ABSTRACT
Among the clergy of Wessex there was a great gulf between the rich bishoprics, well-endowed cathedral canonries and wealthy benefices, and the incumbents and curates in the many poorly paid parishes. Protestant nonconformity grew rapidly in the Wessex region after the Restoration, and groups of Baptists, Quakers, Presbyterians and Independents were to be found in most towns and in many country parishes. In some parishes the decline in the number of farms after enclosure was dramatic, for example at Durweston in Dorset where thirty small farms were amalgamated to form two very large holdings. Improved communications led to the rapid growth of Reading and other Berkshire towns. The increase in population, coupled with the effects of enclosures, engrossment of holdings, changes in farming practice, and the decline of the cloth industry in the face of growing competition from the north of England, all played their part in creating problems of poverty and unemployment.
