The two side doors are deeply recessed. The figures in the northern doorway are of princes and princesses who promoted Christianity in England; and in the southern, the chief missionaries. The gable and towers are also adorned with statues of Biblical fame.
The nave is ornamented and strengthened by buttresses and flying-buttresses. In the north transept we find a handsome North Doorway, a splendid specimen of Early English with traces of the Norman. It is deeply recessed and revealing a double arch carved with foliage. The mouldings are also carved. The outer one contains bas-reliefs showing the genealogy of Christ, beginning with Jesse and ending with the Virgin and Child. On the right side, opposite Jesse, is St. Chad baptizing the sons of King Wulphere, and above are the Apostles. The architrave is surmounted by a weather moulding in the form of a gable on the top of which is a cross. The pillars on each side of the doorway have finely carved capitals and dog-tooth ornamentation. The graceful centre pillar consists of four slender shafts with carved capitals. Next comes the octagonal Chapter-House; then the choir and presbytery; and then the Lady-Chapel, entirely restored and with new saints in the niches. On the south side of the Lady-Chapel are mortuary chapels.
The south side shows the buttresses of the choir; then the turrets of the sacristy with their crocketed pinnacles; and then the South Transept, the gable of which contains a beautiful rose window. The South Door, much restored, resembles the northern one, only it is not so fine. The heavy buttresses on this side are Wyatt’s. Now we have again come to the Jesus tower (south-west), in which the ten bells are hung.
Entering by the west door, the beauty of the interior bursts upon us. We have an unbroken vista and the Cathedral therefore impresses us as immensely long. The beautiful arches of the roof carry the eye straight down to the windows of the Lady-Chapel.
The Nave is transitional from Early English to Decorated and is dated by various authorities from 1250 to 1280.
The large piers are composed of clustered shafts with richly carved capitals of foliage. From these spring mouldings. The top of each arch touches the string-course, and then comes the triforium, so beautiful here with its row of double arches, each one sub-divided into two lights, above which is geometrical tracery. Dog-tooth ornament decorates the mouldings of these triforium arches, and also the string-course that separates the triforium from the clerestory. The clerestory windows are curious: spherical triangles enclosing three circles with quatrefoil cusps. Dog-tooth ornamentation runs around the windows. A large circle with five cusps ornaments the spandrels of most of the pier-arches across which the vault shaft passes. At the intersection of the various ribs (five ribs) are finely carved bosses. Much of the effect is obtained from the size of the triforium.
The glass in the big west window dates from 1869, a memorial to Canon Hutchinson, who was a zealous worker for the Cathedral’s restoration, by Sir Gilbert Scott.
In the north aisle of the nave we note the tablet placed there by Ann Seward to the memory of her father, Canon Seward, his wife and daughter, upon which Sir Walter Scott added lines to the memory of the poetess. There is also a neighbouring tablet to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who was born in Lichfield.
In the north transept we find a curious monument to Dean Heywood (died 1492) showing the skeleton of this worthy. The upper part (which represented him in full canonical costume) has gone. Similar monuments are in Exeter and Lincoln. In the South Transept there are busts and memorials to Dr. Samuel Johnson, a native of Lichfield (died 1784), and to David Garrick (died 1779), an early resident of Lichfield. In the first bay of the aisle, there is a monument to the officers and men of the 80th Regiment (Staffordshire Volunteers), over which hang colours taken from the Sikhs. At the south end we note a fine altar to one of Nelson’s captains, Admiral Sir William Parker (died 1866). Note the big south window (Perpendicular) in which there is some Herkenrode glass ([see page 212]).
There is another memorial window in the south aisle of the nave to the officers of the 64th (2d Staffordshire Regiment) who fell in the Indian Mutiny.