Lichfield District


Lichfield is a local government district in Staffordshire, England. It is administered by Lichfield District Council, based in Lichfield.
The dignity and privileges of the City of Lichfield are vested in the parish council of the 14 km² Lichfield civil parish. The non-metropolitan district of Lichfield covers nearly 25 times this area and its local authority is Lichfield District Council.
The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by a merger of the existing City of Lichfield with most of the Lichfield Rural District.

Etymology

holds that a thousand Christians were martyred in Lichfield around AD 300, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and that 'Lichfield' thus meant the 'dead's field'. No corroboratory physical or near-contemporary evidence has been found for this. At Wall, to the south of the city stood a Romano-British village called Letocetum with a high probability formed from the British for "grey wood", this then evolved into "Lich". The second part is common, the Great Vowel Shift had its effect on the Old English "feld", meaning field i.e. open country. In that sense 'Lichfield' would be a grey wood's clearing, perhaps referring to varieties of tree prominent in the landscape, such as ash and elm.

Politics

Elections to the borough council are held every four years, with all of the 56 seats on the council being elected. After being under Labour from the 1995 election, the Conservative party gained a majority at the 1999 election and have retained control ever since.
Following the 2011 United Kingdom local elections and subsequent by-elections, the political composition of Lichfield council is as follows:
YearConservativeLabourLiberal Democrat
201445101

Demographics

According to 2008 estimates, the population of Lichfield district is 97,900. At the time of the 2001 UK Census, Lichfield district's population was 93,232. The figures below are also from the 2001 UK Census.
50.89% of the population was female, leaving 49.11% of the population being male.
Christians made up 80.44% of the population, with 11.95% of the population having no religion, 1.05% being from other religions and 6.56% who didn't state a religion.
The ethnicity of the Lichfield District was residents were 96.5% White British, followed by an increase of residents who were 1.6% South Asian and the rest of the population were residents from 1.4% Other.

Settlements within the district

Adventure and excitement

Plans have been approved for Friarsgate, a new £100 million shopping and leisure complex opposite Lichfield City Station. The police station, bus station, Ford garage and multi-storey car park will be demolished to make way for new retail space and leisure facilities consisting of a flagship department store, six-screen cinema, hotel, 37 individual shops, 56 apartments and over 700 car parking spaces.

Staffordshire Hoard Discovery

Discovered in a field near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield City, in Staffordshire, on 5 July 2009, the Staffordshire Hoard is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork ever found. It consists of nearly 4,000 items that are nearly all martial in character. The artefacts have tentatively been dated to the 7th or 8th centuries, placing the origin of the items in the time of the Kingdom of Mercia.
The hoard was valued at £3.285 million, and was purchased by the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery where items from the hoard are displayed.