| Description | Summary
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION : church book, 1878-1884; church meeting minutes, 1878-1993; annual reports, 1962/3-1969/70; correspondence, 1913-1927, 1953-1969.
DEACONS : minutes, 1914-1950.
ELDERS : Oversight or elders' minutes, 1957-1989.
COMMITTEES : Centenary Committee minutes, 1927-1928.
TREASURER : accounts, 1882-1993; bills and vouchers, 1911-1928, 1992; miscellaneous, 1920-1929, draft annual statements or balance sheets, 1983/4-1992/3 (incomplete).
PROPERTY RECORDS : transcript of chapel trust deed, 1829; appointments of new trustees, 1878-1953; copy deeds of manse, 1926-1931; church fabric papers, 1880-1989; insurance policies and papers, 1885-1975; plans relating to alterations to church, 1887-1966; papers relating to manse, 1926-1954; manse accounts, 1928; plan of burial ground, c.1890.
CHURCH ORGANISATIONS : Sunday School : scripture examination rules, 1912; Women's Club : details of formation, 1959; Friday Club : report, [1971].
REGISTRATION AND MEMBERSHIP : baptisms, c.1884-1963; marriages, 1915-1963; burials, 1843-1959, 1970s; membership lists, registers and roll, 1879-1963; papers relating to marriage and burial, 1888-1977; transcript of MIs, 2006; membership transfer forms, 1910-1957.
SERVICE OF THE CHURCH : posters advertising special services, 1916-1928; papers relating to missions and evangelism, 1918-1922, 1961-1966, 1989-1999; notice books, 1960-1971.
MINISTER : papers relating to pastorate and preachers, 1911-1928, 1985-1999.
PUBLICATIONS : newsletters, 1986-1987 (incomplete).
OTHER BODIES : Baptist Sustentation Fund branch records, 1913-1921; Ascot District Christian Fellowship minutes, 1960-1962; Bible Society church growth meeting minutes, 1987.
MISCELLANEOUS : notes on history of church, early 20C; papers relating to anniversaries, 1926-1928, 1978; history of Sunningdale Congregational Church, 1965. |
| Admin History | Baptist worship in Sunningdale is said to have begun in a room at the White Lodge, near the Old Toll Bar. A messuage was registered as a place of worship in 1801. In the early 1820s the Particular Baptists met in a cottage on the Frognall estate in Windsor; this may have been the building said to be in Sunninghill registered for worship in 1820. For registrations as a place of worship, see Lisa Spurrier, Berkshire Nonconformist Meeting House Registrations, 1689-1852 (2 vols, Berkshire Record Society 2005) (in BRO library).
In 1828 the congregation purchased ground on Old Windsor Common, Sunningdale, and built a chapel. The trust deed was enrolled in Chancery in October 1829, and the chapel was registered as a place of worship in March 1829 and again in January 1830.
In 1843 a group of seceders from the church built a rival chapel in the Nursery area of Sunningdale, but this cause soon failed.
In the 1870s the church was supplied by Strict Baptist preachers. The Sunday School ceased to exist, and the church briefly closed in 1878.
The church was revived in December 1878. The Sunday School reopened in 1880. The church remained fairly small and was not always able to support a full-time minister. In the early 20th century financial support for the pastorate was received from the Baptist Union Sustentation Fund. Sunningdale left the Baptist Union in 1953. |