| Description | Summary
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION : church meeting minutes, 1859-1972;
correspondence, 1865-1902, 1911-1914; secretary's annual report, 1872; draft statement re formation of church, c.1850.
COMMITTEES : [general] committee minutes, 1854, c.1880-1914 (gaps); chapel
debt committee minutes, 1884.
TREASURER : summary accounts, 1915-1919.
PROPERTY: trustees' minutes, 1871-1964; correspondence, 1881-1905; papers,
1871-1955; fabric papers, 1870-1970; bills, vouchers and correspondence, 1880-1882.
CHURCH ORGANISATIONS: Sunday School teachers' meetings, 1863.
REGISTRATION & MEMBERSHIP: registers of baptisms, 1865-1875, 1889-1896,
1906-1913; marriages, 1867-1872, 1926-1955; membership, 1851-1957.
SERVICE OF THE CHURCH: reopening order of service, 1881; registration
certificates of chapel for worship, 1898, and marriages, 1862, 1969; preachers' plans, 1869, 1903-1934 (incomplete).
MINISTER : photograph of honorary pastor, n.d. [1930s].
CHARITIES : details of charitable gifts, 1894-1895.
PUBLICATIONS : history of church, 1954; magazine, 1954.
MISCELLANEOUS : photographs of church and members, 19-20c.; press cuttings,
1906, 1966-1969; centenary papers, 1954; miscellaneous, 1907 n.d. |
| Admin History | The church was founded in 1850 following the national secession from the Wesleyan Methodists which led to the creation of the Wesleyan Reform Union. The 29 members of the Reading Group met initially in a chapel in Caversham Road, and later in the auction room in St Mary's Butts. In 1854 they leased a former Baptist chapel in Hosier Street (see D/N2 for records of this congregation) which had lately been used by the parish of Reading St Laurence for a day school. The chapel was purchased outright in 1871.
A schoolroom was built in 1860, accommodating Sunday and day schools for children, and evening classes for adults.
While part of the Wesleyan Reform Union the church was linked with other chapels at Swallowfield and Twyford. In 1864 the church left the Wesleyan Reform Union, and became an independent free church. In 1867 it adopted the title "Congregational Methodist" to signify its Congregational pattern of church government, and its Methodist doctrines. It remained independent, despite approaches from the Wesleyan churches. There was no salaried minister, the church being served solely by its own members, until 1969. The church was situated in a poor area, and concentrated its work on the poor, including evangelism, temperance and reclamation of "fallen women".
In 1969 the site was compulsorily purchased by Reading Borough Council, and the chapel demolished. The church moved to a new site in Anstey Lane, Reading, adopting the name Central Evangelical Church. It closed in c.1993. |