Church and Religion

One of the most popular collections to be viewed by visitors to Bedfordshire Archives Service is that of the Church of England.  We are the official repository for the St Albans Diocese which covers Bedfordshire and its parish churches.  As such we keep the parish registers, churchwardens accounts, glebe terrier records, parochial church council and many other records that were created as each parish went about their daily business.  A introduction to parish records, describing what they contain, can be found here.

We also hold non-Anglican or non-conformist material, mainly for Protestant denominations (e.g. Methodists, Baptists, Moravians and Congregationalists), including baptism, marriage and burial registers, although these are less complete than the Anglican parish register series. Unlike the Church of England they are not obliged to pass their records to us so our holdings are patchy in terms of area and date. 

The Bedford Registrar has also deposited some additional registers with us for other non-Christian religions. These can be browsed on our catalogue under the reference X674.