The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield.

The Diocese of Mercia was created by Diuma in around 656 and the see was settled in Lichfield in 669 by the then bishop, Ceadda (later Saint Chad), who built a monastery there.

[2] At the Council of Chelsea in 787, Bishop Higbert was raised to the rank of archbishop and given authority over the dioceses of Worcester, Leicester, Lindsey, Hereford, Elmham and Dunwich.

In 1848 the Diocese of Lichfield gained the territory of Wolverhampton, previously under the independent Dean of the Royal Peculiar St Peter's Collegiate Church of the town.

[8] In 2022, it was announced that the suffragan See of Oswestry in the diocese would be used as a provincial episcopal visitor (for traditionalist Anglo-Catholic parishes in the western half of the Province of Canterbury who reject the ministry of women).