The Papers of Cross Road Hall, Wimbledon

The collection contains: minutes of a number of meetings relating to Cross Road Hall and subsequently Worple Road Evangelical Church that span over a number of years; attendance records that document the congregation of such a Brethren Community; documents that publicise not only events specific to Cross Road Hall, but also events and issues relevant to the wider Brethren community. It also contains general administrative documents concerning the lease of the Hall, it's Trustees, it's fixtures, fittings and financial status. As the collection is so large and detailed, it would be of value to readers interested in Brethren communities throughout the 20th century, their advertising techniques, their popularity, and the issues and decisions they had to face during the period.

Cross Road Hall was a Christian Brethren Chapel in Wimbledon, London. The collection documents the Hall's merger with Central Hall, another Christian Brethren Hall in the Wimbledon Area, in the mid 1970's. The merger was instigated when the Local County Council's plans to expand the local education system required the land that Cross Road Hall inhabited, and came about after long correspondence between Cross Road Hall, it's leading Brethren figures, the local Council, Solicitors and Estate Agents, all of which the collection documents. After the merger of Cross Road Hall and Central Hall, Wimbledon, the Brethren congregation re-named itself the Worple Road Evangelical Church, based on its rejuvenated premises on Worple Road, Wimbledon.

Upon arrival the physical arrangement of the collection was confused, so was subsequently sorted and catalogued into the following 5 series;

• Minutes
• Attendance Records
• Documents Publicising the Brethren
• General Administration
• Personal Papers

The collection is open to any accredited reader.

The Papers were donated by James Wallace of Surrey.

Photocopies and photographic copies of material in the archive can be supplied for private study purposes only, depending on the condition of the documents.

A number of items within the archive remain within copyright under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988; it is the responsibility of users to obtain the copyright holder's permission for reproduction of copyright material for purposes other than research or private study.

Prior written permission must be obtained from the Library for publication or reproduction of any material within the archive. Please contact the Keeper of Manuscripts and Archives, John Rylands University Library, 150 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 3EH.

The collection was in the personal possession of John Ward and was given to the library by the Executor of his will, James Wallace.

Grass, Tim, Gathering to his Name: The Story of the Open Brethren in Britain and Ireland (Milton Keynes: Paternoster, 2006).