From the middle ages to the present day the houses of local clergy – parsonages, vicarages and rectories – have been among the most significant buildings in parishes throughout England. Architecturally some of the best and most fully documented domestic buildings, their history is that of the small and medium sized house, from medieval vernacular to the bespoke designs of leading Victorian architects and the more modest homes of today's clergy. The lives lived in the parsonage, factual and fictional (from Austen to Trollope and the televised struggles of 'Rev' in London's East End in the 2010s) reveal not just a building, but a hub of spiritual and secular activity, at the heart of local life and linking it to wider, national history. In this engaging introduction, Kate Tiller brings together the architectural and social histories of the parsonage, drawing on the evidence of buildings, archival and literary accounts, and contemporary and modern images, to depict parsonages, their occupants and how their histories may be traced.

Includes statistics for memberships, Sunday schools, ministers, languages used in the conduct of services, and a sketch of the missionary, educational, and philanthropic work of the various denominations at home and abroad. Includes national, state & territory, and county data.

1925- includes measures of the National Assembly of the Church of England which have received royal assent.

A “humdinging page-turner of a book” (The Spectator) that will “give great pleasure” (Country Life). The Old Rectory examines the history of the English parsonage through the centuries, and their many and varied styles of architecture. Explore the lives of famous inhabitants and discover the scandals of neglect.