Clerical Incumbents in Leicestershire Between the Two World Wars 165
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1 CLERICAL INCUMBENTS IN 2 3 LEICESTERSHIRE BETWEEN THE 4 5 TWO WORLD WARS 6 7 Gerald T. Rimmington 8 9 10 After the 1914–18 war clerical incumbents faced a difficult time. There was 11 widespread disillusionment about the role of the churches. There were also 12 more severe trade cycles, the depths of which threw many of their parishioners 13 into long-term unemployment. Added to this was a rise in the strength of the episcopacy in making appointments, and the adjustments made necessary by 14 the development of parochial church councils, as well as problems in clergy 15 recruitment and qualifications. This article analyses the changes in 16 Leicestershire, as a microcosm of the English scene, in the appointment, 17 qualifications and payment of clerical incumbents; there was also the 18 challenges presented by the restoration of the Diocese of Leicester. 19 20 The period between the two world wars was, from the Church of England’s point 21 of view, one of the most difficult in its history. The ending of the war in 1918 was 22 accompanied by disillusionment with religion among younger people and the 23 flower of a generation had perished in the poppy-fields of Flanders. Congregations 24 of all denominations who expected survivors coming back from military service 25 to return to the pews were disappointed. In Leicester, Gallowtree Gate 26 Congregational Chapel was so badly hit by the non-return of men from the 27 trenches that it had to close in 1921.1 At Victoria Road (Baptist) Church the war 28 had so reduced the Reverend Peter Thomson’s ‘hugely successful Sunday 29 afternoon Men’s Meeting... that it dwindled and died’.2 Its Sunday school, which 30 had had 381 pupils and 54 teachers in 1911, had only 60 pupils and 10 teachers in 31 1936.3 At St. Paul’s in Leicester, a popular Oxford Movement parish, it was noted 32 that ‘Men and Women did not seem to want to come to church and the children 33 were quickly affected by the general irreligious atmosphere, due in part to natural 34 reaction following upon five years of war’.4 35 Throughout the country Anglican confirmations declined markedly, from 36 216,888 in 1918 to 182,738 in 1936, Easter Day communicants from 2,290,662 37 to 2,241,825. Statistical evidence in Leicestershire is complicated by the fact 38 39 40 1 G. T. Rimmington & A. McWhirr, Gallowtree Gate Congregational Chapel, Leicester 1823–1921: An history of the chapel and a list of interments in the graveyard (Leicester, 1999), p. 20. 41 2 Mrs Constance Bond, in lit. See also G. T. Rimmington, ‘L H Marshall’s Ministry in Leicester 42 1930–1936’, Baptist Quarterly, XXXVI (8)(Oct. 1996), pp. 404–413. 43 3 East Midland Baptist Association Year Book, 1912 and 1936–7. 4 J. E. Hextall & A. Brightman, Fifty Years of Church, Men and Things at St. Paul’s, Leicester, 44 1871–1921 (Leicester, 1921), p. 73. 45 Trans. Leicestershire Archaeol. and Hist. Soc., 80 (2006) 164 GERALD T. RIMMINGTON that the county was part of the Peterborough diocese until 1926. However the combined figures for both dioceses indicate that the number of confirmations declined by 15 per cent, from 5,976 to 4,892 between 1918 and 1936, while the number of Easter communicants declined by 5 per cent, from 70,434 to 66,676.5 Clergy moreover, besides having to cope with lower church attendance, were also confronted, like everyone else, with wildly fluctuating trade cycles displaying ever greater amplitude between boom and depression. This not only affected their own stipends but, in the Great Depression of 1927–1932, resulted in long term unemployment among their parishioners at a time when, in Leicestershire in particular, there was a need, after 1926, for the resourcing of a new diocese. They were also having to make adjustments to their working practice. Since 1919, the Enabling Act had made it obligatory for parishes to have elected parochial church councils, which were invested with some decision-making powers that were not always to the taste of clergymen used to more authoritarian styles of leadership.6 This was further exacerbated by problems in clergy recruitment. Throughout England there was a lower intake of young deacons and therefore greater reliance on older candidates. The anonymous preface to Crockford’s Clerical Directory in 1925 notes that ‘the Church needs a minimum of about 700 fresh clergy annually, and it is many years since that figure was even approached... at a recent ordination in a popular diocese one-half of those who were admitted were over 60 years of age’ The average number of inductions during the preceding six years was no more than 287, the result being that only a little over a thousand were under 35 years of age.7 By 1927 it was noted that the average age of existing clergy was ‘nearer sixty than fifty, and this means that the rate of death and retirement... at present... about 550 per annum will accelerate rapidly during the next ten years’.8 This national picture was ‘writ small’ in Leicestershire. Questions arise as to how the clergy fared. What effects had the war and its aftermath made upon them? The purpose of this study is to analyse the appointments, qualifications and stipendiary structure experienced by the clerical incumbents of Leicestershire during a period of rapid and stressful change. Whereas other published research has relied mainly upon data for one particular year within a period,9 in this paper the author, because of the rapidity of some of the changes, has selected two years, 1925 and 1936, slightly more than a decade apart, for detailed examination. Reliance has been made mainly on Kelly’s Directories and the annually published Crockford’s Clerical Directories, as well as the annually published diocesan calendars. 5 Official Yearbook of the Church of England (1918) and (1936). See also G. T. Rimmington, Bishop Cyril Bardsley and the Diocese of Leicester 1927–1940 (Leicester, 1999), p. 6. 6 R. P. Flindall (ed.), The Church of England 1815–1948: A Documentary History (London, 1972), p. 341. 7 Crockford’s Clerical Directory (1924), xv. 8 Ibid. (1927), vii. 9 G. T. Rimmington, ‘Late Victorian Clergy Income: The Leicestershire Evidence’, East Midland Historian, ix (1999), pp. 13–18; ‘Early Victorian Clerical Incumbents in Leicestershire’, Midland History, 27 (2002), pp. 99–111; and ‘Edwardian Clerical Incumbents in Leicestershire’, The Local Historian, 35 (i) (February, 2005), pp. 44–54. CLERICAL INCUMBENTS IN LEICESTERSHIRE BETWEEN THE TWO WORLD WARS 165 APPOINTMENTS 1 2 There had been no basic change in the system of appointments since the disso- 3 lution of the monasteries, when many advowsons (the right to present incumbents 4 for induction into a living) which had been held by religious houses (like the abbey 5 in Leicester) were offered for sale. There had, however, been some modifications. 6 After 1923 the Benefice Act (1898) Amendment Measure made it possible for 7 benefices under private patronage to be augmented by the Ecclesiastical 8 Commissioners, ‘so long as the private patronage was unsaleable’.10 This caveat 9 effectively prevented further sales of advowsons, causing many private patrons, 10 most of whom were in any case beset by economic problems, to begin to lose 11 interest. This was accompanied by a marked decline in the influence of wealthy 12 landowners, who were in the process of disinvesting themselves of agricultural 13 lands and the villages attached to them. It has been noted that ‘as a consequence of 14 the War, the pressure of taxation and the great increase in expenses... had left no 15 option to many landowners; it was simply impossible to go on’. The Duke of 16 Rutland, for instance, the wealthiest landowner in north-eastern Leicestershire, 17 sold 2,066 acres in Bottesford parish in 1920, along with all the property in 18 the village. The withdrawal from ownership in many villages resulted also in the 19 disposal of advowsons, so that the Duke, who had controlled sixteen advowsons 20 in 1908, had reduced his patronage to seven by 1936.11 21 The effects were clearly to be seen in the statistical information available. In 22 1846 57% of the advowsons in Leicestershire were in private hands. By 1877 this 23 had fallen to 49%, by 1908 to 46% and by 1925 the disinvestment had slipped 24 rapidly, to 39% (101 advowsons) with a further reduction in 1936 to 30% (72 25 advowsons). In 1908 51 advowsons (22%) were controlled by titled people by 26 1925 these were reduced to 34 (13%) in 1925 and to 26 (11%) in 1936. 27 As the fortunes of the great landowners had been waning the strength of the 28 bishops had been growing. In 1924 7,052 benefices (52%) in England were still in 29 the hands of private patrons whilst those in the hands of other clergy, especially the 30 diocesan bishops, numbered 4,854 (36%), which gave the episcopacy considerably 31 greater authority in the appointment of clerical incumbents than they had enjoyed 32 in the nineteenth century.12 In 1830 the bishops had controlled only 12% of English 33 advowsons, while private patrons held 48 per cent.13 In Leicestershire by 1936 the 34 largest single block was controlled by the diocesan bishop, the foundations of 35 whose strength had been laid by his predecessors. Between 1853 and 1878 806 36 English advowsons had been added to the 1,853 the bishops already controlled. In 37 1924 the bishops were able to claim that they had 2,838 advowsons (21%) under 38 39 40 10 G.