English Hymnal Company archives

Minutes Books, Cash Books and a collection of letters and papers regarding the English Hymnal Company.

The English Hymnal was first published in 1906 and proved a formative, although controversial, publication in the history of Anglican church music. Another edition was published in 1933.

Individuals involved included Percy Dearmer, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and George Bell.

The Ecclesiastical Music Trust holds a majority of the company's shares and uses its dividend income to make grants to qualifying applicants.

Open

Given to the Library by the company in 2019.

The Library was also given various printed editions of 'The English Hymnal' and a 'Hymnal for Scotland' (the version of the hymnal published for use in Scotland). These include the first edition of 1906, and a rare 'abridged edition' produced in response to the polemic engendered by several bishops who threatened to ban the main edition in their dioceses (for more on this, see biographical works on Percy Dearmer by Nan Dearmer and Donald Gray in the printed books collection, and a paper by Martin Draper published by the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 2006, not held in the Library).

Related material in other collections in the Library includes correspondence in the Davidson papers.