Welcome

Books from the Congregational Library unpacked and on the shelves

Welcome to our website. We hope you’ll find it useful, inspiring and informative. If you have any questions, please contact us.

Who we are

The Congregational Memorial Hall Trust was founded in 1872 to create a memorial to those Christian ministers who were forced out of their positions in the Church of England following the Act of Uniformity in 1662. The fund established by the Trust was used to create the Congregational Library and encourage and assist Biblical studies.

Since 1872 the Library has occupied a number of sites in London and until recently was lodged with Dr Williams’s Library in Gordon Square, London, who managed the Congregational Library collections on behalf of the Trust. The Congregational Memorial Hall Trust and Westminster College, Cambridge, are pleased to announce a new partnership which will see the Congregational Library relocated to, and working out of, the College.

Accessing our printed collections

You are welcome to visit the Congregational Library to consult its collections. Requests for access should be made to the Congregational Librarian, Jacqueline Reiter (01223 330637). Access is conditional on your agreeing to its regulations by signing this form. More information on how to access the Library can be found here.

The Congregational Library’s online catalogue can be accessed here.

Accessing our archives and manuscripts

Click here to access the Congregational Library manuscripts handlist.

For the Archive of Ministers’ Papers, please click here.

Otherwise, choose from the following links:

Congregational Lectures

The Congregational Lecture has been held every year since 1987. Previous Congregational Lectures can be downloaded from this page.

News

Two old books side by side on a shelf, one very small and thin (on left) and one very large and fat (on right)

Congregational Library update: May 2025

We have big news at the Congregational Library: we have some volunteers to help with the unpacking! Our two champions started a couple of weeks ago and have been doing an absolutely super job. Between the three of us we have unpacked nearly 60 boxes this month alone at time of writing (22 May). Given […]

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Panoramic view taken from Westminster College Tower, looking out towards Cambridge University Library. Trees are green, the sky is blue, and everything looks very spring-like

Congregational Library update: April 2025

Happy Easter to all! We are well and truly in the middle of spring here in Cambridge: the weather is sunny and dry, the skies are blue, the flowers are out everywhere, and a little wren sings regularly to us through the reading room window. It is a privilege to be here and Westminster College […]

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A photograph of the exterior of Westminster College, Cambridge, beneath a blue sky, with greenery and hyacinths in the foreground.

Congregational Library update: March 2025

Spring is here at last, and it feels like the Congregational Library is also entering a new season. Most of our monthly updates will be following a particular theme for the foreseeable future, and that theme is “unpacking”. The library has been allotted three separate areas for its collection at Westminster College: the Cheshunt Room, […]

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Looking after your church history

 

Interested in looking after your Church history – see our guidance here.

More about the Reformation and Non-conformity

The way that Non-conformity grew out of the Reformation and influenced more than three hundred years of British and global history is often hidden from the national narrative.

From John Owen, born in 1616, who lived through the turbulent years of the Civil War, to the great non-conformists of the 19th century, who ministered when dissent from the Established Church was itself a bar to education and public office, and into the early 20th century, with its terrible wars and upheavals, they shaped the world in which we live now. Read more