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Job Vacancy

We have a vacancy for a Museum Support Officer role at The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum & Bookshop and the Guildhall Prison Cells. Please visit the Lichfield City Council website for more details and to apply.

The Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum is a Grade I listed building governed and operated by Lichfield City Council (as sole trustee of Dr Johnson’s Birthplace Trust). It is both an historic house and a museum dedicated to the life, work and personality of Samuel Johnson, welcoming up to 22,000 visitors a year. The Museums and Heritage Officer manages the Birthplace with the assistance of the Museum Support Officer.

The Museum Support Officer post is a part time (22 hours/week) permanent position. Birthplace Museum Officer staff members also have responsibility for the Old Guildhall Prison Cells displays at Lichfield Guildhall and organise their annual summer opening.

The Museum Support Officer provides support for the day-to-day running of the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum with responsibility for visitor-facing activities including assistance for front of house staff and volunteers, preparation for, and promotion of, events and activities, and general office administration, including stock in the Museum bookshop.

We are looking for a friendly, helpful, conscientious, and enthusiastic person. As it is a varied role, an organised, hands-on, and motivated approach is essential, as well as accurate record keeping and excellent IT and communication skills.

The Museum Support Officer will play an important part in the lively and friendly Museum team, and in helping to project the Birthplace Museum’s status as a key attraction in Staffordshire’s premier heritage city.

Salary: The postholder would normally commence at scale point 5, (currently £23,500 per annum full time equivalent) approximately £13,973 per annum pro rata, and subject to satisfactory service progress to scale point 6, (currently £23,500 full time equivalent) approximately £14,228 per annum pro rata.

Closing Date: 5pm, Monday 4 March 2024

Interviews currently scheduled for the week commencing 18 March 2024

Francis Barber is celebrated in new City Plaque

A new plaque celebrating the life of Francis Barber has been presented in Lichfield. The memorial was unveiled by Cedric and Sandra Barber, direct descendants of Francis, in an event organised by Lichfield City Council at Cruck House on Wednesday 29 March. Cedric Barber gave a moving speech, reflecting on the roles which Francis Barber, and later his son Samuel Barber, played in supporting their communities in Staffordshire.

Planning permission has been granted for the plaque to be installed on Cruck House, Stowe Street. Now a community hall, the site was chosen as one of the only surviving buildings which Barber would have known when the street was his home from 1786 to1793, during which time he was elected as Dozener (a local official) by his neighbours in 1788.

Francis Barber was enslaved from birth in Jamaica. He arrived in England in 1752 aged approximately ten years old and was granted freedom in 1754. He lived for many years in London as the servant, friend and ultimately the heir of Samuel Johnson, who had no children of his own. Barber moved to Lichfield in 1786, and lived in the city until the mid-1790s before relocating to Burntwood, where he became one of Britain's first Black schoolmasters. He died in Stafford in 1801, and his family members are still based in Staffordshire.

A spokesperson for Lichfield City Council said ‘our thanks go to all of the local organisations who were involved in the project, particularly the Johnson Society, Lichfield City of Sanctuary and One Lichfield, who worked with City Council staff at the Samuel Johnson Birthplace Museum to organise this plaque.’

The plaque will be mounted on the exterior of Cruck House during April.

Representatives from all of the groups and projects in the City who have been involved in creating the plaque and sharing Barber's story.

Cedric Barber holds the new plaque, commemorating his ancestor Francis Barber. The plaque will be installed on Cruck House in April.