Churchmen & Societies

– A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z –

The following list of collections provides more detail on some of the archives collected by the Library. This section covers archives of various church organisations and individuals, including some Bishops of London. For summary information on further collections, please see the A-Z list, and for fuller details of Library holdings search the online archives catalogue.

Gordon Lansdown Barnes Collection


The collection includes numerous papers relating to the Victorian church architects Henry Woodyer (1816-96) and Frederick Preedy (1820-98), Victorian stained-glass artists and a number of Victorian architects. It also includes an extensive collection of papers, newspaper cuttings, photographs and plans relating to churches in the London area.

Gordon Lansdown Barnes (c.1917-85) was an ecclesiologist, a local historian and an architectural photographer with a national reputation. Much of his photographic work can be found in the National Monuments Record (Historic England Archive).
His published works include Stepney Churches (1967), and Frederick Preedy, Architect and Glass-Painter 1820-1898 (1984). He also worked with Canon Basil Clarke on ‘Demolished and Desecrated Churches of London’.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Bishop George Bell Papers


Correspondence and diaries of the Rt Revd George Bell (1883-1958), successively student of Christ Church, chaplain to Archbishop Randall Davidson, Dean of Canterbury, and from 1929 Bishop of Chichester.

This extensive collection includes material on the German churches before and after the Second World War, the allies’ war policy, relief work among refugees, the atomic bomb, the ecumenical movement and Churches overseas, South Africa, religious drama and art, liturgy, and church and state relations.

William John Birkbeck Papers


William John Birkbeck (1859-1916) was a theologian and liturgical scholar concerned with relations between the Church of England and the Russian Orthodox Church. He travelled extensively through Russia exploring its history and culture. In 1895 he was involved in Viscount Halifax’s ecumenical mission to Rome. In the same year, he published Russia and the English Church, consisting of the correspondence between the Rev. William Palmer, an Anglican divine, and Alexis Stepanovich Khomyakov, a Russian layman and theologian.

The collection comprises family papers and correspondence, diaries, study and lecture notes and covers Birkbeck’s work on Church history, theology and liturgy, his involvement in the Anglo-Catholic movement and ecumenism.

British Council of Churches


The basis for the BCC’s existence was the same as that agreed in 1938 for the proposed World Council of Churches – “A fellowship of churches which accept Our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour.”
The functions of the BCC were defined as follows:
a) To carry on the work of its three predecessor bodies.
b) To facilitate common action by the churches in evangelistic enterprise, in promotion of international friendship, in stimulating a sense of social responsibility and in guiding the activities of the churches for the welfare of youth.
c) To promote co-operation in study and to ensure adequate British participation in the studies promoted by the World Council of Churches.
d) To assist the growth of ecumenical consciousness in the members of all churches and generally to promote Christian unity.

The BCC began with sixteen member denominations including the Church of England, Baptist Union, the Methodist Church, Church of Scotland, Salvation Army, The Society of Friends; and several inter-denominational organisations including YMCA and YWCA.

The Catholic Church had no involvement with this body. In the 1980s a dialogue began between the two which became known as the “Not Strangers but Pilgrims Inter-Church Process”. The intention was to be able to bring the two together. As a result of this process the BCC ceased to exist on 31 August 1990 to be replaced the following day by a new ecumenical body the Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland (of which the Catholic Church was a part). In 1999 this new body was renamed to become known as Churches Together for Britain & Ireland.

Christian Faith Society


The Christian Faith Society originated in 1691 in a bequest of Robert Boyle for advancing ‘religion among infidels’, and was renamed in 1794 the Society for the Conversion and Religious Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands and in 1836 the Society for Advancing the Christian Faith in the British West-India Islands.

The papers comprise minutes, correspondence and accounts, 1642-1956.

A micropublication of the Christian Faith Society is available from World Microfilms.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Church Defence Institution


The Church Defence Institution formed in 1859 with the aim of defending the Church of England against attacks from Nonconformists (chiefly the Liberation Society) and various Acts of Parliament such as the Welsh Disestablishment Bill, Church Rates Reform and the Burials Bill. The CDI intended to fight against these incursions by promoting the establishment of local branches of the Church Defence Institution, producing leaflets, lectures, and publications to promote the history, established position in society, and endowments of the Church.

Its archive contains Minute Books, Agenda Books, Reports from Sub-Committees, Annual Receipts and Expenditure (finance), and various correspondence and papers relating to the Church Defence Institution (also known as the (Central) Church Committee for Defence and Instruction).

Church Reform League


The original Church Reform League was inaugurated in 1895. Its main principle was that “church reform should be carried out by the Church herself through her own assemblies.” The members also, in varying degree, advocated an extended role for the laity in Church government and administration; Diocesan Trusts to administer endowments and appointments to livings; and that the clergy should hold office only “during the adequate performance of duties”.

Church Society


The Church Society was founded in 1950 by the merger of the Church Association (f.1865) and the National Protestant League (f.1906), which was itself an amalgamation of the National Protestant Church Union (f.1893) and the Church of England League (f.1904), formerly the Ladies League (f.1899).

The collection comprises minutes of the Church Association and its committees from 1867, and the National Protestant Church League, 1919-49.

Church Union


The English Church Union was founded in 1860 by the merger of the Church of England Protection Society (f.1859) with a number of local church societies with the similar object of defending and propagating high church principles. In 1934 the ECU united with the Anglo-Catholic Congress to form the Church Union.

The collection comprises minutes of the ECU and CU, Anglo-Catholic Congresses, Bristol Church Union, and parochial returns on reservation, 1954.

Canon Basil Clarke Collection


Basil Fulford Lowther Clarke (1908-78) came of an Anglican clerical family, was ordained in 1932 and after several curacies served for thirty years as vicar of Knowl Hill, Berkshire, in the Diocese of Oxford. He was the brother of cryptologist Joan Clarke (1917-96) best known for her work as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during World War II.

From the age of fifteen in 1923, encouraged by his father who was secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, until the end of his life Clarke kept manuscript notes on the numerous churches which he visited. By the time of his death 55 years later he had filled 31 notebooks with information on 11,479 Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in England, with occasional excursions abroad. This means that his notes cover about two-thirds of the churches of those two denominations in England.

The collection contains written and typed notes, correspondence, newspaper cuttings, manuscripts, guide books, photographs and postcards.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Cleverly Folder


Folder with photographs showing architecture of English cathedrals and churches created in connection with F.M. Simpson’s History of Architectural Development published in 1913.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Commonwealth Records


Records of ecclesiastical administration during the Commonwealth period, including parochial surveys, and surveys of the former episcopal and capitular estates, records of appointment of clergy and augmentation of benefices. Originally numbered in the manuscript sequence as MS 902-22, 944-50, 966-1021, these were renumbered in the 1960s as a separate collection.

A micropublication of the Commonwealth Records is available from World Microfilms.

Further information is available in the online catalogue descriptions, partly based on:
Houston, J. Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Records of the Commonwealth 1643-1660 in the Lambeth Palace Library (1968).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Community of St Andrew


The records of the Community of St Andrew cover its 19th- and 20th-century history and include minutes, correspondence, photographs and other material. The Library also holds printed material relating to the community. The collection documents the wider history of the deaconess movement and the role of women in the church as well as the community’s own work.

Some documents from the archive were published in Henrietta Blackmore, The Beginning of Women’s Ministry: The Revival of the Deaconess in the 19th Century Church of England (2007).

For additional information on deaconesses, please see the attachment below.:

Council on the Christian Faith and Common Life


The Oxford and Edinburgh Conferences of 1937-1938 led to calls for the setting-up of a World Council of Churches (WCC) and the subsequent founding of a Council on the Christian Faith and Common Life (CCFCL) in 1938.

In 1942 CCFCL amalgamated with the Commission of the Churches for International Friendship and Social Responsibility (CCIFSR) to form a single body, namely the British Council of Churches (BCC).

Includes records generated by the Council’s foundation and also its financial and operational activities. Also includes Council’s committee meeting papers.

Corporation of Church House


The Corporation of Church House collection contains materials relating to the formation and operation of the Corporation of Church House between 1798 and 2003. The collection contains written and typed notes, correspondence, newspaper cuttings, reports, minute books, deeds and leases, photographic materials, books and articles.

The Corporation of Church House was founded as the Church of England’s permanent tribute to Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee. The man who developed the idea, Dr Harvey Goodwin (Bishop of Carlisle), saw it as the national administrative headquarters and likened it to a “chapter-house for the Church of England”. Land was quickly acquired in Dean’s Yard, close to the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey, but the existing tenancies meant that only a fraction of the original design could be built in the early 1890s. The original gothic-style buildings were demolished in the 1930s and replaced with the current Church House in 1937. During World War II Church House survived a bombing and was requisitioned by Parliament to serve as an alternative location for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Commission of the Churches on International Friendship & Social Responsibility


In 1939 the British Christian Council for International Friendship, Life and Work (BCCIFLW) and the [English] Christian Social Council (CSC) amalgamated to form the CCIFSR.

In 1942 the CCIFSR and the Council on Christian Faith and Common Life (CCFCL) amalgamated to form a single body, namely the British Council of Churches (BCC).

Its archive includes records generated by the Commission’s foundation and its operational activities. Also includes meeting papers.

Sidney Coney Collection


Photographic collection of images of church architecture (external and internal) in Sussex and Kent.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

William Iveson Croome Papers


A collection of the papers and correspondence of William Croome. Croome had a lifelong interest in the care and conservation of church buildings. As churchwarden, altar server and sacristan at North Cerney Church he was a key figure in the life of the church and the maintenance of the fabric and interior of the building. He served on various diocesan advisory committees and in 1950 took on the role of Vice-Chairman of the Central Council of the Diocesan Advisory Committees. He served on the Wall Paintings Committee of the Council for the Care of Churches (CCC), was the Vice-Chair of the CCC, and the Chairman of the Cathedrals Advisory Committee.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Doctors’ Commons


Doctors’ Commons, the association or college of ecclesiastical lawyers founded in 1511 and situated in Knightrider Street, London, was dissolved following the Court of Probate Act, 1857.

Its records were dispersed, but most of those that survive are in the Library. These comprise the register, 1511-1855, a 19th century minute book, and financial and estate papers.  For further details and a calendar of the register of Doctors’ Commons (DC 1), see G.D. Squibb, Doctors’ Commons. A history of the College of advocates and doctors of law. (1977).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Canon J.A. Douglas Papers


Correspondence of Canon J.A. Douglas, vicar of St. Luke, Camberwell, and from 1933 Hon. General Secretary of the Church of England Council on Foreign Relations, concerning relations between the Church of England and the Eastern Orthodox Churches during the first half of the 20th century.

Bishop Gerald Ellison Papers


Gerald Alexander Ellison (1910-92) was Bishop of London and a highly respected and influential figure in the Church of England. He was the spokesman for all church legislative matters in the House of Lords and developed the area system in London.

The collection includes official and personal papers from his time as Bishop of Chester (1955-76), Bishop of London (1973-81) and his service in the House of Lords. Official papers cover the wide range of his activities and include correspondence, administrative files, papers on foreign visits and official diaries. Personal papers include family and private correspondence, personal diaries, papers relating to his education and photographs.

Fulham Papers (Papers of the Bishops of London)


The Library holds the official papers of several Bishops of London, known as the Fulham Papers as they were were transferred from Fulham Palace, the former Bishops’ residence.

The majority of the collection dates from the 18th-19th centuries and includes correspondence on the administration of the diocese of London, and on the churches, particularly in America and the West Indies, which came under the bishop’s jurisdiction at the time.

It also includes a series of visitation returns, 1763-1900, the earlier volumes being at London Metropolitan Archives alongside other records of the diocese (ref: DL).

A micropublication of the colonial sections of the papers is available in several American libraries and may also be purchased from World Microfilms, who also published micropublications of the letterbooks of Bishop Blomfield and the London visitation returns 1763-1815.

For the diocese of London see also the Building on History project.

Extent of the Diocese of London

The boundaries of the diocese of London were changed a number of times during the 19th century. Until 1845, the diocese included most of the parishes in Middesex, Essex, the city of London parishes (excluding the thirteen parishes in the peculiar of the Arches), a substantial number of parishes in Hertfordshire, and the four parishes of Aston Abbots, Grandborough, Little Horwood, and Winslow in Buckinghamshire.

The abolition of the exempt jurisdictions in 1845 brought into the diocese of London the parishes in the city of London and some parishes in Middlesex and Surrey which were formerly peculiars of the archbishop. At the same time the diocese gained various Kent parishes just south of the Thames (Charlton, Deptford, Eltham, Greenwich, Lee, Lewisham, Plumstead, and Woolwich) and retained nine Essex parishes just north of the river (Barking, Chingford, East and West Ham, Little Ilford, Low Leyton, Wanthamstow, Wanstead, and Woodford).

The remainder of Essex was temporarily transferred to the see of Rochester. London also lost its parishes in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Under the London Diocese Act of 1863 and the Diocese of St. Albans Act of 1875, provisions were made for the future removal of the Essex, Kent and Surrey parishes from the diocese of London. In 1877 the diocese of London was confined to the county of Middlesex, including the cities of London and Middlesex.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Alfred Green Collection

Seven notebooks with notes and drawings relating to church architecture. Many of the entries are undated, but the notes apparently date from the late 19th or early 20th century.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Henry H. Willmore Collection

Mostly typed notes made by Henry H. Willmore on church spires and stone coffins.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Incorporated Church Building Society


The records of the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) comprise the minute books and some 16,000 files relating to applications for grants for the building and restoration of churches thoughout England and Wales, from the foundation of the Society in 1818 until 1982. Applications were made on a standard form which included data on the population and character of the parish, as well as information on the church building.

Catalogue data includes information on the churches, reasons for the grants, and the names of surveyors, architects or other professionals responsible for the buildings, and indicates the existence of plans and photographs. For further information on the ICBS archive and how to use it visit our Library Catalogues page.

Also of use is “List of I.C.B.S. grants, 1818-1927” (from The Incorporated Church Building Society annual report for … 1927).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

John Keble Papers


Correspondence and papers of the Revd. John Keble and various relatives, including Thomas Keble (1793-1875), vicar of Bisley.

Kettlewell Sermons


Copy of 48 sermons preached between 1672 and 1689. They are attributed to John Kettlewell (1653-1695), but the authorship is uncertain.

This collection is on deposit and the Library is unable to provide copies in any form. 

Marjorie Milne Papers

The collection comprises the personal papers of Marjorie Milne. The bulk of the collection is made up of personal notebooks, diaries and writings dating from the late 1950s through to the 1970s. Most of the material focuses around Milne’s devotional thoughts and plans for Christian unity through the Trinity centres.

Bishop Hugh Montefiore Papers


The Rt Revd Hugh Montefiore was born into a prominent Jewish family. He converted to Christianity whilst at school and became Bishop of Kingston upon Thames (1970-78) and Bishop of Birmingham (1978-87). He wrote many books and was a sometimes controversial, but influential, figure.  

This collection comprises official papers (records spanning Bishop Montefiore’s career in the Church of England and including correspondence, sermons and records of Montefiore’s involvement with charities and social activism) and personal and family papers (personal papers of the Bishop and his wife, including records of Montefiore’s service in the armed forces during the Second World War, diaries, passports, photographs, and research compiled by Montefiore’s biographer John Peart Binns).

Mothers’ Union


Records created by the headquarters of the Mothers’ Union (MU), Mary Sumner House, Westminster. Founded to promote the sanctity of marriage and Christian family life, the MU was primarily interested in the morality of society, and its activity ranged from petitioning parliament to running family fun days. By the early 20th century, the MU had established itself in dioceses overseas, undertaking a mix of missionary and development work.

The archive comprises minutes, correspondence, accounts, pamphlets, architectural plans, photographs and slides. The majority of the archive dates from the 1890s onwards, as it was not until then that the Mothers’ Union established a centralised structure. The papers also contain a few series of documents originating from members who, although not always based at Mary Sumner House, played important roles within the organisation.

For a summary guide to badges within the MU archive, please see the attachment below:

Mowbray, Wippell and Warham Guild


This collection comprises designs and photographs of completed works by church furnishers A.R. Mowbray and Company Limited; brochures and catalogues of church furnishing companies including A.R. Mowbray, and material relating to the Warham Guild prior to its merger with Wippell Mowbray Church Furnishing Limited.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Nationwide Initiative on Evangelism


In 1977, the BCC Assembly by a narrow vote commended this to the churches. The initiative which had now become known as a Nationwide Initiative in Evangelism (NIE) was to stimulate rather than organise local evangelism, to cover all four nations, and apparently also fitted in with the Methodist world-wide call to evangelism, which was happening at that time.

This archive contains the papers of the NIE and these include files relating to the various predecessor influences which led up to its foundation, the minutes of its committees and working parties, and papers relating to the 1980 Assembly. There are also correspondence files with the counties and London boroughs as well as the denominations and organisations involved with the NIE.

Parish and People Records


The Parish and People movement was founded in 1949 as a British response to the ‘Liturgical Movement’ which influenced many denominations in continental Europe, popularising the parish communion as the main worship event at parochial level.

The Parish and People movement also promoted grassroots growth in team ministry, synodical government and church unity and its range of publications encouraged new thinking and practice in liturgy, collaborative ministry and training. It therefore represents an important reformist strand in the history of the 20th-century Church.

Queen Victoria Clergy Fund


The Queen Victoria Clergy Fund was formed to raise support and funds both from diocesan bodies and the laity to augment the incomes of poor clergy, similar to the efforts made by Queen Anne’s Bounty (founded in 1704) and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners (founded in 1836) and emerged directly from two lay organisations dedicated to ameliorating clerical hardship – the Tithe Redemption Trust (or Fund) in 1846 and the Church of England Incumbents’ Sustentation Fund in 1873 – both of which were ultimately absorbed into the Queen Victoria Clergy Fund (in 1899 and 1897 respectively).

The QVCF was set up with the intention of 1) impressing upon the entire church the need to contribute to the support of the clergy; 2) supplementing and extending the diocesan organisation for the support of the clergy; and 3) generally promoting the sustentation of the clergy.

Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline


Correspondence and papers of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline, which was appointed in 1904 and reported in 1906: Report of the Royal Commission on Discipline, together with Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission.

The papers comprise 25 volumes, including minute books, surveys of churches where ritualist practices had been introduced, 1901-5, and newspaper cuttings, 1904-6.

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel


Correspondence and papers of SPG, comprising the papers of John Chamberlayne, first secretary of SPG, 1702-11, later given to the Archbishop of Canterbury, minutes, 1701-50, financial records, 1702-96, and some late 18th century correspondence of the Archbishops of Canterbury relating to the church overseas and the establishment of episcopacy in America.

For other correspondence, 1702-14, see the Tenison volume in Archbishops Papers and for minutes of SPG, 1758-66, see MS 1124 within the manuscripts series.

Micropublication of the SPG Papers is available in a number of American Libraries and may be purchased from World Microfilms.

Further information is available in the online catalogue descriptions, based on:
Manross, W.W. S.P.G. Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library. Calendar and Indexes (Oxford, 1974).

The main historic archives of SPG are held at the Bodleian Library. These include series A, B and C.

Society for the Relief of Poor Pious Clergymen


The Society was instituted in 1788 for the relief of country clergy, ‘the tenor of whose preaching is according to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England’. The records comprise minute books and registers, 1788-1864.

Society of St Francis


The SSF is an international Franciscan religious order. It was formed in the 1930s by uniting groups in the Franciscan tradition including the Brotherhood of St Francis of Assisi. The Society originated in the work of the Reverend Douglas Downes during the depression following the First World War. Brother Douglas and his associates travelled the roads, sharing the life of itinerant men and boys seeking work. In 1921, a landowner offered a Dorset farm as a base for the work, which became Hilfield Friary. Father Algy Robertson was also an important figure in the formation of the Society.

There are three different orders within the Society: the First Order of brothers and sisters (The Society of St Francis and The Community of St Francis respectively), the Second Order of sisters (The Community of St Clare) and the Third Order of lay men and women. The Library’s SSF collection covers the wide range of activities of the First Order of brothers, including constitution and admission documentation, communication and correspondence between UK and overseas-based missions, personal papers of the brothers and minutes of council and chapter meetings. The collection also includes items from the Brotherhood of the Love of Christ, which joined the Society in 1937, and the Society of the Servants of Christ, a Christian ashram founded in India.

Society of St John the Evangelist


Founded in Oxford in 1866, the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE) became the first male Anglican religious order of men founded since the Reformation. The Founder, Richard Meux Benson, took vows of poverty, obedience and celibacy and, along with Simeon Wilberforce O’Neill and Charles Chapman Grafton, began a Society which would continue in Britain for almost 150 years.

Missionary work, both at home and overseas, was a fundamental aim of the Society and by the turn of the 20th century missions had been established in Bombay and Poona in India and Cape Town in South Africa. Work would also begin in America in 1870, and this would be followed in 1928 with a house opening in Ontario, Canada. At home, a church, mission house and schools were built in the Cowley district of Oxford, and in 1905 a purpose-built London home for the Society was established at Great College Street, Westminster. In 2011 the British Chapter of the Society came to an end, though an American Chapter based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, still thrives.

The SSJE collection provides a record of all the activities of the Fathers, including missionary work, conducting retreats and delivering sermons and addresses. The overseas missionary work is particularly well recorded within the Fathers’ personal papers, with large quantities of letters from India and South Africa surviving to provide a vivid recollection of the early days of the Society in what were often harsh, uncompromising conditions. Also included are copies of the Rule and Statues by which the Fathers lived their lives, a range of minute books documenting the administration of the Society, a large number of photographs which feature various Fathers, the Society’s properties at home and abroad, the types of missionary work undertaken by the Fathers, and records which detail the establishing of the Society’s London House.

St. Gabriel’s College [Kennington Training College for Mistresses]


St. Gabriel’s College was founded by Canon Charles Edward Brooke [1847-1911] in consultation with Miss Matilda Ellen Bishop [1844-1913], to whom he had been introduced in 1898 by Dr. Randall Davidson, then Bishop of Winchester.  The College was unusual in having a woman principal, for Church training colleges had previously been headed by clergymen. Another notable feature of the College was its admission of Free Church candidates as day students, exempt from Anglican religious instruction.

Records include papers on the College government and administration, papers of the founder, principals and staff, records relating to academic activities as well as the College’s closure.

John Stott Papers


Correspondence, travel diaries, photographs and files relating to the life and work of John Stott (1921-2011), the rector of All Souls, Langham Place (1950-75), Chaplain to the Queen (1959-91), and prominent evangelical leader. Stott was also the author of around fifty books, including ‘Issues Facing Christians Today’ and the series entitled ‘The Bible Speaks Today’, primarily written at his rural retreat on the Pembrokeshire coast.

This collection includes material relating to key evangelical conferences, such as the 1974 International Congress of World Evangelism at Lausanne, at which Stott was the Chair of the Drafting Committee of the Lausanne Covenant; as well as the minutes and reports from organisations which John Stott was instrumental in founding, such as Langham Partnership International, the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, the Church of England Evangelical Council, the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion and the Eclectics Society.

H. Sanderson Stewart Collection


Thirteen albums and a binder with notes and drawings ‘From my font collection – queries and queerities’. Comprising black and white photographs of fonts with captions and a box with index cards with notes on fonts. Also includes card index with additional notes.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Church of England Sunday School Institute


The Institute was founded in 1843 at a meeting of Church of England Sunday school teachers at St Saviour’s Southwark. At this meeting it was resolved “That an Institution be formed to be called the Church of England Sunday School Teachers Institute” for the purpose of increasing the means of communication between Sunday School Teachers by establishing lectures and conversational meetings, together with a library & reading room. The Institute set out to provide a specifically Anglican element to the Sunday School movement because it was felt that in Church Sunday Schools the catechism should be taught and the prayer book used. It became an Incorporated Society in 1903.

J.G. Taylor Scrapbook


Scrapbook created 1923-29 by J.G. Taylor, church architecture historian. Includes images of church architecture taken from newspapers, parish magazines, pamphlets and guides. Includes pencilled place index on a separate sheet.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

Lord Wharton’s Charity


The Lord Wharton Charity was founded in 1692 by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, for the purchase of bibles, catechisms and other books for poor children in Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Yorkshire.  The collection includes accounts, minutes and papers, mainly 19th-20th century.

Sidney Whitley Collection


Photographs of misericords carvings with index.

Part of Cathedral and Church Buildings Department library and archive until its transfer to Church of England Record Centre in 2016.

World Alliance of International Friendship (British Section)


WAIF was founded in 1914. It amalgamated with the Christian Social Council of Great Britain and Ireland in 1935 to form the British Christian Council for International Friendship, Life and Work (BCCIFLW). The archive includes the Alliance’s meeting papers, reports, financial and operational records. Also includes photographs.