Of the early Saxon church which was erected on this site practically nothing is known, but it is supposed to have been built by Bishop Hedda at the close of the seventh century, and of stone taken from Roman ruins in the neighbourhood, though there is really no evidence to support this theory. The desire to find another instance of the waste material and sites once dedicated to a pagan religion being used by the victorious Christian church may have something to do with such a legend. Nothing except tradition is left of this church, to which it is said the bones of St. Chad were removed from Stowe. Probably in the four or five hundred years which elapsed before the Norman cathedral was built, several churches succeeded one another on or about the present site: whatever happened, we know nothing. Our real knowledge commences with the Norman cathedral. The excavations already spoken of laid bare small portions of its foundations, and from these Professor Willis decided that the Norman choir had a semi-circular apse, and extended from the central tower to about the middle of the fifth bay of the present choir; while the exterior line of its side walls nearly corresponded with the interior line of the present aisle. The Norman building probably possessed transepts, but these certainly had no aisles; the rest is conjecture, but from other Norman cathedrals and churches which are in existence we can fairly well imagine what it was like. The altar probably stood over the centre of the semi-circle of the apse, while the bishop's throne was behind it, facing west, with the canons' stalls spreading out down the choir, and the choir stalls continuing them right down under the tower into the nave: or perhaps there were no seats for the choir in those days--we do not know; but there must have been a processional path round the altar. We can imagine, too, the massive masonry of the pillars with their heavy capitals and circular arches. To think of a Norman church is to think possibly of Peterborough; and Lichfield Cathedral, no doubt, was like that minster, but on a very much smaller scale.