This talk will look at aspects of the history of St. Michael’s church on Greenhill in Lichfield and the surrounding area, focussing on the life and times of the parish clergy from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. From 1782 to 1946 there were just seven long serving perpetual curates or rectors of the parish who witnessed major changes in both the church and its locality. The talk will draw on material from churchwardens records, parish registers, service books, tithe allocations and censuses to present a picture of a changing parish, its clergy and its people.
Chris Baker was born and brought up, in the Black Country, and as an undergraduate studied Engineering at St. Catharine’s College, Cambridge, from where he gained his MA and PhD. After spending some time working for British Rail in Derby, he moved back into academia – firstly to the University of Nottingham, and then to the University of Birmingham, where he taught fluid mechanics to several generations of Civil Engineering students. His research interests are in the fields of wind engineering, environmental fluid mechanics and railway aerodynamics. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Institution of Highways and Transport, the Higher Education Academy and the Royal Meteorological Society. He is the holder of the International Association of Wind Engineering Senior Award – the Davenport Medal. He retired in December 2017 but continues to work on various aspects of railway aerodynamics, wind engineering and pollution and pathogen transport as Emeritus Professor of Environmental Fluid Mechanics at the University of Birmingham, as well as on aspects of Black Country and Lichfield history. He has been an Anglican clergyman since 1988 and has been attached to the parish of St. Michael-on-Greenhill in Lichfield since 1998.
