Ten miles north of Birmingham. A very ancient town where Offa, King of Mercia, built a palace in the 8th century and surrounded it with Offa's Dyke. King Alfred's daughter, Ethelfreda, won a great battle against the Danes and built a castle here, which was later turned into a Norman castle by William the Conqueror's Baron de Marmion. An ivy-covered tower of this remains. The church of St. Edith, founded in the 8th century, has a remarkable double spiral staircase to the tower. Sir Robert Peel was the MP for Tamworth and pioneered modern election addresses when he stood in 1834. There is a 14th century Grammar School.