| Catalogue Reference | D/MS82 |
| Title | Records of Winnersh Methodist Church (previously Winnersh Mission Hall) |
| Description | Summary
Society administration
Trustees' meeting minutes, 1959-1976; bills and vouchers re property, 1938-1959; trustees' correspondence, mostly with Miss Matthews, 1959-1976; Church Council minutes, 1982-1985; accounts, 1938-1947; annual statements of accounts, 1969/70-1982/3 (incomplete); property committee minutes, 1977; miscellaneous correspondence, 1943-1955, 1976; notes on status of church, 1977.
Service of the church
Pulpit notices, 1938-1965; order of inaugural service as a Methodist church, 1959.
Registration
Baptism register, 1942-1970, 1977-1985.
Membership
Attendance register, 1956-1974; notes on members and adherents, 1960s.
Sunday School and Sunday Institute
Sunday School register of members, 1938-1950; attendance registers, 1938-1952, 1974.
Printed material/Miscellaneous
Papers of Miss E W Matthews, 1910-1974, including register of evacuees from London to St Neots, Huntingdonshire, 1939-1943. |
| Date | 1910-1985 |
| Repository | Berkshire Record Office (code: GB 005) |
| Level | Fonds |
| Extent | 13 vols, 13 bdls, 7 doc |
| Admin History | The church was built as Winnersh Mission Hall in the late 1930s. It was re-started in 1938 as Winnersh Christian Fellowship, and was known in the 1940s as Winnersh Hall Undenominational Church.
In 1959 the trustees and owners transferred the church to the Methodist Church, but trustee and former co-owner Miss E W Matthews almost immediately disagreed with the new trustees and attempted to regain ownership. Regular services ceased in 1975, following the death of Miss Matthews (then the only person attending).
A Sunday School continued, led by members of Wokingham Rose Street Methodist Church (D/MS 14). Regular services were re-started in 1976, and the congregation became a class of Rose Street Church in 1977. A new society was formed in 1982.
The building closed in 1984 due to its dangerous condition. The church continued to meet for worship at Winnersh parish church until July 1985, when the society was dissolved. The building was sold in 1987. |
| Acquisition | Deposited in October 1981 (acc. 2945 part); August 1984 (acc. 3446 part); July 1990 (acc. 4618 part); September 1999 (acc. 6509)
Schedule of accessions
Acc. 2945 (part): 2B/2; 4A/1-6
Acc. 3446 (part): 1D/1; 2B/1; 6C/1; 8/1, 3-9, 11-12
Acc. 4618 (part): 1A/1; 2B/3; 2D/2; 2E/1; 5A/1
Acc. 6509: 1C/1; 2D/1; 4B/1; 6A/1; 7B/1-2; 8/2, 10 |
| Arrangement | Concordance
The following documents were previously catalogued as D/N 6 :
Old reference New reference
D/N 6/10/1 D/MS 82/2B/2
D/N 6/10/2/1 D/MS 82/4A/1
D/N 6/10/2/2 D/MS 82/4A/2
D/N 6/10/2/3 D/MS 82/4A/3
D/N 6/10/2/4 D/MS 82/4A/4
D/N 6/10/2/5 D/MS 82/4A/5
D/N 6/10/2/6 D/MS 82/4A/6
Classification scheme for Methodist society (chapel or church) records
[This scheme shows how the collection is arranged. This collection does not include every type of record in the scheme. See the summary for records included in this collection.]
1 Trustees
1A Trustees' meeting minutes
1B Trust accounts
1C Chapel property [deeds, certificates, licences, appointments of trustees]
1D Correspondence
1E Related committees
1F Other property [eg manse, hall, school]
1G Other
2 Leaders and society stewards/Church Council)
2A Leaders' meeting/Church Council minutes
2B Accounts
2C Committees
2D Correspondence
2E Other
3 Society organisations
3A Women's groups [except Women's Work
3B Men's groups
3C Joint fellowship [except Sunday Institute]
3D Youth organisations [except Sunday School]
3E Missions [including Women's Work]
3F Other
4 Service of the church
4A Pulpit notices
4B Orders of service
4C Ministers' papers
4D Other
5 Registration
5A Baptism
5B Marriage
5C Burial
6 Membership
6A Registers, class books and directories
6B Young disciples
6C Other
7 Sunday School and Sunday Institute
7A Sunday School minutes and accounts
7B Sunday School registers and cradle rolls
7C Other Sunday School records
7D Sunday Institute
8 Printed material/Miscellaneous |
| Related Material | Records in other collections
D/MC 5-6: Circuit records.
D/MS 14: Wokingham Rose Street Methodist Church records.
D/MC6/3E/1: Papers relating to ownership and sale of church, 1967-1987. |
| Access Conditions | With the exception of registers of baptism, marriage and burial, and other material whose contents have been made public, records of the Methodist Church are closed for 30 years, and pastoral records for 75 years, in accordance with Methodist Church standing orders.
Applications for access to closed records must be made in writing to the County Archivist. |