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Brian Knight STRATEGY, MISSION AND PEOPLE IN A RURAL DIOCESE A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF THE DIOCESE OF GLOUCESTER 1863-1923 BRIAN KNIGHT A thesis submitted to the University of Gloucestershire in accordance with the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities August, 2002 11 Strategy, Mission and People in a Rural Diocese A critical examination of the Diocese of Gloucester 1863-1923 Abstract A study of the relationship between the people of Gloucestershire and the Church of England diocese of Gloucester under two bishops, Charles John Ellicott and Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson who presided over a mainly rural diocese, predominantly of small parishes with populations under 2,000. Drawing largely on reports and statistics from individual parishes, the study recalls an era in which the class structure was a dominant factor. The framework of the diocese, with its small villages, many of them presided over by a squire, helped to perpetuate a quasi-feudal system which made sharp distinctions between leaders and led. It is shown how for most of this period Church leaders deliberately chose to ally themselves with the power and influence of the wealthy and cultured levels of society and ostensibly to further their interests. The consequence was that they failed to understand and alienated a large proportion of the lower orders, who were effectively excluded from any involvement in the Church's affairs. Both bishops over-estimated the influence of the Church on the general population but with the twentieth century came the realisation that the working man and women of all classes had qualities which could be adapted to the Church's service and a wider lay involvement was strongly encouraged. The Great War proved to be a major catalyst, both in breaking up class barriers and in confirming the estrangement of the masses from the Church and its message. Throughout the period, the Church's efficiency was impaired by having to operate through an archaic parochial system in which a large proportion of rural priests were considered by their bishops to display a high level of lethargy. Published work on this topic has hitherto been confined to some of the major industrial cities. This study offers an insight into an area of the country and at a period which has not previously received much attention. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I must first expressmy thanks to the University of Gloucestershirefor the grant of the bursary that made this thesis possible. Within the University, the ReverendDr Nigel Scotland, my First Supervisor, has guided me during all the stagesof its preparation and the staff of the ResearchAdministration Office have been helpful throughout. I am also grateful to my Second Supervisor, the Right Reverend Dr Geoffrey Rowell, the Bishop in Europe, for his strong words of encouragement. I have also to thank the staffs of the Gloucestershire Record Office which houses the Diocesan Archives, the Gloucestershire Collection at Gloucester Central Library, Cheltenham Central Library and the Librarian of Pusey House, Oxford for their ready assistance in obtaining the materials on which this study has been based. 2 AUTHOR'S DECLARATION I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in accordance with the regulations of the University of Gloucestershire and is original except where indicated by specific reference in the text. In discussing Bishop Ellicott, I have drawn on some of the sources used in my dissertation submitted as part of an M. A. degree awarded jointly by the Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education and Trinity College, Bristol in 1995. Otherwise, no part of the thesis has been submitted as part of any other academic award. The thesis has not been presented to any other education institution in the United Kingdom or overseas. Any views expressed in the thesis are my own and in no way represent those of the University. Signed Date 27- OL-03 .... ................... Strategy, Mission and People in a Rural Diocese A critical examination of the Diocese of Gloucester 1863-1923 Contents Introduction 6 Chapter 1 The County, the Diocese and the Parish Churches 11 The Origins of Gloucester and Bristol Dioceses 13 Population Increases 16 Diocesan Boundaries 18 Ratio of Parishesto People 22 Church Accommodation 26 Church Patronage 28 Parish Church Building 37 The "Triple Division" of the County 55 The County at Work 61 Clergy Income 64 Appendix : Church Accommodation Compared to Population in Selected Parishes74 Chapter 2 Two Bishops In Contrast 76 The Office of Bishop 78 Bishop Ellicott 80 Bishop Gibson 104 Chapter 3 The Clergy of the Diocese 117 The Country Clergy 119 Long-Serving Clergy 132 The Churchmanship of the Clergy 142 The Clergy and Nonconformity 148 Intra-Church Disputes and Divisions 155 Clergy Qualifications 159 Appendix 1: Ordinations in the Diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, 1869-1896 165 Appendix 2: Ordinations in the Diocese of Gloucester, 1897-1922 166 Chapter 4 A Question of Social Class 167 A ClasslessChurch? 168 Politics and the Clergy 177 Freemasonry and the Church 180 The Failings and Vices of Society 183 The Diocesan Conference 192 Parishioners and Parish Priests 202 Case Studyl: Wick Rissington 212 Case Study 2: Cheltenham Parish Church 214 Changing Attitudes 217 Appendix A: The Bishops' Nominees to the Diocesan Conference 224 Appendix B. 1: Prayer Book Revision; Gloucester Diocese Response 225 Appendix B 2: Prayer Book Revision; Manchester Diocese Response 226 4 Chapter 5 A Woman's Place: In Society and the Church 227 The Implications of Scripture 228 The Missionary Women 228 Women, Marriage and the Home 230 Women in the Congregation 238 Females and Confirmations 240 Church Care for Young Women 244 The Importance of Clergy Families 246 Women and Sunday Schools 248 District Visitors 253 'Rescue and Preventive' Work 255 Women as Spiritual Leaders 257 Appendix: Annual Confirmation Tables 1: Diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, 1868-1896 260 2: Diocese Gloucester, 1897-1922 261 . of Chapter 6 A Mission to Gloucester 262 Parochial Missions and Mission Rooms 263 The Diocesan Mission is Established 264 The Diocesan Mission at Work 268 The National Mission of 1916 272 Appendix: A Summary of Gloucester Diocesan Mission Activities, 1895-1914 277 Chapter 7 The Level of Church Commitment by the Laity of Gloucester Diocese in 1921 278 Introduction 279 Rationale and Methodology 280 Discussion 285 Details 290 Conclusion 303 Chapter 8 The Diocese and the First World War 304 The Clergy and the War 305 The Church Lads' Brigade 309 The War's Effect on the Diocese 310 The ReasonsWhy 319 The Church and the Fighting Men 320 The Fighting Men and the Church 325 Chapter 9 Conclusion 334 Bibliography 345 5 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS Plates 1 Gloucester Cathedral and Tewkesbury Abbey 14 2 Two Cotswold Vicarages 33 38 3 Cotswold "Wool" Churches -1 39 4 Cotswold "Wool" Churches -2 5 Travel in the Cotswolds 57 6 The Bishops of Gloucester 77 7 Thomas Hodson 118 8 Leading Laymen of the Diocese 169 9 Church Army Van 266 Maps 1 The Diocese of Gloucester Showing the City and the County Towns 12 21 9`h Century Church Building in the Forest of Dean 49 Introduction 6 Strategy, Mission and People in a Rural Diocese A critical examination of the Diocese of Gloucester 1863-1923 Introduction The history of the Church of England has to be parochialism in the best and literal sense of the word. Generalisations based on a national viewpoint melt into meaningless at parish level. The Church was like a honeycomb, built up of individual parishes, all seeming alike from a distance, but each distinct on closer examination. The truism that local regional histories lie at the heart of national 1 history could be no better exemplified than in this book. This is a study of the parishes which comprised the diocese of Gloucester in the later Victorian and the early twentieth century which questions whether the religious, political and social milieu in which the Church of England operated enriched or vitiated its work. Three limitations, of date, location and denomination, have been imposed on the study. The dates chosen are not arbitrary but mark the oversight of the diocese of two bishops, Charles John Ellicott (1863-1905) and Edgar Charles Sumner Gibson (1905- 2 1922). Bishop Ellicott's episcopate was of such an unusual duration that it was felt important to discover whether he had so stamped his own personality on the- diocese during that period as to render it impervious to change. The extension of the study into the period of Bishop Gibson's supervision also permitted consideration of the relevance to local Church life of developments of major international and national importance. Respectively, these were the War of 1914-1918 and the enfranchisement of women and the extension of male suffrage. In the ecclesiastical sphere, the encouragement of lay 1 Edward Royle, Department of History, York University, reviewing Frances Knight's The Nineteenth Century Church and English Society, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995, in Journal of Regional and Local Studies,Vol. 16, No. 2,1996 p.41. 2 The Bishop Gibson retired at the end of 1922. His successor arrived at Gloucester in the following year. study has been extended into 1923 so that it encompasses 60 years. Introduction 7 Rolls participation in Church government and the introduction of Electoral as a new measure of Church allegiance were also of major consequence. The second limitation is that the survey mostly disregards the union of Gloucester diocese with that of its more southerly neighbour of Bristol which lasted from 1836 to 1897, and thus partly intrudes into this work. With certain reservations, `Gloucester diocese' is treated throughout as though it were always a separate entity.
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