[5][6][7] During the English Civil War the cathedral close was beseiged three times; the church was severely damaged, losing all of its medieval glass and many monuments.

The work probably began with the choir at the east end and progressed west through the transepts, chapter house, nave, and south-west tower.

The building was extensively restored after the Civil War under bishop John Hacket and several times in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Many of the details of the building date from the restorations undertaken by George Gilbert Scott, owing to the soft sandstone of which it is constructed as well as war damage.

[16] In 787, Offa, King of Mercia, created his own archbishopric in Lichfield, and this archbishop then presided over all the bishops from the Humber to the Thames.

In gratitude, Offa promised to send an annual shipment of gold to the pope for alms and supplying the lights in St. Peter's church in Rome.

[18] The Victorians assumed this was a Norman cathedral, but its shape, dimensions and material (much concrete hard mortar) suggest otherwise.

[19] The date for construction of the present Gothic cathedral is unclear since all fabric accounts were destroyed in the Civil War sieges and early texts are ambiguous.

[17] There were three great sieges of Lichfield during the period 1643–1646 as the cathedral close was surrounded by a moat and defensive walls, which made it a natural fortress.

In April of the same year (1643) Prince Rupert led an Royalist expeditionary force from Oxford to recapture Lichfield.

Unable to defend the Close, Colonel Russell, the parliamentary commander of the garrison, surrendered on terms to Rupert on 21 April.

[21] In 1646 the Parliamentarians were once again victorious, but the Cathedral suffered extensive damage: the central spire was demolished, the roofs ruined and all the stained glass smashed.

[12] Wyatt's choir-screen had utilised medieval stone-work which Scott in turn used to create sedilia with clergy's seats in the sanctuary.

[17] In February 2003, an eighth-century sculpted panel of the Archangel Gabriel was discovered under the nave of the cathedral in and near the grave of Chad.

[22] On Friday 15 January 2021, while closed to services during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lichfield Cathedral became the first place of worship in England to accommodate the vaccination programme in the United Kingdom.

[25] As of 7 December 2020:[26] The additional role of Vice Dean has been vacant since Anthony Moore's resignation in 2017. Notable organists of Lichfield Cathedral include the 17th-century composer Michael East, and the musical educator and choral conductor William Henry Harris who conducted at the coronations of both George VI and Elizabeth II.