Publisher's Synopsis
The Census of Religious Worship, 1851, was the first and last official religious census on the mainland of Britain. Prompted in part by a concern that dissent was flourishing and Anglican attendance declining, in part by a Victorian passion for statistical dissection, the returns provide crucial evidence for numbers of sittings, congregational sizes, frequency of services, endowments and provision of Sunday Schools. The introduction by Dr David Robinson evaluates the census and the accuracy of the picture it presents of religious behaviour in mid-Victorian Surrey.
