The Art Society High Wycombe Church Recorders Group was set up in 2017 and is presently recording, researching and documenting all of the objects in a local Church dating back to the 12th Century.These include Tudor and Victorian stained glass windows, early 19th Century hatchments, a 17th Century church clock, some of the oldest church bells in the country, mediaeval and Victorian stonework and tiles, furnishings and memorials to generations of parishioners. We expect to take 2- 3 years to complete this project and our end product, a substantial document compiled to a standard agreed between the then NADFAS and the V&A, will be lodged with Church Care, V&A, English Heritage, County Records Office and of course, the Church itself.
We are a large group of individuals, from the Society, all new to Church Recording and learning as we go along. As we discover the delights of the Church we have become more enthralled and this has led to some of our group to travel to Aylesbury, Oxford, Lincoln, London and Birmingham in furtherance of their researches.
There is a strong social side to our work - we make a point , after a busy morning of Church Recording at the Church, of getting together at a local Pub for a well-earned light lunch
Who benefits?
As well as being a source of tremendous pleasure and interest to Church Recorders and worshippers alike, Church Records serve a number of practical purposes. They are used by:
- the church authorities as a complete furnishing record
- the police, who can use the accurate descriptions and photographs to identify retrieved stolen artefacts
- Insurance companies who use the Records to identify items
- Researchers who are producing theses and books on allied subjects