| Description | Summary
Circuit administration
Quarterly Meeting minutes, 1837-1940 (incomplete); Circuit Committee minutes, 1844-1845, 1856-1939; Preparatory Meeting minutes, 1856-1893; Finance Committee minutes, 1900-1940 (incomplete); Emergency Committee minutes, 1939-1940; manse trustees' minutes, 1909-1938; manse correspondence and accounts, 1933-1938; papers re. Whitley Wood site trust, 1913-1940; annual reports and schedules, 1842-1931.
Preaching plans and directories
Plans, 1834-1868 (very incomplete); plans and directories, including Bradfield branch/circuit, 1884-1918 (incomplete); plans and directories, 1919-1940 (very incomplete).
Local preachers
Minutes, 1849-1940.
Circuit registration.
Registers of baptisms, 1831-1944, 1955.
Miscellaneous
Primitive Methodist Conference preaching plans (Reading and Luton), 1841, 1867; church yearbook and calendar, 1937-1938; photograph of the Revd W J Smart, 1930s.
Concordance
The following documents were previously catalogued as D/N :
Old reference - New reference
D/N 5/1/1 - D/MC 2/1A/1
D/N 5/1/2 - D/MC 2/1A/2
D/N 5/1/3 - D/MC 2/1A/3
D/N 5/1/4 - D/MC 2/1A/4
D/N 5/1/5, 5B - D/MC 2/1A/5
D/N 5/1/6 - D/MC 2/1A/6
D/N 5/1/7 - D/MC 2/1A/7
D/N 5/1/8 - D/MC 2/1A/8
D/N 5/1/9 - D/MC 2/1A/9
D/N 5/1/10 - D/MC 2/1A/10
D/N 5/1/11 - D/MC 2/2A/1
D/N 5/1/12 - D/MC 2/2D/1
D/N 5/1/13 - D/MC 2/2D/2
D/N 5/1/14 - D/MC 2/5A/2, 4-6; 9/1
D/N 5/1/15 - D/MC 2/4A/1-8
D/N 5/1/16 - D/MC 2/5A/7-8; 5A/9/1, 2, 6
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| Admin History | A note inside the cover of the first Quarterly Meeting minute book (D/MC2/1A/1) states : 'Reading was opened on Sunday April 12th 1835 by Brother John Ride from Shefford Circuit and made a Separate Circuit at the General Quarterly Meeting, held at Shefford March 6th 1837, with 450 Members.' (Shefford circuit was renamed Newbury in 1845 - see the introduction to D/MC8.)
Expansion was rapid, and before the formation of other circuits to the north and east, the new Reading Primitive Methodist circuit, with missions and branches in High Wycombe, Rickmansworth, St Albans, Hertford, Watford, Brentford, Windsor, Maidenhead and Kingston upon Thames, saw membership rise to 1551 in 1844. By 1850, however, the figure was down to 630 and the circuit had shrunk to serve Reading and a radius of about ten miles (D/MC2/4A/1-2 and 5A/1-3).
Silchester and neighbouring societies became a separate branch in 1858 (eventually forming the Silchester circuit : see D/MC3), but within a decade the loss of over 200 members there had been made good. In 1877, a small group of societies formed a Bradfield branch (see D/MC4), leaving a nucleus of a dozen societies to take the Reading Primitive Methodist circuit into the 20th century (D/MC2/4A/3-6 and 5A/4-7).
Renamed 'London Street Circuit' after national Methodist union in 1932, the former Primitive Methodists amalgamated with the former Reading Wesleyans in 1940.
Apart from 1903-1907 and 1912-1918, a fine series of Quarterly Meeting, committee and local preachers' meeting minutes survives for the entire life of the circuit from 1837. Annual reports, schedules and preaching plans, despite gaps, also constitute a mine of information on 19th century developments. |
| Acquisition | Deposited in April 1975 (acc. 2002 part); March 1983 (acc. 3212 part); February 1986 (acc. 3767); September 1986 (acc. 3875 part), February 1988 (acc. 4191); October 1992 (acc. 5106 part); December 2018 (acc. 10429); May 2023 (acc. 11130)
Schedule of accessions
Acc. 2002 (part): 1A/1-10; 2A/1; 3D/1-2; 4A/1-8, 5A/2, 4-8; 5A/9/1, 2, 6; 9/1
Acc. 3212 (part): 3E/2-4
Acc. 3767: 3E/1
Acc. 3875 (part): 5A/9/3-5; 5A/10; 9/2-4
Acc. 4191: 5A/1, 3
Acc. 5106 (part): 6A/1
Acc. 10429: 7A/1-3
Acc. 11130: 9/5 |