Council for the Care of Churches

For ease of reference, the listing has been divided into Sections:

Section 1 contains papers of the Council and its principal Committees; including the Conservation Committee, its Secretariat, papers of the Conservation Committee's Sub-Committees, and papers related to their activities. Some of these are extensive related file series, like the series CARE/WALL/WP for Wallpaintings. This section also includes papers of Policy and Constitution; Working Parties; Secretary's papers; Exhibitions. It also contains a series of papers generated in the war years, apparently an 'emergency' filing system, when the Council was evacuated to Earlham in Somerset.

Section 2 reflects the Council's dealings with external bodies, some Church of England bodies, including dealings with Diocesan Advisory Committees and General Synod bodies; and the private sector, which includes the large 'Kindred Bodies' series.

Section 3 contains papers regarding legislation that affected the Council's work. In one sense much of the Council's work is detirmined by statute, but these file series, particularly CARE/IOCM, show the development of a particularly important Measure or Act and its affects on the activities of the Council.

Section 4 has been designated Churches, and brings together papers from different deposits within topic and theme-based classes on aspects of churches: their exteriors and interiors, and their furnishings and contents. The large 'Objects' series has been placed here, and (in Section 6A)

Section 5 is the Technical Files series relating to physical properties of building materials.

Section 6 contains papers reflecting the Council's publicity programmes, and includes the Publications series, and activities in the fields of lecturing, slide and film shows, and video.

Section 7 is the register of architects and craftspeople maintained by the Council. This is arranged in rough alphabetical order by surname and files usually contain correspondence from individual practicioners about work completed that is relevant to the interests of the Council, often including examples.

It was originally formed to co-ordinate and assist the work of the Diocesan Advisory Committees. In 1913, before the Council was established, a number of Diocesan Advisory Committees for the Care of Churches were set up 'to give effect to a pledge made by the Archbishops during the debates on the Ancient Monuments Act of 1913' that they would look after questions with regard to ecclesiastical buildings. There followed, in 1914, a Report of a Committee of Chancellors appointed by the Archbishops, which recommended the setting up of DACs to advise the chancellors and bishops on questions artistic, archaeological and so forth, regarding church buildings.

Faculty Jurisdiction machinery has existed in the church since the 13th century, but this recommendation gave more control over church fabric to secular bodies. DACs became statutory bodies after the passing of the Faculty Jurisdiction Measure in 1938, before which they had been working on a voluntary basis. The position was further strengthened by the Faculty Jurisdiction Measure 1964.

Between 1918 and 1921 four informal meetings were held by the Dean of Westminster. In July 1921, after the Report of the Government's Advisory Council on Ancient Monuments, The Dean of Westminster called a meeting in the Jerusalem Chamber, which led to the establishment of the Central Committee for the Protection of Churches (and their Treasures). This body met between 1921 and 1927. It grew in a 'haphazard fashion', because the DACs were only very gradually formed, and when the Central Committee came into being there were very few of them.

For references to this early period of the Council's History, see CARE/M/1; CARE/CONST; CARE/MEM/1-2 and CARE/FIN2/2, 4-13.

In 1927 the Dean of Westminster moved (See R.O.P., 1926, pp 153-55) to place this Committee in connection with the Church Assembly, after which date it became a Church Assembly body. Its proposed Constitution at that time is set out in CA 232.

The structure of the Council at this time was such that all the extant Diocesan Advisory Committees were represented and had 2 members on the Council. There was one Central Council, and most of its business was transacted through its two Provincial Committees (for the Northern and Southern Provinces). Correspondence relating to the Provincial Committees 1922-1947 is in class CARE/MEM/1-2. It is not clear when these ceased to exist.

From 1927-1959 the body was called The Central Council of Diocesan Advisory Committees for the Care of Churches. According to the Official Year Book of the Church of England, its short title was The Central Faculties Council; this was sometimes the preferred title. It was used throughout the 1930s and apparently discontinued after 1942. Also from 1942, the title used for the Council was The Central Council for the Care of Churches.

In 1958 a new Constitution was drawn up and passed in the Church Assembly June 1958. (See R.O.P., 1958, pp 293-305; and the Council's Report CA 1251). This altered the membership significantly, removing representatives of all the Diocesan Advisory Committees. Instead it was reconstituted as a Council of 25 members appointed by the Church Assembly.

From 1 May 1962 the Council was called simply The Council for the Care of Churches.

In 1972 another administrative change took place and brought the Council under the auspices of the General Synod. It changed its name to The Council for Places of Worship. In 1981 its name reverted to The Council for the Care of Churches.

Chairmen of the Council

Very Revd William Foxley Norris, the Dean of Westminster 1927-1937

(Vacancy) 1938

Very Revd David Herbert Somerset Cranage, the Dean of Norwich 1939-1953

Very Revd Seriol John Arthur Evans, the Dean of Gloucester 1954-1972

Very Revd Michael Stancliffe, the Dean of Winchester 1973-1976

Very Revd R Swingfield Digby, the Dean of Peterborough 1977-1981

Venerable Thomas Eric Evans, the Archdeacon of Cheltenham 1982-1988

Very Revd Christopher Russell Campling, the Dean of Ripon 1989-1993

Rt Revd Colin John Fraser Scott, the Bishop of Hulme 1994-

Secretarys of the Council

Mr Francis Carolus Eeles 1927-1954

Mr F I G Rawlins 1955-1956

(Vacancy) 1956-1957

Miss Judith Scott 1957-1972

Mr Desmond Mandeville 1972-1977

Mr Peter A T Burman 1977-1990

Dr Thomas A Cocke 1991-

The original order of these series has been preserved exactly as found, even when it does not correspond to exact date order, which is the usual CERC policy for sorting of classes. Notes of the original filing systems and codes used have also been noted. Notes of the original owner / user of certain files has sometimes been noted.

Open

All the papers in this listing were deposited from the Council's headquarters at 83 London Wall, between 1993 and 1994; with the execption of the majority of the Design and Planning Committee papers which were deposited in August 1991. The accessioning was carried out May-June 1995.

The material was appraised in line with the Lambeth Palace Library / Record Centre appraisal policy when the online catalogue was prepared in 2014.

Most papers dated before circa 1970 were kept as coherent file series with their own categories, group names, citations, codes, and numbers.

Publications acquired with the CARE archive are held at the Church of England Record Centre but are awaiting inclusion in Lambeth Palace Library's printed books catalogue. The material includes both publications produced by the Council for the Care of Churches and external publications acquired by the Council for reference.