Religious attendance and provision in Birmingham and the Black Country and the surrounding rural areas during the mid-nineteenth century
type: CreativeWork
description: The aim of this thesis is an investigation of religious attendance and provision in the mid-nineteenth century for the region of Birmingham and the Black Country and its surrounding rural areas. Two distinct methodologies have been employed to establish general regional patterns of religious attendance and provision and, subsequently, to assess trends of religious attendance and provision in a number of settlements within the region over a longer period of time. Firstly, the returns of the 1851 Religious Census for the whole region have been analysed in terms of settlement type and denominational distribution. This facilitated a comparison between the identified regional patterns of attendance and provision with the established national patterns. Secondly, a number of contiguous settlements within the region have been chosen in order to carry out three case studies of the period between approximately 1840 and 1860. This used alternative local sources of evidence to discover whether the patterns of religious attendance and provision identified in the previous analysis were uniform throughout the region, and to locate the findings of the 1851 Religious Census within a wider period. Therefore, in chapter one, there is a survey of existing national and regional analyses of religious provision and attendance during the first half of the nineteenth century. In addition, the various interpretations of the findings of the 1851 Religious Census have been assessed. Finally, a Typology to identify the settlements within the region has been constructed. In chapter two, the returns of the eighty-seven settlements located within the nine Registration Districts which formed the region under examination have been examined, firstly, to obtain overall Indexes of Attendance (IAs) and Indexes of Accommodation (IAccs) and, subsequently, similar IAs and IAccs for each denomination. The level of free accommodation and the incidence of service in the region were similarly assessed. This re…
abstract: The aim of this thesis is an investigation of religious attendance and provision in the mid-nineteenth century for the region of Birmingham and the Black Country and its surrounding rural areas. Two distinct methodologies have been employed to establish general regional patterns of religious attendance and provision and, subsequently, to assess trends of religious attendance and provision in a number of settlements within the region over a longer period of time. Firstly, the returns of the 1851 Religious Census for the whole region have been analysed in terms of settlement type and denominational distribution. This facilitated a comparison between the identified regional patterns of attendance and provision with the established national patterns. Secondly, a number of contiguous settlements within the region have been chosen in order to carry out three case studies of the period between approximately 1840 and 1860. This used alternative local sources of evidence to discover whether the patterns of religious attendance and provision identified in the previous analysis were uniform throughout the region, and to locate the findings of the 1851 Religious Census within a wider period. Therefore, in chapter one, there is a survey of existing national and regional analyses of religious provision and attendance during the first half of the nineteenth century. In addition, the various interpretations of the findings of the 1851 Religious Census have been assessed. Finally, a Typology to identify the settlements within the region has been constructed. In chapter two, the returns of the eighty-seven settlements located within the nine Registration Districts which formed the region under examination have been examined, firstly, to obtain overall Indexes of Attendance (IAs) and Indexes of Accommodation (IAccs) and, subsequently, similar IAs and IAccs for each denomination. The level of free accommodation and the incidence of service in the region were similarly assessed. This re…
author: McPhail, John Alexander
license: https://wlv.dspace7.openrepository.com/bitstreams/4c7ea5f2-22cc-4ac7-a92d-3203e1f5c7be/download
date published: 1995
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:09:06Z
provider: University of Wolverhampton
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Wolverhampton