Project blog
Our research focuses on ordinary people's experiences of religion in urban areas in the North of England, between 1740 and 1830. We are looking primarily at diaries, letters, church and school records, business papers, maps and objects to find out the ways in which piety shaped the lives and outlooks of men, women and children living in the industrialising towns of the later eighteenth century.
Launching the Faith in the Town teaching and learning resources
26 November 2021
The project team have been working with R.E. teacher Dr Kate Christopher and graphic designer David Caunce to produce a range of free resources for schools. The lessons are based on...
Signing off for Faith in the Town
22 November 2021
Hannah Barker Archangel Gabriel figure in lead-glazed earthenware with enamelled decoration and impressed and painted motto, attributed to Sherratt Pot Bank, Staffordshire, c. 1820,...
7 September 2021
If you look through the catalogues of any record office in Britain for something labelled ‘diary’ in the eighteenth century, it is most likely to be a pocket diary. These small...
‘Worldly Labour’: Sabbath-breaking in industrial England
11 August 2021
Sabbath observation was considered the cornerstone of Christian belief. As the anonymous-authored devotional manual The Christian’s New Year’s Gift (1764) stated, ‘The sabbath,...