Researching our churches: the Southwell and Nottingham church history project

Accurate, detailed descriptions of parish churches outside of academic publications are rare. Since 2000, a small team from the diocese of Southwell and Nottingham and the University of Nottingham, backed by volunteers and students, has been researching and web-publishing detailed descriptions of the history, archaeology, and fittings of churches in the diocese. Aided by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the project now has details of 384 churches and church sites in varying stages of completeness. The project has demonstrated the value of a flexible, internet-based approach for publishing church histories, and the techniques by which volunteers may be trained and managed to achieve a high quality product. It has also produced a great deal of new research, and some unexpected findings. Finally, it has provided the basis for comparative studies.