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Washington Worship 1851

The actual returns for the only religious census taken in Great Britain in 1851 can be downloaded, to see how may of our predecessors attended church. In that year there were two Church of England and five Methodist places of worship in what is now the modern town of Washington. The following article analyses the capacity for each establishment, how many attended on 30 March 1851 and the estimated weekly attendees during the previous year. This was just as Washington was expanding as coal mines opened, the chemical works expanded and railways were transforming the landscape, so many of the buildings were quite new.