Church Recording - an Overview
Church Recorders work as a team at a single local church or place of worship. In pairs, they research and document items within the building in 9 discrete categories: memorials, metalwork, stonework, woodwork, textiles, paintings, libraries, windows and miscellaneous. Depending upon the size of building it can take two or more years to complete a Church Record, a bound copy of which is presented to the church or place of worship. Additional copies, in both printed and digital format, are lodged with relevant national bodies; for example, copies of a Record of an Anglican Church in England will be sent to the local county records office (or Diocesan authorities), the Church Buildings Council, the Victoria & Albert Museum and English Heritage Archives.
As well as being a source of tremendous pleasure and interest to individual members of the recording team and congregations alike, Church Records serve a number of practical purposes: they provide a complete furnishing record; the police can use the descriptions and photographs to identify retrieved stolen artefacts; insurance companies may use Records to identify items; and they help researchers in producing theses and books on allied subjects.