Historical sources for a Statement of Significance

Introduction

The aim of this section of the guide is to describe the historical source material which might be available to a parish which is writing or updating a Statement of Significance. The focus here is on churches built in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but some of the material will be relevant for older churches.

It is worthwhile for every parish church to have a Statement of Significance as a document of the historical and heritage significance of the building and its furnishings. It is also necessary to include a Statement in a faculty application (a faculty is the licence required for any repairs, alterations or extension to a church building or changes to its contents or churchyard). According to the Faculty Jurisdiction Rules (2000) of the Church of England, a Statement of Significance should be a document ‘which summarises the historical development of the church and identifies the important features that make major contributions to the character of the church”. The statement can be prepared in collaboration with an architect and the Diocesan Advisory Committee.

There are a number of excellent general resources online for writing a Statement of Significance:

  • The Church of England’s Church Care website includes valuable information for those involved in caring for church buildings.
  • The Divine Inspiration website provides material on the process of writing a Statement.
  • The Church Buildings Council has produced guidelines for preparing a Statement. These are essential for informing a faculty application.
  • Heritage Gateway is a portal for the national and local records of England’s historic sites and buildings.
  • The English Heritage Inspired website provides support for those who manage historic places of worship.
  • English Heritage’s New Work in Historic Places of Worship(available online).
  • Caring for God’s Acre includes a range of useful resources on churchyards and burial grounds. 

Please note that, while our pages do aim to respond to the requirements of the Church Buildings Council, they should not be treated as guidelines for completing a Statement of Significance. Rather, they provide general direction on how the historical understanding of the building and its furnishings might be developed.

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How to approach your research

Part one of a Statement of Significance includes various sections which require that you show awareness of the historical context of the building and congregation.

It can be rather intimidating to be faced with questions about a church that require historical research. However, there are a range of resources available to assist you in this task, and much of the material you need is more readily available than you might think. We propose that a useful process for gathering historical information to inform a Statement of Significance can be to LOOK – LISTEN – READ – RESEARCH.

Look

The church building and its surroundings are likely to be very familiar to you; however, by looking carefully with inquisitive and informed eyes, you can discover a great deal that might provide an excellent basis for your Statement.

  • When was it built? A foundation stone and/or dedication tablet may well quickly give an exact date, but architectural style and other evidence (such as the earliest dates of monuments and other artefacts). This information might suggest which archival sources you should look at (for example, if the building is Victorian, you will need to consult the files of the Incorporated Church Building Society.
  • Has it been significantly extended, altered or rearranged during its history? If so are there clues as to when and why?
  • What ancillary buildings are there? (Hall? Sunday school? Vicarage? Day school?) What was their original purpose and how might this have changed? (For example some original schools are now church halls, with the school itself moved to a different site.)
  • How does the church relate to its physical surroundings? Is/was it on a main road or a back street? Do/did a lot of people live nearby? Does it look like a focal point for a community, or a building that is easily ignored?

Listen

Longstanding members of the congregation might be able to tell you a great deal about both the social and material history of the Church. By conducting oral interviews you might be able to find our about important memories associated with the building. Do not accept what you are told uncritically: interviewees may well have particular viewpoints or prejudices, or simply have been misinformed. On the other hand theses perspectives on the past are to be valued and affirmed as part of the collective memory of the church community, and are likely to give you valuable insights. See here for more information about oral history.

Read

You may well find that there is already published work available on the history of the church. In many cases a previous history or guidebook will have been produced, perhaps written as early as the nineteenth century. You might find a reference to such a publication in the British Library integrated catalogue or the Bibliography of British and Irish History, to which you would need to subscribe. In many cases you will find that the publication is in the possession of the church; however, if not you should be able to locate a copy at your local borough archive, Lambeth Palace Library or the British Library.

Another important published resource can be the Victoria County History for Middlesex, which closely corresponds to the area of the present-day Diocese of London. Copies are available in reference libraries or online at www.british-history.ac.uk (from the home page click on ‘London' and then on ‘Victoria County History: Middlesex').

Research

The final stage of the process is to consult the original sources relating to the history of the church. There is a whole range of material to consult, including official minutes, building plans, letters from clergy or laity, visitation returns and parish magazines. Some of the material is available online, and much is easily accessible in London’s various libraries and archives. However, before beginning to search online or heading off to such repositories, it will be well worth checking what material is immediately available to you. Many parish churches have not yet deposited their material in archives, so you could find sources on the shelves of the vestry or in the possession of the churchwardens. Also, members of the church might have useful material; for example, has someone kept a parent's or grandparent's diary or photograph album recalling church life in the earlier twentieth century?

It is important to be aware that parishes vary a lot in their history and hence the extent and kind of resources available for studying them. In the City of London the numerous surviving medieval and Wren churches are testimony to the dense population of earlier centuries, but now in general lack resident parishioners. A parish originating in the medieval era originally had extensive civil as well as religious functions, and in outer London its church, probably in an historic village or town centre – such as Finchley, Hammersmith or Harrow - would originally have been a centre of worship for a large area. On the other hand, the majority of churches in suburban London were built in the nineteenth century or later in response to population growth and urbanization, and these parishes were created with solely ecclesiastical and spiritual functions. Such churches sometimes had a significant prehistory before the creation of their parishes as ‘chapels of ease' – meaning they were built for the ‘ease' of significant populations living at a distance from the parish church - or as mission halls within the medieval mother parish.

If ‘your' parish is a post seventeenth-century foundation it will also be useful at an early stage to look up the original Act of Parliament, or more probably Order in Council, setting it up. This can be found in the London Gazette, available online at www.london-gazette.co.uk – you should use the ‘Advanced Search' facility and narrow the date range as much as you can from other information available to you.

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Historical sources

This following two sections will describe the kinds of sources you might consult for writing a Statement of Significance and where to find them. A Statement of Significance requires that you show awareness of both the social and material history of a church.

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Social history

There are many sources which will help you understand the social history of a church and parish. Follow this link for an in-depth guide.

The founding of the church

Nineteenth- and twentieth-century churches in London were founded for a variety of reasons: for example, in many cases medieval mother parishes were divided in response to social changes such as population growth (both in urban areas and the suburbs) or poverty; sometimes they were built to advance the cause of a particular church ‘party’ (perhaps in direct rivalry with another ‘party’ church); or in other cases they were driven by personality or the concerns of landowners and property developers. Church planting (or ‘extension’) was often part of a larger scheme (for example, the Metropolis Church Extension Fund, founded in 1836). Many churches began life as a ‘chapel of ease’ or mission hall in a larger parish.
To find out about the beginnings of ‘your’ church you could consult:

  • The Victoria County History for Middlesex (copies are available in reference libraries, or online at www.british-history.ac.uk  - from the home page click on ‘London' and then on ‘Victoria County History: Middlesex'). This will often include details of how new parishes emerged in different areas.
  • The archives of the Incorporated Church Building Society, which was founded in 1818 to fund the building, enlargement and restoration of churches in England and Wales. Files relating to applications for grants from the ICBS are available at Lambeth Palace Library. These will include application forms and correspondence providing insights into the circumstances under which a church was built or developed, and will also include architectural plans, specifications, artists’ impressions and parochial subscription lists. Digitised architectural plans and drawings relating to individual applications are available online at www.churchplansonline.org. You may also find that there are sources relating to the creation of new parishes at the London Metropolitan Archives.
  • The ‘Fulham Papers’ held at Lambeth Palace Library include correspondence sent to the Bishops of London from clergy and leading laity. Here you may find letters relating to circumstances surrounding the establishment of a new church.

Significant personalities

In the history of every church there have been individual people who have had an important influence on its character and activities. Clergy, of course, can exercise a profound or defining influence, and founding incumbents can establish assumptions, patterns of ministry and churchmanship which have a long-term effect. Lay leaders, such as churchwardens, organisers of particular church activities, benefactors and patrons, will also have played an active role.

Follow these links to find out more about clergy and laity.

The Church and the community

There are a range of sources available to assist you in understanding the relationship between the church and the local community.

  • Important insights into the ways in which the incumbents and churchwardens of a church have perceived their parish can be found in visitation returns, the questionnaires issued every 3-4 years either before or during the visit of the Bishop. You will often read clergy commenting on the condition of their locality and describing the role and activities of the church. You might find that by examining visitation returns over an extended period you will get a sense of the changes in the community over time.
  • Parish magazines, which began to grow in popularity from the 1860s, can be an important source of information on the links between church and community.         

In order to understand the ways in which the local community has developed over time you could consult:

Follow this link for more on the church and the community.

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Material history

A Statement of Significance should include an historical assessment of the exterior and interior of the church and also of the church grounds. Your Statement might include information on the following:

  • The history of the church building.
  • The development of the exterior and interior over time.
  • The links with international, national, regional and local architectural and artistic movements.
  • The influence of theological and liturgical ideas on the design of the building and its furnishings.

In addition, you will be required to provide detailed information on individual phases in the development of the building and also of the interior contents.

The building of the church

To find out more about the building of the original church you could consult the following:

Michael Port, Six Hundred New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818-1856, London: Spire, 2006.

Basil F. L. Clarke, Parish Churches of London, London 1966

Peter Howell and James Sutton, The Faber Guide to Victorian Churches, London: Faber, 1989.

Blatch, Mervyn, A guide to London Churches, London, 1995

On the City churches see:     

Simon Bradley & Nikolaus Pevsner, London: the City Churches, London, 1998

Paul Jeffrey, The City Churches of Sir Christopher Wren, London, 1996

  • Local newspapers, often found in local archives, will often include detailed reports on the opening of a church which may include details on architects, craftsmen, architecture, specifications, benefactors etc.
  • For churches built after 1818 the most important archival source may be the files of the Incorporated Church Building Society at Lambeth Palace Library. There are files relating to individual applications for grants to assist church building and these include architectural plans, artistic impressions, specifications and also information regarding benefactors for the project. The architectural plans and layouts from these plans have been digitised online at www.churchplansonline.org.
  • Various sources relating to the establishment of the church, such as legal papers and architectural material, may be available at the London Metropolitan Archives.
  • For context on the relationship between the architect or craftsman in international, national, regional and local architectural movements, you could consult the following books:

James White, The Cambridge Movement: the ecclesiologists and the gothic revival, Cambridge: Ecclesiological Society, 1962.

Chris Brooks and Andrew Saint, eds, The Victorian Church: Architecture and   Society, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.

James Stephens Curl, Piety Proclaimed. An Introduction to Places of Worship in Victorian England, London: Historical Publications Ltd., 2002.

Basil F. L. Clarke, Church-Builders of the Nineteenth Century, London: Society for the  Propagation of Christian Knowledge, 1938.

M. Child, English Church Architecture - A Visual Guide, Batsford,  1981.

For further information on the materiality of churches visit the website of the Ecclesiological Society at www.ecclsoc.org (select ‘Research’ in the left-hand side menu. Another invaluable resource is the interactive DVD produced by the Centre for Christianity and Culture: The English Parish Church through the Centuries.

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The development of the church and its building and contents in detail

Nearly all church buildings change over time. There are a variety of reasons for exterior and interior developments to occur. The alteration of an interior may have had a theological motivation, and many churches have been developed according to shifting patterns of churchmanship. An alteration might be a practical response to changing circumstances; for example, the building of a new porch or vestry, or the erection of a gallery or of additional aisles because of rising attendances (or perhaps the unrealistic expectations of the incumbent!).

A Statement of Significance requires you to show understanding of the development of a church building. You will also be required to summarize the significance of additions to the building and its furnishings, the latter including information on (if applicable) the altar, reredos, pulpit, lectern, font, stained glass, wall paintings, pews and pew platforms, monuments, bells and frame, organ, plate, registers, woodwork and metalwork, communion rails and war memorials.

The following sources can be useful:

  • The Victoria County History for Middlesex will often provide valuable insights into the developments of exteriors and interiors (copies are available in reference libraries, or online at www.british-history.ac.uk  - from the home page click on ‘London' and then on ‘Victoria County History: Middlesex').
  • The Cathedrals and Church Buildings Library is a storehouse of material relating to ecclesiastical architecture, art, design and liturgy, with over 13,000 books on these topics and files on 16,000 parish churches. It also contains the detailed records of the contents of individual churches compiled by the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Studies (NADFAS) Church Recorders. The library is the shared resource of the Church Buildings Council and the Cathedrals Fabric Commission for England.
  • Photographic evidence from different periods in the life of the church can provide supporting visual evidence of change. Again, the Cathedrals and Church Buildings Library is an important resource, as its files include extensive collections of photographs and postcards of individual churches at different points in time.
  • The faculty papers of the Diocese of London, which can be found at the London Metropolitan Archive, provide details of previous changes in church buildings and grounds. These papers may include:
    • Previous petitions in request of a faculty.
    • Citations by those opposed to individual petitions.
    • Supporting documentation, including information provided by surveyors, architects and craftsmen, such as plans, specifications and estimates.
    • Letters of consent from the patron and the bishop of the diocese.

List of publications on church exteriors and interiors

  • James White, The Cambridge Movement: the ecclesiologists and the gothic revival, Cambridge: Ecclesiological Society, 1962.
  • Chris Brooks and Andrew Saint, eds, The Victorian Church: Architecture and Society, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995.
  • James Stephens Curl, Piety Proclaimed. An Introduction to Places of Worship in Victorian England, London: Historical Publications Ltd., 2002.
  • Richard Kieckhefer, Theology in Stone: Church Architecture from Byzantium to Berkeley, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
  • Michael Hall, ‘What Do Victorian Churches Mean? Symbolism and Sacramentalism in Anglican Church Architecture, 1850-1870’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 78-95.
  • Basil F. L. Clarke, Church-Builders of the Nineteenth Century, London: Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, 1938.
  • M. Child, English Church Architecture - A Visual Guide, Batsford,  1981.
  • Peter Anson, Fashions in Church Furnishings, 1840-1940, London: Faith Press, 1960.
  • Inside Churches - Guide to Church Furnishings, NADFAS, 1989 and later editions.

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Contact Us

If you would like to know more about the project or would like to get involved, please contact:

Dr Gavin Moorhead
The Department of Religious Studies
The Open University
1-11 Hawley Crescent
Camden Town
NW1 8NP
gavin.moorhead@open.ac.uk

We welcome your comments and feedback.