| Description | Summary
Society administration
Trustees' meeting minutes, 1865-1976; trust accounts, 1864-1974; Building Committee minutes, correspondence, plans and other papers relating to church and hall extensions, 1959-1974, 2004; leaders' meeting and annual society meeting minutes, 1926-1973; Church Council and Annual Church Meeting minutes, 1974-2006; Annual Church Meeting papers, 1976-2010; report on proposed redevelopment, 1971; Stewards’ minutes, 2003-2011; Church Committee minutes, 1974-1991; Finance (sometimes Fabric and Finance) Committee minutes, 1975-1999, 2010, and papers, 1980-2000, 2011; Redevelopment Sub-committee minutes and papers, 1996-2000; Pastoral Committee minutes, 1985-2008; Communications Team minutes, 2009; society steward's accounts, 1941-1953; collection journals and related records, 1905-1986; annual statements of accounts, 1953-2005/6; Buzzacott trust papers, 1962-1984; manse trustees' minutes, 1949-1976; papers relating to manses, 1965-1966; inventory, 1996.
Society organisations
Women's Fellowship membership register, 1968-1997; Contact programmes, 2001/2-2002/3; Men of Rose Street minutes, 2009-2011, and programmes, 1999/2000-2001/2; old folks' parties reports and accounts, 1929-1932; Guild minutes, syllabuses and related papers, 1949-1970; British and Foreign Bible Society: Wokingham branch minutes, 1973-1984; Railway and Transport Club programmes, 2001-2002.
Service of the church
Special orders of service, 1974, 1993-2008.
Registration
Baptism registers, 1874-2007; Wokingham Free Church Burial Board minutes, 1996-2011, correspondence, 1991-2011, and plan, 2005.
Membership
Register of classes, c.1920-1966; directories, c.1960s, 1993-2008; Young Disciples roll, 1928-1953; class tickets, 1881, 1883.
Sunday School and Sunday Institute
Sunday School Council minutes, 1924-1960; cradle rolls, 1940s-2003 (incomplete); notes, newscuttings etc, 1941-1972.
Printed material/Miscellaneous
Methodist booklets and newspapers, c.1900-1990; church and personal memorabilia, c.1911-1950; Wokingham roll of honour (1914-1918 and 1939-1945), 1948; newscuttings and leaflets, 1967-1995; church magazines, 1992-2012; recipe book, 1994; photograph of church interior, c.1900-1908; notes on history of church, 20C-2000. |
| Admin History | A Wesleyan Methodist society first met in Rose Street, Wokingham, in 1817, converted a barn into its first chapel in 1819, and has occupied buildings on the same site ever since, a new chapel being built in 1870. Good summaries of the society's expansion and improvement of its premises and of the church's history and service to the town are given in news cuttings about the building and opening of extended premises, 1967-1974, and in the re-opening service programme, reference D/MS 14/8/7.
The society came within the Reading circuit until 1991, when it transferred to become the headquarters of the newly-formed S E Berkshire circuit. |