Originally within the United Kingdom the title of diocesan record office would frequently have referred to a church-owned diocesan registry or chancery. This would have been where the episcopal registers, administrative papers and title deeds were preserved under the general superintendence of the diocesan chancellor. In modern usage it generally refers to an approved repository, frequently operated by a local authority, which has been specially designated by a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

for the collection and preservation of historic archives, both from the

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associa ...

and also from local ecclesiastical parishes.

Historical background

The Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1929 permitted bishops to designate such places as approved repositories for parish records. A new

Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 Parochial is an adjective which may refer to: * Parishes, in religion ** Parish churches, also called parochial churches * Parochial schools, primary or secondary schools affiliated to a religious organisation * Parochialism Parochialism is the ...

made it obligatory to designate at least one diocesan record office in each diocese of the Church of England. Usually the diocesan record office will now be within a city record office or an ordinary

county record office In the United Kingdom (and particularly in England and Wales) the term county record office usually refers to a local authority repository, also called a county archives. Such repositories employ specialist staff to administer and conserve the h ...

. However, there are some exceptions: the Canterbury Cathedral Library and the

Borthwick Institute for Archives The Borthwick Institute for Archives is the specialist archive service of the University of York, York, England. It is one of the biggest archive repositories outside London. The Borthwick was founded in 1953 as The Borthwick Institute of Histori ...

at the University of York are similarly designated. The Parochial Records and Records Measure relates solely to the Church of England. Other churches within the

Anglican communion The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...

, in Scotland, Wales and elsewhere, normally operate in accordance with their own specialist legislation – as do many other Christian denominations. The status of various Welsh county record offices as diocesan record offices was the result of an agreement with the

Representative Body of the Church in Wales The Representative Body of the Church in Wales is a registered charity, regulated by the Charity Commission for England and Wales, responsible for holding property and assets on behalf of the Church in Wales. It was set up in 1917 to oversee ...

, made in 1976, which gave Welsh parishes the option of claiming facsimile copies of their deposited registers. Prior to that date the only officially recognised Welsh repository had been the National Library of Wales, first designated in 1944.Journal of the Society of Archivists, vol 33 no 2, October 2012: obituary notice for A G Veysey, p. 193

References

External links

Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978: full text on legislation.gov.uk website.

National Archives website (archival legislation): summary of Parochial Registers and Records Measures. {{Authority control Dioceses (ecclesiastical) Dioceses of the Church of England Church in Wales Archives in the United Kingdom Archives in England Archives in Wales