In twenty-first-century Britain it is hard to envisage how Sunday schools, and even Christianity, played such a significant role in the social and religious life of the nation. In 2000 it was estimated that fewer than 10 per cent of children attended Sunday school. However, to understand the religious world of Britain in the twentieth century we must appreciate the role Sunday schools played within it. For instance, by 1914 it is estimated that there were over seven million Sunday school scholars. The cultural influence of the schools can even be felt to this day. Many English football clubs, such as Bolton Wanderers and Everton, originated from Sunday school football teams.

Moreover, in 2008 a BBC documentary entitled Sunday Schools: Reading, Writing and Redemption was broadcast. It detailed the history of British Sunday schools and interviewed former scholars about their experiences. Some of these interviewees included the politician Lord Roy Hattersley, the actress Dame Patricia Routledge, and the cartoonist Bill Tidy. Many of those interviewed recalled their happy memories while attending and expressed the positive influence their time at the schools had on the rest of their lives. Likewise, the presenter Huw Edwards lamented the decline of the schools as an institution, given the benefits he had received attending one as a child.

However, despite the influential role the schools played in the lives of much of the population, research about the schools that extends beyond the beginning of the First World War is rare. Considering the examples discussed above, this seems a large oversight in the historiography of British Christianity.

Sunday Schools in Scholarship

Scholarship has highlighted the importance of Sunday schools during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. First, statistics have revealed the central role that the Sunday schools played in the religious life of the nation. Clive Field's research estimated that there were 7,074,183 Protestant scholars in 1914. He claimed that nine-tenths of the population attended a Sunday school at some point during their lives. Similarly, Callum Brown contended that Sunday school attendance was almost obligatory.

Second, oral histories have further evidenced the importance of the schools in the lives of much of the population. Dorothy Entwistle suggested that the majority of those interviewed remembered attending a Sunday school during their childhood. Interviewees often recalled their Sunday school experience in a positive light.