| Description | These faculty files contain papers relating to applications for faculties and for archdeacon's certificates (the latter for minor works) to authorise changes to the fabric of churches and churchyards.
This series of faculty papers (B/C/12) begins around 1883. Before 1883, faculty papers were included in the general series of consistory court cause papers (B/C/5). From 1883 to 1961 (with a few earlier strays and overlapping with the latter part of B/C/5), they are arranged in bundles by parish. From 1961 they are arranged in approximate annual series, but there is a wider date-range of documents within each batch.
The Registry did not tend to keep a "top copy" of a faculty when it was issued. The clerk would produce a draft which would be amended if necessary by the Registrar, and used to produce an engrossed copy which would be sealed and issued to the Petitioner, while the draft copy would be kept as the Office copy. This means that most of these bundles or files do not contain the final faculty, but the draft copy, with related papers which may include correspondence and plans.
The various series of Archdeacons' certificates are denoted with the letter c as part of the reference. These were abolished in the 1991 Measure on Faculty Jurisdiction. Faculties were thereafter issued on the authority either of the chancellor of the diocese or by delegated authority by the archdeacons.
A few related documents which were separate from the main series were deposited as part of LD412. These include other documents concerning church fabric which may not be faculty papers.
Faculties continued to be deposited regularly by the diocesan registry (not all appear yet on this catalogue). The last series of hard-copy faculties was deposited in 2018. From late 2017 all faculty and certificate papers are placed on the Church of England's national online faculty system system: http://www.churchcare.co.uk/churches/online-faculty-system |