Town in Staffordshire, England
Tamworth
Once the seat of Mercian kings, Tamworth gave the world a ginger pig, a Conservative manifesto, and the name of Australia's country music capital.
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Key information
- County
- Staffordshire
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 78,000 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Anglo-Saxon royal history, Tamworth pigs, Tamworth Castle, the Snowdome
- Famous people
- Offa, Æthelflæd, Sir Robert Peel
- Football clubs
- Tamworth FC, nicknamed the Lambs
About Tamworth
A royal seat before England existed
Long before there was a country called England, Tamworth was one of the places where Mercian kings held court. The kingdom of Mercia dominated the Midlands, and in the 8th century King Offa, the man linked with the great earthwork Offa's Dyke, had a royal residence here. The town sits where the River Tame meets the River Anker, a handy spot for a stronghold. Excavations in the 20th century uncovered Anglo-Saxon remains, including a watermill, which gives a rare glimpse of everyday life around a royal centre. The name itself is simple enough: the settlement on the Tame.
The Lady who fortified the town
Tamworth's best-known Saxon figure is a woman. Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great, ruled Mercia as the Lady of the Mercians and fought back against the Danes. She fortified Tamworth in 913 and died here in 918. Her story is often overshadowed by the men around her, but she led armies and built a chain of fortified towns across the Midlands. A statue of her and her nephew Æthelstan stands by the castle. The Vikings had not forgotten the place either. In 940 Olaf Guthfrithson's forces stormed Tamworth, a reminder of how much it was worth fighting over.
Why a town in Staffordshire named an Australian city
Tamworth's political fame comes from Sir Robert Peel, who sat as the town's MP and lived nearby at Drayton Manor. In 1834 he issued the Tamworth Manifesto, an address to his constituents that is often seen as the founding statement of the modern Conservative Party. Peel also founded the Metropolitan Police, and the nickname Peelers comes from him. His statue stands in the town centre. His fame travelled. When a new settlement in New South Wales was named in the 1830s, it was called Tamworth in his honour. It is now known for its country music festival, which makes the Staffordshire original an unlikely musical godparent.
The castle and its famous families
Tamworth Castle rises above the town with a Norman motte and a shell keep, later filled out with Tudor and Jacobean rooms. It was home to the Marmion family, who were hereditary royal champions, and later to the Ferrers family. Its position above the meeting of the Tame and the Anker shows why the site mattered, from Saxon times through to the Normans.
The ginger pig that made headlines
The Tamworth pig is one of Britain's oldest native breeds, a ginger-coated, long-snouted animal with a reputation for hardiness. Peel is linked with promoting it in the 19th century, and the breed carries the town's name worldwide. In January 1998 two Tamworth–wild-boar crossbred pigs, nicknamed Butch and Sundance, escaped from a slaughterhouse in Wiltshire. They swam a river, hid in woodland for days and were followed by the national press. They were eventually saved and went to live at a rare breeds centre. The Tamworth Two gave the breed a moment of international fame.
Skiing in the Midlands, and football with a Lamb
Tamworth is home to the Snowdome, which opened in 1994 as England's first real-snow indoor ski slope. For a generation of Midlanders it was where they learned to ski, long before they saw the Alps. On the football side, Tamworth FC are known as the Lambs and play at the Lamb Ground. The club has a long non-league tradition, and the ground gets lively on match days. The town today mixes the old and the new. Saxon royal history, a castle, a leading political figure and an indoor ski slope all share a compact patch of Staffordshire.