Proc Hampsh Field Club Archaeol Soc 50, 1994, 193-207

A RECTOR'S LEGACY

Notes on the parish of St Mary, Buriton, 1889, written by Reverend John Gedge for the benefit of Reverend Alfred Martell

By CUVE HARFIELD

ABSTRACT recorded, together with a list of every family in the village, which individuals took communion Unique briefing notes, written in 1889 by one Rector of Buriton and how regularly they did so. It was a guide for his successor, are discussed in relation to other available book on how to be Rector of Buriton. documentation from the period relating to the parish. The notes The notes were written by John Wycliffe Gedge present a view of the parish from the perspective of the Rector, and the arguments identifying him as the author with an emphasis on parochial administration. Demographic are rehearsed in full elsewhere (Harfield 1993). information in the notes, including lists of parish residents, is compared with the census information from 1891. The notes Although Gedge spent his initial year of also detail religious and educational activity in which the Rector religious work as a curate at Cheltenham in 1859, had a hand. A picture of a rural Hampshire village between St Mary Buriton was his first appointment as a 1889 and 1891 is thus obtained, allowing study of changes overparis h priest after twenty-seven years of a much shorter period of time than is allowed by comparison missionary work and appointments as an between census returns, and reflecting the role of a Victorian ruralinstitutiona l chaplain or principal of educational parson. establishments. In the ten years before he was appointed to Buriton, Gedge served as secretary On being appointed in March 1890 to the cure of to the St John's Foundation, Leatherhead (Kelly souls at St Mary, Buriton, Alfred Martell would 1917). His was not a background of parochial have been able to consult Kelly's Commercial Directory pastoral care. of 1889 for a recent description of his new parish. The depiction is functional but hardly captures the spirit of the place: "Buriton is a village and parish THE NOTES two miles south from Petersfield, near the Sussex border, Eastern division of the county, hundred of Gedge's precise motivation for writing notes on Finch Dean, Petersfield union, county court his parish is not known. Nowhere is his reason for district and petty sessional division, rural deanery compiling them expressed directly or indirectly. of Petersfield and archdeaconry and diocese of Gedge inherited a parish formerly held by a Winchester" (Kelly 1889, 87-8). relative of the bishop, who had been the Of more use to Martell would have been a incumbent at Buriton for over a decade before small exercise book entitled S Mary, Buriton. Gedge himself was ordained. Perhaps the Particulars of Church, schools and otker Institutions. List problems he faced in such a transition, as a priest of Communicants etc., in which notes dated 1889 had of twenty-eight years but with very little parochial been written by an unnamed author (HRO, experience, impressed upon Gedge the benefits 73M73/PI10; hereafter this exercise book will be his successor might derive from some advance cited as Notes, followed by the relevant page information about the parish. number). These notes outlined the parochial Not surprisingly, given that a rector retains duties peculiar to Buriton. Details of the control over parochial income from tithes, the parochial accounts, the various self-help clubs notes begin with details of the parish financial and village institutions are amongst the items arrangements. 194 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

To the nearest pound the parish was worth The notes also reveal that, as well as £1,081 a year, from which £419 was deducted subscribing to the many village charities, Gedge and assigned to Petersfield, itself a new parish was the manager and treasurer of all the charities, having been separated from Buriton by an Order institutions and clubs in the village, and was also in Council shortly before Gedge took up the honorary secretary of all except the Reading incumbency (Kelly 1889, 88). The Rector of Room (Notes, 5). He was die correspondent of the Buriton received a supplementary tithe of £46 school, over which he may also have had an from hops, and the parish also had a glebe interest as an H.M. Inspector, and Diocesan income derived from the letting of allotments, Inspector of Schools (Kelly 1889, 88). potato patches, shooting land and quit rents. There were three main self-help clubs. Women Gedge calculated his gross income as £671, from resident in Buriton and Weston contributed a which was deducted Poor Rates, land tax and shilling monthly to the Clothing Club, which house duty leaving a nett income of £503 per earnt them a bonus of twenty-five per cent if die year. The tithe was collected twice a year by a money was regularly deposited over twelve firm of Fareham solicitors who charged a two and months. Payments from the club were made each a half per cent commission. December {Notes, 23). The details of the glebe show that Gedge Any person of the labouring classes resident in rented parochial land to all social classes {Notes, Buriton could be a member of the Coal Club. 3). The local squire, John Bonham-Carter, paid Payment was either by prior subscription or on a six pounds a year in advance [Gedge's emphasis] single payment of three shillings. The coal was for the land retained for shooting. The local delivered to Buriton siding, having been ordered industrialist, John Forder, who owned the lime early in January. The sexton was put in charge of works, was arranging in 1889 to rent thirty-one the two or three trucks for two days, and was paid acres of arable at thirty-five shillings per acre. three shillings a day for his work. He was assisted The allotments were let at diree pence a rod to by a man for two shillings and sixpence a day. railway workers, limeworkers, a wheelwright and Each person, on payment, was entitled to six one of the village publicans. bushels of coal (a bushel being die equivalent in From his income the Rector had to meet some of dry goods of eight gallons, 2,218.19 cubic inches; die parish expenditure. Gedge contributed twenty Notes, 25). The Sick and Needy fund paid for the per cent of the Churchwardens' account, the rest coal of those persons in receipt of Parish Relief being collected by way of voluntary Church Rate. (three widows, a spinster and five old men in He paid die organist's salary of ten pounds (having 1889) and any coal remaining at the end of the equipped the church with its first organ), as well as two days was bought for the school. subscribing to the National and Sunday schools, the The entry concerning the Childrens' (sic) Shoe Clothing Club, Choir fund, Church fund and Club indicates that it was founded in 1890 {Notes, Reading Room. He even contributed towards the 21). The Annual letter to the Parish dated August costs of cleaning the church (Notes, II, 13, 49; the 1889 demonstrates that this club was already in assumption that Gedge arranged for an organ to be existence before 1890. In the Letter the club is fitted in the church is made on the basis of his described as "new" and having been "the means Annual Letter to the Parish dated 1888, in which of promoting habits of saving in the rising he asks "when shall we be able to place an organ in generation" (Register). The Annual Letter to the the Church?" (HRO, 73M73/PI1). Copies of the Parish dated 1887 reveals that there had been a three Annual Letters to the Parish written by Boot and Shoe Club in the village already on Gedge are to be found pasted into the Register of Gedge's arrival at Buriton. Gedge clearly felt it Preachers, Readers, Collections, etc., in which Gedge needed some reorganisation, and in 1888 wrote a brief preamble about his association with restricted this club to children attending Sunday Buriton, and in which services conducted during school. The notes show that membership in 1889 his incumbency are recorded; hereafter referred to was restricted to all children attending the Day as Register. school. Up to three pence per week was collected HARFIELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 195 at the school on Monday mornings and taken out when she took in the lodgers but this may also towards the end of die year to be put towards the have been a deciding factor in determining her purchase of boots for the children. No bonus was level of Poor Law Relief. payable. The vicar of Denmead bought boots and At Christmas each widow and widower and all shoes in a job-lot from the firm which supplied persons receiving parish pay, were given half a Dr Barnado's Homes, and prices varied from a pound of tea and a pound of sugar. Most were shilling for leather shoes for a baby to seven paid a shilling as well. These people were visited shillings and nine pence for mens' nailed boots. either by the Rector or by the wives of some Boys wearing hobnailed boots apparendy several prominent residents, so that their prevailing sizes too big for them, but which they would condition could be assessed. eventually grow into, can be seen in school Occasional gifts in kind, such as vegetables, photographs dating from this period (Couth & soup, beef tea, eggs, and even Sunday dinner, Dewhurst 1992, 55). In other parishes such were given out from the Rectory where stores of subscription clubs were run by local tradesmen. linsead meal (sic), cod liver oil and "tarragona" In a diary entry dated 19th February 1885, John were maintained, for distribution as required Egerton, Vicar of Burwash, East Sussex, {Notes, 5, 43). complained that all but one of the tenors and The Rectory was die hub of social welfare in basses had missed evening choir practice in order the village, and Gedge, regarding it as all part of to attend a Shoe Club dinner. The village Shoe his parochial duties, took an active part. Such Club in Burwash was run by Samuel Ellis, the obligations enhanced his position of authority local bootmaker (Wells 1992, 318). This was a within the village because of his economic conflict of interests unlikely to occur in Buriton influence. The poor depended upon the Rector as because of Gedge's autocratic control over the much as upon the Relieving Officer. village institutions. Gedge's influence extended beyond the Gedge dealt at greater length with poor relief spiritual and economic life of the village to the in the parish {Notes, 5, 42-5). social life. He included in his notes details of die Eleven widows received Poor Law Relief in Girls' Friendly Society (GFS), parish Mothers' September 1889 from the Relieving Officer, Mr Meetings, and the local branch of the Mothers' Gordan from Petersfield. Two widowers and a Union which he helped to establish in 1889. The single woman also received help. Eleven others GFS was run by Mrs Gedge. Members met at the received help because they were sick, or aged and Rectory for occasional meetings to support infirm, and presumably they had no family missionary work, and to organise working parties immediately to hand to care for them. Payments to achieve good works. Candidates for full were usually between two and three shillings and membership were drawn from school children in three cases four loaves were also given. Gedge and they met monthly at the Rectory for two did not specify how frequently these payments hours, during which they were served with tea were made. The widow Hannah Harfield and buns. There was an annual meeting at received just one shilling and two loaves but the Petersfield for die various local branches {Notes, census of 1891 shows that she lived with a son 33). It is possible that Gedge was instrumental in and daughter and had taken in two lodgers (PRO, setting up the GFS in Buriton as well as the RG12/0945 schedule 68, hereafter referred to as Mothers' Union. He does not refer to the Society Census followed by the schedule number where in his Annual Letter to die Parish dated 1887, but relevant). In 1889 the ages of these children it does receive mention as a club in its own right would have been fifteen and ten respectively, and in his Annual Letter to the Parish dated 1888 so her son would probably have been working. (Register). The entry in Gedge's notes may indicate that the Mothers' Meetings in the parish were also widow Harfield received a reduced relief rate quasi-religious affairs which took place between because her son was working, and therefore October and Ascensiontide, and which closed supporting her. There is no evidence to indicate widi religious readings, singing and prayers led by 196 HAMPSHIRE HELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY the Rector. The essential qualification for way his entries can be positively identified by membership was marriage rather than cross-referencing with instances elsewhere in the motherhood, the latter possibly being regarded as notes where these individuals are recorded by an inevitable consequence of the former. their full names. Members could purchase calico, flannel and The census return for 1891 recorded 126 other cloths at cost price from the Rectory, where tenements in the village, of which 124 were the meetings were held, by arrangement with a inhabited (Census). Of these, seventy-eight local draper. Payment was either by subscription households can be positively identified with or in full and there was no credit. Tea was given eighty named families or individuals in Gedge's at these meetings three or four times a year at main list of residents (Notes, 57-63). Five of the "irregular intervals", presumably to ensure that seven leading inhabitants listed separately by attendance was not confined to just those three or Gedge can be identified in the census (Notes, 47 four occasions each year [Notes, 31). other persons listed on this page of the notes are The Mothers' Union, being but newly all repeated in the main list of residents). Of the established, receives only basic attention from forty-one households recorded in the census but Gedge in his notes. Quarterly meetings were held not in Gedge's notes, fifteen seem to have at the school during the winter, and at the consisted of household servants and estate Rectory during the summer when tea was also workers whose accommodation formed part of served (Notes, 31). The Annual Letter to the Parish estate grounds owned by a leading resident, for dated 1889 records that there were twenty-seven example the workers on the Ditcham House founding members (Register), and the Parish estate (Census, 19-24). Gedge does not appear to magazine for February 1890 enthusiastically have concerned himself with household retinues. noted that membership had increased in number The remaining discrepancy of twenty-six may to nearly eighty by the AGM on the first be accounted for in part by immigrants to the anniversary (HRO, 147M85/101/14). village and by omissions made by Gedge. In attempting to influence the lives of the Alfred Stillwell, his wife and five school-age village women by Christian example and children all originated from Sussex, and seem to education, Gedge may well have hoped to be an example of an immigrant family recently influence indirectly the lives of their menfolk. arrived in Buriton in 1891. He is recorded as a "labour contractor" at the lime-works (Census, 82) and, in this capacity, he may have replaced a man THE NOTES AS A SOURCE OF called Belcher who is listed by Gedge as DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY "foreman" at the limeworks (Notes, 57). Stillwell is not recorded by Gedge; Belcher is not recorded in In the second part of the 1889 notes Gedge the census return. The job descriptions seem conducts his own census, introducing his sufficiently similar to allow the hypothesis that successor to the families living in the parish and Stillwell arrived at the village to replace Belcher giving some indication of their religious at the limeworks. commitments (Notes, 47, 53, 57—68). Thirteen The Harfield family provides an example of an months after Gedge departed from Buriton, the omission by Gedge. In his list of residents he official government census was taken. records four Harfield households living in the Gedge recorded mainly families, and village (Notes, 59). In fact there were five, the fifth infrequently individuals. A typical entry reads being that of Edward Harfield, his wife and baby "Baker, wife and family" (Notes, 57). Gedge daughter, who were living on the Manor Farm in occasionally includes details such as the 1891. Edward Harfield is recorded elsewhere by occupation of the head of the household, or the Gedge as one of the bell-ringers (Notes, 14). fact that a member of the family is in the choir, or Gedge records 105 families or individuals is a bell-ringer, or was recently confirmed (for living in Buriton (Notes, 47, 57-63), and a further examples of most of these see Notes, 59). In this twenty-seven households living in the nearby HARHELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 197 village of Weston {Notes, 64-5). Seven of the than is permitted by the comparison of ten-yearly Buriton families are described as "leading census returns. inhabitants" and are treated separately from the There is some demographic information which ninety-eight households or individuals recorded is to be found only in the census records because in Gedge's principal list of residents. Of the it was not relevant to Gedge's self-appointed task eighteen Buriton families or individuals he of briefing his successor. It is of use here, however, mentions, but who are not recorded in the census in providing background information about the return, seven can be accounted for. parish for which Gedge had spiritual Two families, the Budds and the Twinmers, responsibility. moved away from the village between Gedge Of the 602 persons residing in Buriton on the completing his notes and the census being taken. night the census was taken, 316 were male, 286 Their names are deleted from the list in Gedge's were female. notes as part of the amendments he made in late 188 men cited at least fifty-two occupations. 1889 and early 1890 (JVbto, 57, 62). Two of the men were visitors habitually residing At least one parishioner recorded by Gedge, elsewhere. In two instances the occupation given the widow Marriner who lived at Sunwood, died in the returns was illegible. 95.91% of the male between the notes being compiled and the census population of the village over school-leaving age being recorded {Notes, 60; Buriton Parish Burial were employed. Forty-six males, ranging in age Register, HRO, 73M73, entry dated 12th from eleven to seventy-six years,, described December 1889). Gedge noted that Mrs Bedford, themselves as "general labourers". Twenty-one a widow, lived with her widowed daughter, men (seventeen to seventy-two years) referred to Rosemaria Aburrow in 1889. Mrs Bedford is not themselves specifically as "farm labourers", and recorded in the census and may well have died a further twenty-one (fourteen to sixty-eight {Notes, 57; Census, 117). Henry Baird, aged forty-years) were employed in varying capacities at the five years, died in May 1889 leaving a widow and lime-works. There may have been a number who two sons who are recorded by Gedge {Notes, 57), called themselves general labourers who could, but who appear to have left the village before in fact, be ascribed to the latter two categories. April 1891 because they, too, are not recorded in Eleven men were employed on the railway, their the census. ages ranged between seventeen and fifty-eight In the case of the two Bone families recorded years. Eight individuals told the enumerators by Gedge, the census reveals that they lived as a that they had more than one job and four of single household {Notes, 57; Census, 126). Similarlythes e were estate workers who mixed the various Caroline Welch lived widi her widowed sister-in- permutations of gardener, groom and law {Notes, 63; Census, 48). Another "Miss Welch",coachman . recorded separately by Gedge in his alphabetical Forty-two women were listed as being in list of residents, nevertheless lived with the Ferry employment (24.56% of the female population in family in 1889 {Notes, 63). the village above school-leaving age), of which No undue emphasis should be placed on the thirty-four were in domestic service. Their ages discrepancies between Gedge's lists of residents ranged between a thirteen year-old housemaid and the census returns, partly because it is not and a fifty year-old dressmaker. The remaining known how much detail Gedge intended to adult women appear to have fulfilled traditional record. Indeed, if there were not some differences role models and managed their own homes. it would be necessary to accept the unlikely An expanding village population is evident proposition that there had been no demographic from the number of children, and from the changes whatsoever in Buriton for just over a number of immigrant families. year; no births, marriages or deaths. Although not 235 children of school-age or younger lived in all the differences can be fully explained, they do the village (39.03% of the total village at least give an indication of demographic change population), of which ninety-two boys and eighty- within a village over a much shorter time period seven girls had been born since the census of 198 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

1881 (179 children representing 29.73% total the Bonham-Carters (HRO, 94M72/E/B41). The village population). Between the beginning of Forders owned other limeworks at Newbury and 1889 and Gedge's departure from the parish in Dunstable. In the census of 1871 (PRO, March 1890, fifteen boys and seven girls were RG10/1270) Benjamin Forder described himself baptised. During the same period two children as employing twenty-five men and four boys at his were buried; one child of ten months, and Buriton works. In fact only fourteen men, another aged six years who had been killed in an including Forder's son, are specifically recorded in accident (Buriton Parish registers, HRO, 73M73). the 1871 census as working at the limeworks (the Three thirteen year-old girls left the village to go rest were presumably recorded as general into service between March 1887 and March labourers). Of these, five had been born in 1889(M>fc.r,69). Buriton, nine having migrated to the village from The heads of forty-six families reported that as close as Weston and Clanfield, and from as far they had been born in Buriton; fifteen of these as Bedfordshire and London. There was even one had married women from outside the village. lime-labourer who had been born in Gibraltar. In (Because people could intentionally or the 1891 census fifteen men recorded as working unintentionally misinform the enumerator about at the limeworks came from outside the village their parish of birth, and because persons were (one having been born in Germany), whilst just not always baptised in the parish where they were six of the workforce had been born in the village. born, and because copying errors could be made Gedge, therefore, was dealing with a by enumerators or clerks, the parish of origin is population which had a cosmopolitan taken at face-value). Seventy-nine families had a geographical background. The background of the head of the household who had been born social classes preserved the rigid Victorian outside Buriton (63.2% of the total number of stratification in the landowner/tenant, farmer/ families). Seven of these heads of household, all labourer and industrialist/labourer working men, had married women from Buriton; four of relationships. The distinction was maintained by these men had come from outside Hampshire. Gedge, who recorded the leading inhabitants Altogether, twenty-nine heads of household had separately from die other residents {Notes, 47). He been born elsewhere in Hampshire, and twenty lists seven principal families of superior social had come from Sussex. status, one of these being the Seward family In only thirteen instances had both parents and whom Gedge described as yeoman farmers at all the children in a family, been born in Buriton Weston (a small village to the north west of (10.4% of the total number of families). In three Buriton on the other side of the turnpike road), cases where both parents had been born in which was virtually their private fief. Buriton, at least one child had been born outside Gedge then demonstrates some ambivalence the village, which raises the possibility that these because on the same page he goes on to record a particular families had moved away from the secondary list of leading inhabitants, all of whom village for a while, and had then returned. Two of are recorded again in the general list of residents these families each had a child recorded as having later in the notes. These villagers appear to have been born in a neighbouring village. The eldest been the leading members of the working class or child of George and Barbara Legg was born in lower middle class. They include the sexton, the Hastings, Sussex, and was the only member of parish clerk, the postmaster and the parishioners' that family born outside Buriton (Census 13, 84, Churchwarden, the foreman of the limeworks, 116). and the woodman and gamekeeper who worked This represents a not inconsiderable movement for the Bonham-Carters. It is either their public of population over the years, and the primary and parochial duties, and in two instances the motive for migration was probably the search for social status of their employers, which lent the employment. Apart from the large agricultural individuals concerned a pre-eminence within the estates in Buriton, there was also the limeworks village, which caused Gedge to make especial founded by the Forder family on land leased from mention of them, or else he is copying the HARFIELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 199 practice of the compilers of Kelly's Commercial changed beyond recognition with the County Directory, who also listed in their descriptions Councils Act of 1888, which established local leading residents followed by village worthies and democracy outside urban areas at the expense of tradesmen. the power of the rural magistracy and parish vestry, although in practice the new councillors were often magistrates. THE RELIGIOUS PROFILE OF BURITON It was a period when radical politics often went AS PORTRAYED IN THE NOTES hand-in-hand with religious activism, the latter taking the form of dissent from the Church of It seems apparent from the way in which he England. Over the course of the nineteenth records the leading inhabitants, and the century the non-established religious movements, contributions of these people to the village particularly the Methodists in all their various institutions {Notes, 49), that Gedge was not from persuasions, had altered their self-perception the same reforming mould as some of his clerical from "dissenters", to "non-conformists", to "free contemporaries. He was a traditional member of churchmen". This terminological evolution can the Establishment, who saw his spiritual guidance be equated with a mellowing of the attitude of as being complemented by the need for temporal opposition to the Church of England, and was guidance, reinforcing in the working population a also evident in the removal of the Methodists sense of their own position in the social strata, from rough and ready barn chapels to High and their sense of obligation to the upper classes. Street churches, in outward appearance little This interpretation is supported by the similar different from Anglican churches (Parsons 1988b, manner in which Gedge refers to the leading 98). inhabitants in his three Annual Letters to the Gedge clearly made no allowance for this Parish (Register). mellowing and regarded the Methodists within The 1880s was a period of considerable his parish as "dissenters". Often abbreviated to D, political change. The franchise was extended to he usually emphasised this word by writing it in working class males, a fact bemoaned by John red ink, as opposed to die black ink he used for all Egerton, Rector of Burwash, in two diary entries, other entries. He identifies the dissenters in his list the first dated 3rd August 1885, in which he of residents, sometimes twice in the same entry, noted that the village electorate had risen in for instance the entries for the widow Harfield number to 405 (from about 130). In the second, and her family, and the Harnell family (Notes, 59). dated 26th April 1886 (in the run-up to the Only once does Gedge identify an individual as a election on 9th July that year), Egerton expressed dissenter in the main text of the notes. Two misgivings which may well have been shared by "chronic invalids" were each in receipt of weekly many of his more traditionally-minded reverend pensions of one shilling from the Fund for the brothers: "Democracy seems inevitable, I can Sick and Needy (Notes, 43). One was a only hope that ye antecedents of English national "Churchman", the other a "Dissenter". There and political life may give some qualifications to does not seem to be any good reason why their democracy wh[ich] may save England from ye religious affiliations should have been recorded at consequences wh[ich] democracy has hitherto this point, but perhaps this demonstrates that entailed upon ye countries in wh[ich] it has Parish Relief was supplied irrespective of religious prevailed. I c[oul]d freely trust die common sense persuasion. of the people, but now I am called upon to yield Gedge set out to win over any non-conformists my unhesitating allegiance to the sense of the that were susceptible to conversion. But he also common people wh[ich] is a very different thing clearly saw a need to invigorate his Anglican to do" (Wells 1992, 326, 343). faithful. He used his very first sermon in Buriton Not only had the national political arena taken to announce changes in the weekly schedule of on a new aspect by extension of the franchise, but services, increasing the number held each week also the local political administration had and introducing special services on Saints' Days 200 HAMPSHIRE HELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

(see the Parish magazine for October 1886, HRO, statistics he himself quoted in his Annual Letters 147M85/101/10, and his first Annual Letter to are summarised in the table below. the Parish dated July 1887, Register, in which he also told his parishioners quite bluntly that they Table 1 Holy Communions celebrated at did not give enough each week in the Offertory). St Mary, Buriton. In each subsequent Annual Letter he made a perennial plea for increased attendance, and in 1887 1888 1889 particular for more people to take Holy Celebrations of Communion 65 69 72 Communion every Sunday and not just at Easter. Communions made 676 571 560 Such repeated pleas imply that Gedge met with Communicants: Christmas 37 42 50 limited success in his crusade. He was up against Easter 48 52 82 two opposing forces. The evangelical Primitive Methodists, and incipient apathy which had There is an increase in the number of Holy nearly led to die disestablishment of the Church Communions celebrated, which is consistent with of England in the 1830s (Parsons 1988a, 18). Gedge's promise in his first sermon, and If joining the Methodist movement was a reiterated in his first Annual Letter, to increase positive act of non-conformity, then simply not the number of services held. The number of going to church was a passive aspect of non­ communicants at Christmas and Easter conformity widi which Gedge also had to cope. demonstrate an increase over the three-year The Anglican Church was the Established period, but the decrease of 116 in the total Church of England, but it was not the most number of communions made indicates a falling popular church. In 1893 the largest religious attendance at all services except the major movement was the Methodists with 4.71 million festivals. This is the perception Gedge would have members either in church or registered at their had of his incumbency up to August 1889. Sunday schools. The Anglicans claimed 1.8 These figures should be considered in the million communicants and 2.5 million Sunday context of the attendance figures for the whole school pupils (4.3 million members), out of a total period of his incumbency. (Gedge recorded only national population of thirty-eight million (Lynd those persons receiving communion. He did not 1945, 308, 327). record attendance at Matins or Evensong.) The Church of England took communicants on It was the practice at Buriton for Holy Easter Day as its statistical base. More persons Communion to be celebrated every Sunday, took communion on that particular day than on alternately at 8.30 a.m. (sometimes 8.00 or 8.15) any other Sunday (see Table 1) so the 1.8 million and at 11.00 a.m.. On Sundays which were also communicants may be regarded as a reasonably special Festivals, such as Easter, Whitsun and accurate indication of the maximum number of Harvest Festival, communion was celebrated both communicants die Anglicans could expect in their at 8.30 and 11.00. The early service was usually churches. The Church of England in 1893 held on the first, third and fifth Sundays, and the claimed to have the active support of only later service on the second and fourth Sundays in 11.31% of die population of England. every month. Gedge's following was not significantly larger In Table 2 below, the number of Sunday than this. He recorded 11.46% of the total celebrations of Holy Communion, and the population of Buriton in 1889 as communicants number of communicants attending is recorded, {Notes, 66-8). Their weekly attendance rate is togedier widi die mean attendance figure. For the discussed in detail in die appendix; there were many three complete years die modal (most frequendy Sundays when one per cent of the total village occurring) value has been recorded as well, population, or fewer, took Holy Communion. together widi its frequency, in order to indicate In Gedge's own eyes, the ultimate test of his how representative of the most common success as Rector was almost certainly die number attendance figure, die mean attendance figure for of communicants who worshipped with him. The that year actually is. HARFIELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 201

Table 2 Attendance at Sunday Communion, At the same time the Anglican Church was Buriton feeling the economic consequences of the end of mid-Victorian agricultural prosperity. Clergy who Year Communicants Services Mean Mode depended upon the collecting of tithe and the renting of glebe, experienced a decline in real 1886 162 15 10.8 - income which started with the series of bad 1887 533+ 55(1)* 9.51 5-6 <9x) harvests between 1874 and 1879 (Clark 1973, 1888 488 55(2)* 8.56 9(10x) 239). The Extraordinary [Hop] Tithe Redemp­ 9.05 5(10x) 1889 507 56 tion Act of 1886 was viewed with dismay by 1890 73 12 (If 5.61 - Egerton, who calculated that this legislative (+ This figure includes forty-two Christmas Day communicants response to agricultural economics would reduce because Christmas Day was a Sunday in 1887. his annual income by between £120 and £150; * The figures in brackets are the number of communion services "the change will not improbably make living in at which no communicants attended, or at which Holy the Rectory an impossibility" (Wells 1992, 344-5, Communion was not celebrated for some reason.) diary entries dated 18th and 22nd June 1886). Rectors could no longer afford curates to assist Large attendances on single occasions can bias them. They could no longer afford to finance the statistics, in this way producing dispro­ sufficiently their parish schools, and they could no portionate mean values. Twenty-four persons longer afford the same level of commitment to the took communion when George Sumner, then institutions associated with high rectory culture Bishop of Guildford and brother of the late (Clark 1973, 264-5). Almost by default, some Rector, visited the parish on an otherwise typical priests were forced to address the lessons of Sunday, 13th January 1889. Only seven persons poverty and social decline. had taken communion the previous Sunday, and Gedge's income at Buriton was derived from just two took communion on the 20th January tithe and the renting of glebe, and was therefore 1889. subject to the uncertain fortunes of his largely The extra services introduced by Gedge on agricultural parishioners. In addition to this the Saints Days and special festivals seem not to have income of the living had just been reduced by the been popular, and an initially small attendance at parochial reorganisation in 1886, which had such services decreased during the course of his created a separate parish of Petersfield from incumbency. within the former boundaries of the Buriton Gedge's experience with these special services parish. The improvements necessary to the was not unique. Egerton experienced the same Rectory before Gedge was able to occupy it, were lack of interest at Burwash which caused him to funded under the Dilapidation Act and by a loan write in his diary on 30th November 1885, after of £150 from Queen Anne's Bounty, a fund only a small congregation had attended the St established in 1703 to augment poorer livings in Andrew's Day service, that "Burwash people do the Church of England {Register). not understand week day services" (Wells 1992, The expansion of the Primitive Methodist 331). In the privacy of his diary entries, Egerton movement, which was especially popular with the admitted from time to time that a considerable rural working class, was rapid. This was a direct section of his working class parishioners was result of their missionary zeal which emphasised beyond the reach of organised religion. These the role of individual preachers, both men and, people simply were not interested in any religious for the first forty years, women. In 1811 there activity. Egerton seems also to have doubted were 200 founding members. By 1820 there were whether his work had any fundamental impact on 7,842 adherents. The religious census of 1851 his parishioners (Wells 1992, 364). recorded 106,074 Primitive Methodists, and by The Notes convey the underlying impression 1891 numbers had risen to 181,518, 26.3% of a that Gedge may have shared such doubts, but total Methodist following of 690,022 (Armstrong would never acknowledge them publicly. 1973, 201-2; Read 1979, 264 - the Church of 202 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY

England registered 1,490,000 communicants on brother and sister-in-law, Charles and Hannah, Easter Day, 1891, but as Gedge's Annual Letters had seven. Of these nineteen surviving children, and the Register of Preachers etc., demonstrate thirteen were baptised at Buriton Methodist only too well, Easter Day communicants could be chapel. No baptism dates or locations have yet as many as ten times more than the average been identified for the other six. All the grand­ number of communicants on any normal Sunday, children of James and Charles, for whom baptism Register). records have been found, were baptised into the The Church of England, struggling in the Church of England (Buriton Parish Registers, second half of the nineteenth century to reassert HRO, 73M73, Buriton Primitive Methodist its authority, clearly saw the Primitive Methodists Circuit records, HRO, 89M72). as a threat in the rural areas. Gedge is a The religious split did not occur just along the representative example of the traditional fault-lines between generations. Gedge recorded Anglican clergy. Kendall, writing in 1903, cited that Mrs Perry was a "dissenter", having been an example of an unidentified Hampshire parson "formerly" an Anglican. She may have converted visiting his parishioners and "ordering them to to Methodism because her husband was a keep indoors and have every door and window Methodist (Notes, 61), but while Edward Burgess shut" when a Primitive Methodist preacher came was a Methodist, his wife Eliza remained an to the village. "And they did as they were told," Anglican (Notes, 58, Census, 105). Belcher, the (quoted in Armstrong 1973, 208). foreman at the lime works in 1889, was a The value of Gedge's notes rests on the facts he Methodist; die rest of his family stayed in Gedge's records, which put into perspective the congregation {Notes, 57). These examples seem to generalisations quoted above. In identifying the indicate a variety, and freedom of choice, even "dissenters" in Buriton to Martell, Gedge clearly within families. There appear to have been no wanted to demonstrate to his successor that there specific rules guiding an individual's choice of was work still to be done. But he also religious observance. demonstrated, perhaps unwittingly, the If there were no rules, there were at least ambivalence of the rural working class towards influencing factors. In Belcher's case, Primitive religion. Methodism was the religion of his employers, the Thirty-three dissenting families are identified Forders. The former Methodist chapel in Buriton by Gedge in his lists of residents in Buriton and is today an office known as Forder House. Weston (27.27% of the total population of the An examination of the occupations (cited by two villages as he recorded it, Notes, 57-65; his Gedge or recorded in the 1891 census) for diose list of communicants consisted of individuals individuals identified as "dissenters", reveals from thirty-three families, Notes, 66-8). His list seven employees of the limeworks, as well as the of leading inhabitants reveals one individual Forders, to have been Methodists. At least seven who was the Rector's churchwarden, a family other persons listed as limeworkers in the census, of dissenters, one avowed agnostic and one were not recorded by Gedge. Six general Roman Catholic (who was entertaining a labourers, some of whom may have been French Catholic priest as a house guest on the employed at the limeworks, were identified as night the census was taken; Notes, 47; Census, Methodists. So were four widows and three farm 17). Of the thirty dissenting families Gedge labourers. A variety of other occupations was identified in Buriton, ten demonstrated represented in the Methodist congregation of apparent adherence to both Anglicanism and 1889, including a woodman, a game-keeper, a Primitive Methodism. farmer, a blacksmith and two gardeners. The example of one family will suffice to The suggestion that the religious split was demonstrate this. The Harfield family arrived in largely along occupational lines, that the Buriton sometime between April 1861 and May agricultural workers were Anglicans and the 1862. Between 1862 and 1881 James Harfield limeworkers were Methodists (Robin Dewhurst, and his wife Sarah had twelve children, and his personal communication dated 9th February HARHELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 203

1993), is a generalisation to which individual The Reading Room was a social focus within exceptions can be found. Edward Harfield, the village, open on week-day and Sunday Henry Luxford, David Harfield, William Pretty afternoons from 2.30 until 4.30 between the first and George Radford were all employed at the Monday in October and the end of March (Notes, limeworks in 1891. The first two were bell-ringers 37). In his Annual Letter of 1887 Gedge recorded at the Anglican church in 1889, and the other that this institution had not been a success the three members of the choir. Although David previous winter and that he proposed to improve Harfield left the choir in 1890, there is no it with penny readings, new games and popular indication that he (having been baptised a lectures (Register. A fortnight after his induction in Methodist) did so because he had converted back September 1886, Gedge departed for the West to his employer's religious persuasion {Notes, 14, Indies and did not return until the end of the Census, 2, 75, 96, 112, 119). Of the twenty-one year, and so had not been in a position to men recorded as limeworkers in 1891, Gedge organise properly the running of the Reading demonstrates that at least seven were Mediodists Room; Parish magazine, October 1886, HRO, and at least five were Anglicans. 147M85/101/10). The Reading Room was run by a committee presided over by Gedge and made up from the GEDGE AND EDUCATION IN BURTTON leading villagers (not to be confused with the leading inhabitants). It was funded by weekly Consistent with the practices of traditionally- membership subscriptions of two pence, other minded High Church priests, Gedge sought to subscriptions, the proceeds of entertainments put improve the lot of his parishioners, not through on by the villagers themselves, and the rent of practical self-help measures such as those four pounds from the adjoining cottage which employed by the Methodists, but through spiritual Gedge paid himself. fulfilment and education. The expenditure of the Reading Room Even if he was convinced of the wisdom of this, consisted of a rent of eight pounds paid to Mr Gedge doubted his own success. In his Annual Bonham-Carter, one shilling a week during the Letter to the Parish in July 1888 he asked, course of the winter for the services of a caretaker, somewhat rhetorically, "may I venture to hope the cost of fuel (bought from Stubbs' store, Stubbs that there has also been some progress in being one of the committee members), and the Spiritual things?". In his next Annual Letter he costs of games, newspapers and books which were conceded "God alone knows whether there has circulated by the Hampshire Union. been real progress" (Register). When the Reading Room opened in October Through village institutions such as the 1888, the committee had planned a fortnightly Mothers' Meetings and the Mothers' Union and programme of readings, lectures and the Girls' Friendly Society, and through regular entertainments intended to "attract a large Bible classes and communicants meetings, he set number of the working men of the Parish" out to supplement the lessons taught from the (Annual Letter to the Parish, 1888, Register). pulpit each Sunday. To these social groups can be Gedge was able to report the following year that added the Parish Library and Reading Room, the season had proved a great success with good both seen as means of enhancing Christian and attendance and the Room being opened on moral education through healthy reading and Saturday afternoons as well by popular request. community activities. Entertainments had included choir concerts, a The Parish Library was open to members who lecture on his travels by Mr Bonham-Carter and paid subscriptions of a penny to the rector; a sum magic lantern displays by Mr Bennion and Mr which Gedge considered too small and advised Forder (Annual Letter to the Parish, 1889, Martell to double (Notes, 29). The schoolmaster Register). The success of the first concert of the was the librarian, but the rector bought all the 1889/90 season, at which a new piano replaced books. the previous second-hand instrument, was 204 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY reported in the Parish magazine in January 1890 school, then under the Elementary Education Act (HRO, 147M85/101/13). At the same time there 1870, the Education Department could cause a was a call for subscriptions to help pay for the School Board to be elected by the rate-payers in new piano. As Egerton noted with reference to order to provide a school in any given locality. the Reading Room in Burwash, this institution In Buriton the voluntary status of the school was "self-managed, but not, of course, self- depended on the annual report of the School supporting" (Wells 1992, 340, diary entry dated Inspectors. Gedge, as committee chairman, 22nd February 1886). secretary and treasurer of the school, and Also reliant on subscriptions and fees was the therefore the employer of the School-Master, village institution which catered for the education determined the curriculum. He enjoyed this of the young. The school, built in 1845 (just three influence only so long as attendance and results years before the Methodist chapel was built in the were sufficient to earn a government grant with village), was enlarged to accommodate 125 which to supplement the funding by subscription children in 1887, at a cost of £150 which was and fees. His struggle to reach the right raised by voluntary contributions (Kelly 1889, educational formula for Buriton is recorded in his 89). School attendance was compulsory between three Annual Letters to the Parish (Register). the ages of five and ten years, and was The first of these, published in July 1887, compulsory until the age of fourteen years unless reveals why the school was enlarged that year. a child aged between ten and fourteen had The Inspectors, Mr Wylde (H.M. Inspector for reached specified levels of proficiency in reading, the Government) and Mr Athill (Diocesan writing and arithmetic, in which case that child Inspector) had not reported entirely favourably, could be exempted from attending school. but they had indicated that if boys were to Annual subscriptions for the school were continue to be taught in Buriton, the school received from Messers Bonham-Carter, Bennion, would have to be enlarged or else the boys would Cave, Forder and Seward who represented all the have to go to Petersfield. The report also leading inhabitants and land-owners of the apparently made comment on the absence of a village, and all shades of religious persuasion School-Master, and Gedge announced in his since Cave was an agnostic and his wife a letter that the services of the School Mistress were Catholic, Forder was a Methodist, and Seward being dispensed with, owing to die appointment the Rector's Churchwarden. Three persons of of a Master. status connected with Buriton, but not listed as A year later school attendance had apparently residents either by Gedge or the census increased considerably since the appointment of enumerators, also contributed to the school (Notes, the new School-Master, and the Inspector had 49). reported favourably on the enlargement of the The school was run by a committee comprising premises. A school bell had been purchased, the Gedge, Mr Bennion and both churchwardens. Mr first at Buriton, and this and other sundry Seward collected a voluntary rate from the local acquisitions, together with urgent repairs to the farmers to help fund the school, and in 1889 paid roof, had left the school account in deficit. the contribution of one farmer who had refused By the time the Annual Letter of 1889 came to to pay the voluntary rate (Annual Letter to the be written, the new School-Master appointed in Parish, 1889, Register). Parents also contributed 1887 had been sacked because of an towards die funding by paying each week for their unsatisfactory report, and a husband and wife children's education, the money being collected team, Mr and Mrs Patrick from Guildford, had by the School-Master (sic) who, when he went to been appointed as joint Master and Mistress. The the Rectory to collect his monthly pay cheque, Annual Letters of 1888 and 1889 refer only to the forwarded the collected fees to the Rector (Notes, Government Inspector. (Kelly's directory for 1889 39). Schools funded by subscription or charitable describes Gedge as the Diocesan School trusts were termed "voluntary" schools. Inspector but it is not clear whedier he reported If a parish could not fund its own voluntary in this capacity on his own school at Buriton. The HARFIELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 205

Clergy List 1917 records Gedge as an H.M. In 1887 Gedge described the numbers at the Inspector of schools from 1868-71 and the Sunday school as "still small" but "increasing" Winchester Diocesan Inspector of schools from and he noted that "one or two more teachers 1871-86: a contradiction in the sources which would be welcome". In 1888 he made no cannot be resolved here.) mention of the Sunday school, possibly because In the Parish Magazine for May 1890, in the numbers of registered pupils had actually anticipation of another bad report on the village fallen by more than ten per cent, but in 1889 his school, parents were reminded that "the message was once again positive, announcing prosperity of the school rests very much with another increase in registered pupils, and asking them, as it is impossible for any child to pass a once more for an extra teacher for both the good examination unless it has been sent morning and afternoon sessions (Annual Letters regularly to school throughout the year" (HRO, to the Parish 1887 and 1889, Regster). 147M85/101/17). The Sunday school met in the morning at ten The following month, part of the school report o'clock for fifty minutes, and then again in the for that year was quoted. "The New Master has afternoon for forty minutes either for a children's only been here a portion of the year, and the service at the church (during the summer), or for results were so lamentable last year that great hymns and stories at the school (during the improvements can hardly be expected. I am winter). They were taught by die Rector and his satisfied with the progress made in all subjects, family, the School-Master and the Assistant but shall look for a very different state of things Mistress {Notes, 41). There were occasional treats, next year. The infants are fairly well advanced" and on all fine Sundays the children were allowed (HRO, 147M85/101/18). The following year on the Rectory lawn till four o'clock. education was made free to all children of Accompanied, they could walk through other compulsory school age, and the financial parts of the Rectory garden. consequences of poor attendance and results was The poor reports from the School Inspectors less immediately significant. indicate that Gedge's attempts to win die hearts In the 1891 census seventy-one boys and and souls of the rising generation were probably seventy-one girls are recorded as scholars. These thwarted by inadequate teachers. With the figures include a boy of fifteen years, two girls of Sunday school, however, he seems to be claiming sixteen and nineteen years respectively, and four some success. Certainly he made strenuous efforts boys and four girls under five. Eleven boys and to revitalise whatever arrangements he had seven girls of school age were employed. Eight boys inherited from Sumner, and the apparent and six girls had nothing recorded by their names. popularity of the afternoon services for children, During Gedge's incumbency, average annual and the establishment of a second Sunday school attendance at the Day school fell from 78% in at Weston, seem to support his assertions. 1887 to 74% in 1889, while registered pupils had Continuing religious education took the form increased in number from 110 to 148. This of preparing candidates for Confirmation. There compares with a national annual average were three Confirmation services at which Gedge attendance figure in 1886 of 76% of registered put forward candidates, in the March of 1887, pupils (Adamson 1964, 380). 1888 and 1889, although in 1888 there were only The Royal Commission of 1886 reported in two candidates (JVoto, 69-70). 1888 that average attendance at Sunday schools Gedge described only three of the fourteen was between 66% and 70% of registered pupils candidates in 1887 as "regular" communicants (Adamson 1964, 366). Gedge's Sunday school after March. Two girls left die village to go into attracted eighty pupils in 1887 (with an average service following dieir Confirmation. Another he attendance of 71%), seventy in 1888 (74%), and described as "not quite right, went wrong '88", seventy-four in 1889 (70%), in which year a which is interpreted as indicating mental illness. Sunday school was also started at Weston with Another family simply left die parish. One of the twenty pupils. candidates in 1888 also left die village to go into 206 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY service, whilst the other candidate was described suited to the role of rural parson. By October as "good but ignorant". Of the twelve candidates 1889 Gedge had had enough. He arranged a for Confirmation in 1889, two left the village mutual swap with one Canon Lester (whose soon afterwards, and another left the Church parish Gedge did not record), and in the Register immediately afterwards. One, however, was a of Services he noted that on Sunday 4th October member of a family "lately come over from 1889 he bade farewell to the parishioners. He Dissent". celebrated the end of his incumbency at Buriton, The long-term success of their religious almost three years to the day since his induction, education in preparation for Confirmation, is with three services of Holy Communion and an brought into question by the fact that nine of the Evensong. nineteen persons described by Gedge to his That he was still the Rector of Buriton the successor as in need of "working up for Holy following Sunday probably came as an Communion", had been confirmed in 1887 and unwelcome shock to Gedge. An extra note in the 1889 {Notes, 71). Not everyone, it seemed, Register of Services, dated Friday 9th October understood the significance of Holy Communion. 1889, records that the arrangement had been broken off by Canon Lester. Gedge persisted in his attempts to find an THE INCUMBENCY AND THE LEGACY alternative living, and on 20th February 1890 he was able to record that he "this day resigned the Just how committed Gedge was to his parish at living" of St Mary, Buriton (Register). This time Buriton is open to interpretation. Gedge had not the mutual exchange was effected with Alfred performed missionary work for over twenty years Martell, Rector of St Anthony, Stepney, London, and no reason is given for his departure to the whose wife was no stranger to the Buriton West Indies for ten weeks only a fortnight after his Rectory, being the cousin of the wife of a former induction, but this very act in itself raises vicar of Petersfield, and a regular house-guest of questions about his attitude to his new living. the Sumners (HRO, 147M85/101/15). On the 17th October 1887, just a year after The postponement and rearrangement of his being inducted, Gedge broke his shoulder bone, departure afforded Gedge the opportunity to and after this injury took the better part of two revise and update the notes he had written for his months to heal, he was incapacitated by sciatica successor, hence the deletions and insertions for most of February the following year (Register). found in the main text. Such periods of prolonged absence from duty Gedge departed the parish on Tuesday 25th cannot have helped his work or relationships with March 1890, having conducted his last service at his parishioners. He identified himself readily St Mary's die previous Sunday (a more subdued with the leading inhabitants of the two villages, occasion than his previous final service, HRO, especially with the Sewards from Weston. How 147M85/101/16; Register). In a relatively short well this would have gone down with his working incumbency of just over three years (his class parishioners, in the prevailing political predecessor had been Rector for forty-one years, atmosphere of working class self-assertion his successor was to be Rector for sixteen years), (enhanced through the Methodist movement), can interrupted by prolonged periods of absence due only be surmised. to travels abroad and sickness, Gedge gave Gedge may have been unhappy at Buriton. himself litde chance of achieving everything he The delay in finding suitable accommodation, set out to do at Buriton. So short an incumbency and then being required to live in a house he had did not give him enough time to fulfil his considered beyond habitation clearly vexed him, ambitions. There were more opportunities each and in his Annual Letter in 1887 he described the week for his parishioners to worship in their whole business as "very trying". church, but the number of communicants had Perhaps, after a religious career dominated by fallen, and no great inroad had been made in die colonial and academic affairs, he was not best numbers preferring the Methodist rite. The HARFIELD: A RECTOR'S LEGACY 207 village school in which he had invested so much His most significant achievement was probably time and effort, had been enlarged to cater for all made unconsciously: die legacy of his notes to his the children of the village, and thus saved. But its successor, in which Gedge left a valuable insight into future was still in the balance when Gedge his parochial administration, and a unique picture departed. of the religious complexion of Buriton in 1889.

REFERENCES

Abbreviations and Society 1700-1850. London: University of London. HRO = Hampshire Record Office, Winchester. Clarke, G 1973 Churchmen and the Condition of England PRO = Public Record Office, London. 1832-1885. London: Methuen. Couth, J & Dewhurst, R 1992 Buriton: The Spirit of a Original sources Village. Buriton: Duck Pond. Buriton Parish Magazines. (An incomplete series from Harfield, C 1993 On the Authorship of Notes on the Parish of 1886 to 1898.) HRO: 147M85/101. Buriton Attributed to J M Sumner. Deposited Buriton Parish Registers. (Baptisms, Marriages and in HRO, 113M92/D1. Burials.) HRO: 73M73. Kelly & Co. Ltd, 1889 Directory of Hampshire including the Buriton Primitive Methodist Circuit Records. HRO: 89M72. Isle of Wight. London: Kelly. Church Register of Preachers, Readers, Collections etc SeptemberKelly & Co . Ltd, 1917 Clergy List. London: Kelly. 19th 1886 to February 11th 1894. (For St Lynd, H 1945 England in the Eighteen-Eighties: Towards a Mary, Buriton.) HRO: 73M73/PI1. Social Basis for Reform. London: Oxford Lease dated 7th November 1878, of land at Buriton for use as University Press. time kilns from J Bonham-Carter to BJ Forder.Parsons , G 1988a Reform, revival and realignment: the HRO: 94M72/E/B41. experience of Victorian Anglicanism, in Population Censusfor England 1871. PRO: RG10/1270. Parsons, G (ed), Religion in Victorian Britain: Population Census for England 1891. PRO: RG12/0945. 14—66. Manchester: Manchester Uni­ 5 Mary, Buriton. Particulars of Church, schools and other versity Press. Institutions. List of Communicants etc. HROParsons: , G 1988b From Dissenters to Free Churchmen: 73M73A/PI10. the transition of Victorian nonconformity, in Parsons, G (ed), Religion in Victorian Britain: 67-116. Manchester: Manchester Secondary sources University Press. Adamson, J 1964 English Education 1789-1902. Wells, 1992 Victorian Village - The Diaries of the Reverend Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. John Coker Egerton of Burwash 1857-1888. Armstrong, A 1973 The Church of England, the Methodists Stroud. Alan Sutton.

Author. C G Harfield BA MPhil, 17 Nickleby Gardens, Totton, Hampshire, SO40 8FN.

© Hampshire Field Club & Archaeological Society