Tideswell is a special place in our family. As a 16 year old I would go to the Travellers' Rest with my brother Brian to "Folk Night" - loved it. 
I have a lovely memory of mum and I going to the Flower Festival in Tideswell Cathedral The Cathedral is so impressive, it towers above the small village but somehow feels like a well loved local church. Every, six years they hold a flower festival. My oh My....They set a theme, import flowers from all over the world and everyone lets their imagination go wild... (see my blog for some of the Harry Potter displays).
When, on the death of Henry II, the royal manor of Hope passed to his son, John, it took with it a a chapel at Tideswell, attached as it was to the mother church of Hope. Church and chapel were in due course conferred upon the Dean and Chapter of Lichfield and the Norman chapel was still in existence when Tideswell became a separate parish around 1250.
In the first half of the following century, work began on a parish church of grand proportions and delicate detail. It took an estimated thirty to sixty years to build, progressing from the Decorated period of architecture to the Perpendicular, as seen in the west window of the splendid pinnacled tower, inserted as the church was nearing completion. It is said that when the workmen reached the level of the belfry windows they were joined by an inquisitive cat, whose likeness they carved on the spot and which still peeps around the north-west angle of the tower.
Love it!
