The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
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— <strong>The</strong> <strong>Death</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> <strong>Britain</strong> —<br />
locating. Urban religious occasions could be exceedingly diverse, including<br />
not just a myriad <strong>of</strong> mission and Bible groups on weekdays as well as<br />
Sundays, but events such as the Pleasant Sunday Afternoons for men and<br />
Pleasant Monday Evenings for women in the Edwardian period. 13<br />
Occasions <strong>of</strong> religious worship in towns were held at more irregular hours<br />
in more diverse types <strong>of</strong> place than in country areas, and were <strong>of</strong>ten ignored<br />
by enumerators. Sunday schools, which were more important in urban<br />
dissenting areas than in rural Anglican areas, were characteristically not<br />
counted in religious censuses after 1851, again exaggerating the difference<br />
in religiosity between town and country.<br />
<strong>The</strong> most impressive evidence <strong>of</strong> such problems comes from the Daily<br />
News census <strong>of</strong> churchgoing in London in 1902–3, probably the most accurate<br />
and full census ever undertaken in <strong>Britain</strong>. As an experiment, Chelsea<br />
was the only borough in the census where every detectable church service<br />
at all times <strong>of</strong> day on a Sunday (and Saturday for Jews), though not on<br />
other days <strong>of</strong> the week, was subjected to enumeration. <strong>The</strong> results showed<br />
that 17,061 attendances were recorded at ‘ordinary service’ times in midmorning<br />
and evening, but a further 7,263 attendances occurred outwith<br />
those services. Of these, 5,348 were attendances at Sunday schools.<br />
Although some <strong>of</strong> these children are likely to have also attended worship<br />
(and been already counted), it still means 42.6 per cent extra attendances.<br />
Applying these ratios to the total for the County <strong>of</strong> London, as shown in<br />
Table 7.2, would raise the census compiler’s overall final attendance rate<br />
for the capital from 18.6 per cent to 25.8 per cent <strong>of</strong> population. This indicates<br />
a serious underscoring <strong>of</strong> religiosity in the capital, <strong>Britain</strong>’s largest<br />
Table 7.2 How contemporaries underestimated churchgoing: adjusting the results<br />
<strong>of</strong> the London Religious Census <strong>of</strong> 1902–3<br />
Total population <strong>of</strong> London County 4,536,451<br />
Crude church attendances and rate 1,003,361 22.1%<br />
Adjusted crude attendances and rate 1,430,793 31.5%<br />
(+42.6% <strong>of</strong> attendances to allow for<br />
un-enumerated services)<br />
Adjustment to exclude residents <strong>of</strong> institutions 1 32.0%<br />
Adjustment for 39% <strong>of</strong> attendances being by ‘twicers’ 2 25.8%<br />
Census compiler’s adjusted attenders’ rate 3 18.6%<br />
Source: Figures calculated from data in R. Mudie-Smith, <strong>The</strong> Religious Life <strong>of</strong> London, London,<br />
Hodder & Stoughton, 1904.<br />
Notes<br />
1 66,237 people lived in residential institutions where attendances at services were not<br />
enumerated. Discounting these leaves a net population <strong>of</strong> 4,470,214.<br />
2 <strong>The</strong> adjustment involves deducting 39% from the total morning attendances. <strong>The</strong> calculation<br />
by the census investigators to make this adjustment for their total figure for London<br />
County is either wrong or involved some further unrecorded adjustment.<br />
3 This excludes the 42.6% increase.<br />
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