St George's Chapel

The present St George’s chapel was not built until the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, but there was a smaller chantry chapel on the same site in the twelth or thirteenth century. This older chapel had a pitched roof and the line of the gutter at the join of this roof with the outside north wall of the chancel can be seen cutting across the lower clerestory. Underneath a fourteenth century pointed arch in the North wall is a unique recumbent effigy of Baldwin de Witney, Dean of Tamworth, who rebuilt the church after its destruction by fire in 1345. The vestments are those of a secular Canon, consisting of cassock, suplice and tippet with hood drawn over the head. This is the only known example in England of this arranging of vestments. Dean Witney died in 1369. In April 1882, the niches in the East wall of the chapel were restored and later filled with the figures of St. Chad, patron saint of Lichfield Cathedral and St. George. Also new stone sedilia were built and choir stalls and other furniture fitted. The chapel floor was raised to its present level in 2003 and the chapel now forms a completely separate part of the church in which to hold communion services, meetings, etc.