you can only walk through when it's not in use. The most useful online source for firing times that I found was the Whittington Council Facebook page. There's also a phone number that you can call. The alternative route is straight along the main road, so I was glad there was no firing today. The woods were beautiful.
Danger to life and limb continued once I had navigated the firing ranges. On the other side of the road was a newly-built golf course ("very expensive to join," said the dog-walker I met) which warned me of Deep Water and Flying Balls, and once I'd got past that I reached an HS2 site where I was at Risk of Injury from Construction Activities.
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| crossing the A38 |
It was quite a relief to safely reach Darnford Park, where I flopped onto a bench and lunched on russet apples and cold spring rolls.
Darnford Park is long and thin, wedged in next to the A38. I followed it down to the end and turned right into a well-to-do housing estate. St Michael's Church was next to the railway. It had a pretty graveyard and a woman sweeping the porch, so I didn't go in.
A little further on was the second St Chad's. This church stands on the site where St Chad built an oratory, and has a spring in the churchyard, now known as St Chad's Well, where he baptised people. It has been a place of pilgrimage for centuries.
There was no escaping harvest festival on this walk. I was confronted by a basket of huge leeks as I walked into the church, and mildly amused by the tastefully arranged displays of cup-a-soup and tinned sardines on the windowsills. It didn't detract from the overall beauty of St Chad's, though.
As for the well: I would have been quite happy just to stay and sit there all afternoon. It would be a perfect place to end a pilgrimage. Especially when I looked down into the duckweedy water and spotted a small, brown, golden-eyed frog peering back up at me.
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| right in the middle there - see? |
I had one final destination to reach. Lichfield Cathedral was just at the other end of Stowe Pool. I've been here often but there is always something new to see. On this occasion it was a tremendously long table made out of bog oak - a prehistoric oak tree which fell down thousands of years ago and was preserved in the East Anglian fens. Tamworth Castle had had a fireplace carved out of this rare material, too. There were signs explaining the whole process from tree to table.
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| Lichfield Cathedral from Stowe Pool |
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| St Chad |
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| the oak table |
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| the fireplace at Tamworth Castle |
To celebrate the end of my walk, I treated myself to a pot of tea and a scone. Then I hopped on the 765 bus back to Tamworth, collected my car, and drove back to Lichfield to attend Evening Prayer at the cathedral. It was a short service from the 1662 prayer book, with a congregation of about ten. The west front of Lichfield Cathedral was glowing in the evening light and, as I joined in with the ancient words in this ancient building, I felt a great sense of satisfaction. The pilgrimage was complete.
O Lord, shew thy mercy upon us: And grant us thy salvation.
6 October 2025
10 miles / 16 km
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