ABSTRACT
Among social historians it was until recently believed that little can be known about churchgoing patterns in England and Wales before the 1851 Religious Census. B. I. Coleman pointed to Alan Gilbert's analysis of thirty Oxfordshire parishes, which showed a decline in Church of England communicants between 1738 and 1800, a numerical increase after 1800, but a proportional increase only after 1830. The Church of England's seating increased slightly between 1821 and 1851, but not after 1851. In 1821, the Church of England was strongest in the rural group, with 28.3 per cent of its population being 'attenders'. While the Church of England has always remained the dominant denomination in the rural areas, its rural churchgoing rate has not always been higher than that of the urban areas. In 1821, the Church of England had very comparable seating and attenders in both groups.
