From Parson to Professional: The Changing Ministry of the Anglican Clergy in Staffordshire, 1830-1960 by John William Bruce Tomlinson A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of Theology & Religion School of Historical Studies The University of Birmingham August 2007 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. ABSTRACT From 1830 to 1960 the parish ministry of the clergy of the Church of England underwent a transformation, which was expressed in the gradual abandonment of the parson model and the adoption of the professional model. Staffordshire provides a good case-study area because of its wide variety of urban and rural parishes where this development can be assessed. Amongst the many causes of the change, the population size of the parishes and the sources of clerical funding are considered to be crucially important. The evidence suggests that where parishes exceeded 2000 people and where the worshiping community became the main provider of financial support, the parson model was increasingly difficult to operate. Out of necessity, and sometimes subconsciously, the clergy developed a model with significant professional features, even though the parson model continued to be promoted as the ideal. There was a narrowing of the remit of the clergy and within their local communities they were less involved and less influential. If as a consequence the incarnational aspect of local ministry has been eroded then there are far reaching implications. This study shows how practical circumstances, such as those that relate to geography and economics, although not always recognised, have an important effect upon the practice and the theology of ministry. DEDICATION This work is dedicated in grateful memory to my maternal grandmother Doris Mary Pryce, who was born in 1905, and whose enthusiastic and informal love of history inspired me from an early age. Her many stories, some of which she had heard as a child, brought to life people and events as far back as the early nineteenth century. Although always entirely personal and without the benefit of analysis, her view of the past was electrifying and stimulating. Her death in 2000, at the age of 94, gave me the opportunity to pursue this study. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The idea of this study was born at the discovery of a large and intriguing clerical tomb stone in the graveyard of a small country church, a monument to a long lost era of ecclesiastical life. It has to be recognised that that generation or two of clergy deeply effected every parish. I wish to acknowledge the support and assistance of my tutor Hugh McLeod whose persistent and probing comments and suggestions over six years have guided my studies into many fruitful areas. I am grateful to several others along the way and in particular the late Michael Greenslade and the staff of the William Salt Library in Stafford, the Staffordshire Record Office, the Lichfield Record Office, the Kinder Library of St. John’s College in Auckland, and St. Deiniol’s Library in Hawarden. The backing of the Bishop of Lichfield and the Parish of Shelton and Oxon, Shrewsbury, was also important. Finally, I must record with gratitude the encouragement of Helen, Rhys and Anna, who, whether knowingly or not, allowed me the time away from home to spend with dusty records and seemingly endless statistics. LIST OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 1 2. The Setting 9 The Black Country 13 The Potteries 22 The Rural Areas 28 The Clergy 32 3. The Catalysts 35 4. Parish Population 54 The Staffordshire Parishes 56 Small, Medium, Large and Very Large Parishes 60 Measuring Clerical Influence 63 Church Attendance 1851 65 Church Attendance 1881 82 Communicants 1830-1960 88 Confirmations 1840-1960 112 Communicant and Electoral Rolls 1920-1960 117 Conclusions 122 5. Clerical Funding 127 Tithe as an Advantage 132 Tithe as a Disadvantage 146 The Glebe 177 Parish Appeals 178 Investments 182 Pew Rents 186 Offertory 191 Parish Charities 196 Bazaars 199 Fees 201 Private Income 202 Conclusions 215 6. The Parson Model 219 Assumptions Underpinning the Organisation 221 The Clergyman as a Recognised Figure 224 The Essential Task of Visiting 231 Indiscriminate Pastoral Care 237 A Multi-Faceted Ministry 242 The Moral Conscience of the Community 249 Educated in a General Way 253 A Man Like Other Men 256 Lacking the Features of Other Professions 258 Conclusions 261 7. The Professional Model 263 The Narrowing of the Ministerial Task 265 Ministering to a Smaller Group of People 280 The Clericalisation of Clergy 286 The Parsonage 298 Competing with Other Service Providers 305 Conclusions 310 8. General Conclusions 313 Bibliography LIST OF MAPS, TABLES AND GRAPHS 2.1 Map of Staffordshire 12 4.1 Staffordshire Parish Population and Anglican Clergy 63 4.2 Staffordshire 1851 – Attendance and Parish Size 75 4.3 Staffordshire 1851 – Anglican Attendance and Rival Churches 77 4.4 Staffordshire 1881 – Attendance and Parish Size 83 4.5 Staffordshire 1830 – Easter Communicants and Parish Size 91 4.6 Staffordshire 1880 – Easter Communicants and Parish Size 93 4.7 Staffordshire 1900 – Easter Communicants and Parish Size 95 4.8 Staffordshire 1920 – Easter Communicants and Parish Size 97 4.9 Staffordshire 1940 – Easter Communicant and Parish Size 99 4.10 Staffordshire 1960 – Easter Communicants and Parish Size 101 4.11 Staffordshire Communicant Percentages 1880-1960 108 4.12 Confirmations in Staffordshire 1850-1960 115 4.13 Staffordshire 1850-1960 – Percentage of Male Confirmees 117 4.14 Electoral Roll Membership in Staffordshire 1920-1960 121 5.1 Parish Context of Staffordshire Clergy 1830-1960 136 5.2 Landowners’ Control of Staffordshire Parish Patronage 1830-1959 138 5.3 Staffordshire Benefice Income 1830-1960 150 5.4 Staffordshire Clerical Magistrates 1830-1940 162 5.5 Anglican Pluralist Incumbents 1830-1960 164 5.6 Staffordshire Easter Offering 1880-1960 193 5.7 Graduate Status of Staffordshire Anglican Clergy 1856-1959 206 5.8 Servants in Staffordshire Incumbents’ Households 1881and 1901 209 5.9 Private Income of Staffordshire Clergy c1940 213 6.1 Length of Staffordshire Incumbencies 229 Chapter One INTRODUCTION To travel by train from Wolverhampton to Stoke on Trent via Stafford is to take a journey of less than an hour that traverses the whole county of Staffordshire. Passing from industrial conurbation, through sprawling suburbs, out into open countryside, passing through villages and market towns, a subdued county town, and more rich green countryside with moorland hills in the distance, you arrive in another city that also bears all the signs of the social and economic change of the last century and a half. What you might notice through the train window are the church towers and steeples that scatter the entire landscape. Nearly always old, and standing amongst other buildings, in the city their profiles are obscured and dwarfed by other structures. Where they once stood high and unchallenged they now compete with office blocks, high-rise housing, factory chimneys and the great bulk of modern industrial and commercial architecture. Only in the market towns and in the countryside have the churches retained their apparent dominance. 1 Slowly, and almost imperceptibly the other buildings have grown up around the church towers. The skyline has changed in each generation at such a pace that perhaps many would not have noticed. Only in old photographs and old prints can we see the view of what has been lost and what can never be regained. Some of the Victorian structures have been pulled down, factory chimneys felled and tower blocks razed to the ground, but often in their place 1 Writing in the 1950s one clergy mentor commented on the same scene: “The country church stands up clearly from the surrounding buildings. Everyone knows where it is, even if they ignore it. In towns, the church may well be hedged in by towering buildings”. Reindorp 1 have been erected new giant buildings. Neither Wolverhampton, nor Stoke on Trent, nor Stafford will ever have a skyline dominated by the church again. This change in the architecture profile reflects the change in the role of the clergyman in his community. Once very much at the centre, prominent in so many aspects of life, he had a role that was closely linked to the identity of the locality. Ideally, he felt a responsibility for every parishioner, assuming a paternalism that in some places was the very cement of social life. He had a stake in the economy of the parish, and his fortunes related very much to the economic well-being of the people whom he served. This was the model of the ministry of the parson, which in some places in Staffordshire was successfully practised even up until the second half of the twentieth century. Over the course of time and due to a variety of circumstances, others obscured the position of the clergyman in society. Politically, his influence waned, economically he became disconnected and poorer, and socially he was outdated and marginalized. He retreated into a more specialised role and undertook fewer non-religious activities. When they beat the bounds at Rogationtide in the mythical Ambridge they no longer walk around the parish, but confine themselves to the churchyard instead.