| Description | This collection is comprised mainly of general Cheshire Congregational Union records. These include the articles of association, minutes of annual and executive committee meetings, accounts, deeds, trusts, bequests, speeches and publications, and district records. Some historical notes, newsletters, orders of service, and property records for individual chapels are included.
For other chapel records, including registers, see the ECC and EPC collections. Such registers only date from 1837, as earlier registers were surrendered to the Registrar General in that year. Microfilm copies of early registers are available in the Record Office (Mf 1). Marriage registers date from 1898: nonconformists could not marry in their own chapels before 1837 and, from 1837 to 1898, only in the presence of the local registrar who kept the sole record (with the Chester Circuit records).
This collection also includes the Cheshire District Women's Work Committe records, which contain minutes, accounts and some miscellanea. |
| Administrative History | The majority of Congregational and Presbyterian churches joined the United Reformed Church in 1972 in the Mersey Province. Before that date, Congregational churches were self-governing within districts under the Cheshire Congregational Union; and Presbyterian churches were organised under the presbyteries of Liverpool and Manchester. The Church of Christ joined the United Reformed Church in 1984.
For a history of the Cheshire Congregational Union see the sub-collection level, ECU/1. |