The history and antiquities of the Collegiate Church of
Tamworth, in the county of
Stafford,
by
Charles Palmer
Publisher: Hanse Books
Published in 2016
ISBN-10: 374119414X
Reviewed for Volume 1 Issue 2 Spring 2023
The Review
The history and antiquities of the Collegiate Church of Tamworth is the missing book in the history of St Editha’s Church. Almost everyone who has an interest in St Editha’s church knows about the 1935 Chas. Mitchell book: Tamworth Parish Church and the 1845 Charles Palmer: The history of the town and castle of Tamworth. However many have noted that the 1845 Palmer book has assumptions, inaccuracies. Also that it seemed to be missing some information. Charles Palmer knew this himself and when in 1871 he wrote this second book on just St Editha’s church (no town or castle) he admitted such omissions and inaccuracies in the preface saying “When larger and brighter prospects of research dawned upon us and the grand archives of the kingdom and private collections of manuscripts were open to us, we betook ourselves to enlarge, to correct, and to mould again. And we succeeded even beyond our highest hopes in throwing new and important lights upon our subject“. Thus saying, Palmer has written the review for me!
Palmer indicates that for this book they had access to many more registers, documents, manuscripts and archives locally and nationally including those of the British Museum. As Tamworth had many Royal connections, including title to the Church itself, much of the documentation was preserved nationally not locally.
However now, over 100 years on, we can put it in context. This slim volume connects the 1845 Palmer to the 1935 Mitchell and as Mitchell (1873-1947) knew Palmer (1819-1900): this book completes the chain of first-hand knowledge of St Edith’s from the mid-1800s though to the mid-1900s where we have people still living and better records.
Sadly, although photography had been invented a couple of decades before, the book only has a few drawings in it. |
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The good news is that there are inexpensive (£15-£20) modern reprints of this 1872 book. It is highly recommended because it completes the 1845 book and whilst Mitchell references this book he does not replicate the information in his 1935 book so you need it to fill in the information. So if you have an interest in the history of St Editha’s this book is essential.
