Church recording and the new Church Recording Society. 

Look in our 'Gallery' for pictures of our most recent churches - St Andrew's in Orwell, and St Helen's in Little Eversden. 

In 2019 The Arts Society, which as NADFAS had set up church recording with the V&A over forty years ago, decided that the time had come to stop its support from January 2021. This caused dismay among recorders and many professionals in the heritage field, but over the last few months a group of very experienced recorders have formed and become trustees of the Church Recording Society (CRS).

For those who aren’t familiar with what recorders do, we are society volunteers who make what is best described as a detailed and technical ‘inventory’ of the contents of, usually, a parish church.  Of course we have the permission of the PCC, and on completion the church receives a bound copy of the record and digital copies are sent to national archives: the V&A Art Library and ChurchCare are keen to continue receiving them, and CRS is talking to Historic England about continuing their copies.

The need to know what is in a church is important because these historic buildings and their artifacts are a major part of our heritage and during recording occasional treasures have been found.  Much more frequently, items of historic or artistic interest have simply been overlooked by the PCC whose focus of course is on the Christian purpose of the church. 

Societies with a church recording group have been asked to continue their support, and to take over the TAS grant for each completed record, while CRS is actively seeking financial support from heritage institutions in order that recording can continue. Granta has committed to continuing to support our Church recorders financially until 2024.

Volunteers are keen to carry on giving their time and knowledge for the recording of the contents of these historic buildings.