Using the plans and drawings in the ICBS archive

Building new churches

As the population grew, there were not enough churches for everyone to go to a service on Sundays. This was worrying for the Church of England, because if people could not go to their churches they might join another church.

Building new churches still costs a lot of money. In 1818 the Incorporated Church Building Society was founded with the aim of increasing the number of people that could attend church, and one way to do this was to help poor parishes build new churches. These plans are for the new church of St John the Evangelist Beachley in the parish of Tidenham (Gloucestershire).

groundplan, elevation and section

groundplan

You can see that some of the local residents helped with the costs by renting seats (pews). How many pews did Charles Scott Stokes rent? Whereabouts in the church were they? Can they be seen on both plans?

For St James Codnor (Derbyshire) a brochure was printed to encourage people to contribute money towards the building of the church. How accurately do you think this picture might show the church and its surroundings?

perspective

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Research Guide Table of Contents

Researching the history of your church
Start by looking at the church
Find out more
A few examples from the ICBS