This project started in the mid-1980s, as part of a study of the cultural regions of the British Isles (which extended also to the regional novel). It grew out of concern over political centralisation and a widely felt need to know more about the history and persistence of British regional cultures. Religion, like the regional novel, is only one of many cultural elements – but it is essential to an historical understanding of regional cultures.

The necessary religious data collection, reading, collaboration and related work meant that this book has been a long time coming to fulfilment. After initial research, the project gained a two-year grant from the Leverhulme Trust (1992–4) which funded Paul Ell as a Research Associate. It was then awarded a three-year grant from the ESRC (1994–7) which funded Alasdair Crockett as a Research Associate. The grants were directed by K. D. M. Snell in the Department of English Local History, University of Leicester. We are particularly grateful to the Leverhulme Trust and the ESRC for their valuable support. K. D. M. Snell is grateful also to the Research Board of the University of Leicester for financial assistance, and to the University of Leicester for generous provision of computing equipment.

This book comprises something over half of this research on religious history, and it is due to be followed by a second work on ‘Secularisation’ by Alasdair Crockett. That study is now being pursued at Nuffield College Oxford, and will be published in the near future.