The Church of England’s church buildings form the nation’s largest “estate” of built heritage. A village, town or city's church is often its oldest building still in continual use, as well as its largest and most visited building. Churches are also often an area's most architecturally complex and archaeologically sensitive buildings. In all cases, they were constructed for the glory of God, for worship and mission, and stand as repositories of our shared history.
ChurchCare - the Church of England's national resource - began a strategic campaign to simplify the Faculty process in 2012. As part of this endeavour, and with the financial assistance of Historic England, ChurchCare developed the Church Heritage Record: a digital database of church buildings integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS), which can be used for planning and development control, but also fulfils an educational and engagement role.
The Church Heritage Record contains over 16,000 entries on church buildings in England, covering a wide variety of topics from architectural history and archaeology, to the surrounding natural environment. The information contained within has been developed and added to through desk-based research and fieldwork reports, as well as through local initiatives and thematic projects.
The Church Heritage Record project has been awarded a £9,900 Sharing Heritage grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to catalogue, digitise and promote the Canon Clarke archival collection, which contains information on 11,479 Anglican and Roman Catholic churches in England, located in the CCB’s library at Church House, Westminster. The project, began in April 2016; two archive volunteers catalogued and digitised the collection which is now free to search online. From September 2016 to June 2017, eight heritage volunteers will be working to make the collection's content available on the CHR, develop guided tours, and host a learning event aimed at engaging the public with the collection and church buildings.
The Church Heritage Record also records information about the lives and memories of local people. Church buildings have been the site of some of the most important moments in some people’s lives: their births, marriages, and deaths. We want to invite the public to share their memories of their ancestors, using photographs and written stories, on the record’s Forum.
Click here to begin your search.
The Church Heritage Record is continuously updated and developed thanks to the dedication and hard work of local volunteers across England. If you think you would like to share your photographs, or you know of an interesting project happening in your area, contact Anna Campen at:
Cathedral and Church Buildings Division
Church House, Great Smith Street, London, SW1P 3AZ
[email protected]
