Church Recorder Groups, comprising NADFAS members, were set up from 1973 onwards. Their aim is to make comprehensive records of the furnishings in churches with photographs and/or drawings, and to verify, where possible, the history of these furnishings. The original record is given to the church and copies are sent to the National Monuments Record Centre in Swindon and the Council for the Care of Churches (both of which are given a set of photographs and the negatives), the Victoria and Albert Museum Library, the diocese and the NADFAS Church Recorders Library.
The record produced for the furnishings of each church usually comprises sections on memorials and monuments, metalwork, stonework, woodwork, textiles, paintings, documents and registers, windows and other miscellaneous. The age, history, designer and donor are researched and the state of preservation is noted.