Records of the United Reformed Church Society of the University of Nottingham, 1961-1981

The collection contains a number of distinct series, covering the business and activities of the society over a twenty year period. The principal series are:

• Minute books. 1961-1981 (UN UU 12/1);
• Constitutional papers. 1979-1980 (UN UU 12/2);
• Term programmes. 1975-1981 (UN UU 12/3);
• Photocopies of circulars and publicity material. 1970-1981 (UN UU 12/4);
• Financial statement. 1981 (UN UU 12/5);
• Occasional papers relating to the Society in the 1979-1980 session, including items of correspondence, notes about the Society and reference to its members. (UN UU 12/6);
• Papers relating to missions. 1961-1966 (UN UU 12/7);
• Papers relating to church groups in the university generally, including the Christian Association and Christian Union, and programmes for joint meetings of the Universities Presbyterian Congregational Societies. 1966-1979 (UN UU 12/8).

Notice of the Presbyterian-Congregational Society first appears in the University of Nottingham Students' Handbook in 1959. In its early years, the Society met on Sundays at Castlegate Congregational Church Hall in Nottingham for tea and a talk by a visiting speaker. Evening services were then held at Castlegate and St. Andrew's (Presbyterian) churches. Groups also met in the rooms of student members in halls on campus.

In 1971, the Congregational and English Presbyterian churches joined to form the United Reformed Church. The university's Society changed its name in 1973 to reflect this development.

From the beginning of the 1979/1980 academic year, the Society merged with the William Carey (Baptist) Society to form the United Reformed Baptist Society. The merger was caused partly by the absence of a full-time chaplain on campus which resulted in reliance on students to run the Society. This was made difficult by a fall in the number of members, and the commitment of existing members to other groups, such as the Christian Union. The new Society lasted less than three years. The last annual general meeting was held in February 1981. A pessimistic forecast was minuted about the Society's ability to recruit sufficient students in the 1981 Freshers' Week to sustain its future activities.

The collection has been divided by document type into series. Within these series, items have been arranged chronologically.

ACCESS: Accessible to all registered readers; restrictions may apply to some modern papers.

LANGUAGE: English

• This description is the only finding aid available for the collection. Copyright on the description belongs to The University of Nottingham.

REPROGRAPHIC: Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational use and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

COPYRIGHT: Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections (email mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk).

The collection was acquired by the University of Nottingham's Department of Manuscripts in July 1982.