Designed by Augustus Welby Pugin and substantially complete by 1841, St Chad's is one of the first four Catholic churches constructed after the English Reformation and was raised to cathedral status in 1852.

[1] It is one of only four minor basilicas in England (the others being Downside Abbey, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham and Corpus Christi Priory).

St Chad's was one of the first Catholic cathedrals erected in England after the English Reformation initiated in 1534 by King Henry VIII.

St Chad's Cathedral was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin (1812–52), the foundation stone was laid in October 1839 and the building consecrated as a church on 21 June 1841.

A thanksgiving tablet appears in the diapered design of the transept ceiling, reading Deo Gratias 22 Nov 1940 ('Thanks be to God').

In 1941 St Chad's was declared a minor basilica by Pope Pius XII as a church of important historical connections: only one of two such in England.

On formal occasions, the tintinnabulum, a golden lattice bell tower and conopaeum, which is a small red and gold striped umbrella, are displayed at the altar steps as the official symbols of a basilica.

In 1651, Henry Hodgetts, a farmer, of Sedgley was dying and his wife summoned an itinerant priest, Fr Peter Turner, SJ to give him the last sacraments.

He then instructed his wife to pass the box of relics to Fr Turner for safekeeping and he took them back to the Seminary of St Omer, in Northern France, where he was based.

After Sir Thomas's death, his widow moved to Swynnerton Hall and their chaplain, Fr Benjamin Hulme found the dusty velvet-covered box of relics under the altar, when he cleared out the chapel.

Pugin had converted to Catholicism in 1835, and spent most of the remainder of his working life designing Catholic churches, their fittings and vestments.

[8] Because of the narrow site, and the necessity to build in brick rather than stone, Pugin was restricted in the style and proportions of the church that he could design.

Because of the steep slope of the site, Pugin built a large crypt beneath the building, to be used primarily as a burial place for family tombs,[3] and former cathedral clergy, and is now rehearsal room for the choir.

Other fittings, such the 16th century carved pulpit and the medieval canons' stalls were from churches in Belgium and Germany respectively and were collected and donated by John Talbot, the 16th Earl of Shrewsbury.

The chapel windows depict the history of the relics of St. Chad, and those who have served the church there, along with some magnificent ecclesiastical coats of arms.

St Barnabas Cathedral in Nottingham, also by Pugin, suffered similarly, with much of the original decoration smothered with whitewash, and fittings destroyed.

Currently, the four-part, robed choir comprises around adult men and women who lead the worship at the Sunday Solemn Mass (at 11:00 am).

They are hung for full-circle ringing in the north-west tower, and are rung regularly on Sunday morning after High Mass, at about 12 noon, and at other major services by the St Chad's Cathedral Society of Change Ringers.