The 1830s saw the building of a remarkable number of churches, especially in the second half of the decade. Using Gilbert's figures, 1831–41 witnessed the construction of an extra 785 churches, more than twice as many as in the 1820s and ten times the number from the first decade of the century. It was an impressive achievement. However, these additional places did not even keep pace with the increase in population, let alone address historical shortfalls in capacity. Thus there were continued calls for action. An 1837 article recorded the situation in ‘some of the manufacturing places’ around Manchester. For instance, in Bolton-le- Moors a population of 63,034 were still sharing just 8,600 sittings, and in Heaton Norris, Stockport, 11,283 had only 304 places. More generally, in 1836, the British Critic considered towns to be places of ‘ungodliness [and] intemperance’, repeating the language of Yates in his 1815 Church in Danger and suggesting only very limited progress had been made in the provision of additional accommodation. And others continued to see the threat caused by the spread of Nonconformity if additional churches were not built. Clearly much remained to be undertaken.

However, and very positively, one of the interesting aspects of the decade is that, unlike the previous 40 years, few doubted that more churches should be built or, significantly, that they should be funded from the pockets of those worshipping in them. Church building in the 1830s is not dominated by the campaigns of dynamic individuals, seeming to be battling against indifference or hostility, as was the case a generation earlier in the endeavours of the Revds Hammond Roberson, T. D. Whitaker or Richard Yates, encountered in previous chapters. Rather, one senses the 1830s saw steady progress towards a largely uncontroversial goal, although the advance was too slow for many. However, the need for economy remained paramount; the provision of seats was the overriding concern and if this meant the erection of churches of limited architectural ambition, this was often deemed acceptable, a pragmatic solution to a pressing problem. Indicative of changing attitudes is St Paul, Addlestone, Surrey (1836) (Fig. 16.2). Largely unmemorable, it is, nevertheless, notable as a design by James Savage who, only a decade earlier, had built the magnificent St Luke, Chelsea (see Figs 0.1 and 14.25), the most sumptuous of all the Commissioners’ Gothic churches.