Documents

In the past, and in fact right up until the eve of the First World War, members of the congregation in English parish churches paid an annual sum in ‘pew rent’. In return they had reserved seats in the church throughout the year according to their station in life and the revenue helped to maintain the nave in good repair. This document discusses the arrangement in Pilton's St Mary's Church from 1835, when there was supposed to be room for an amazing 832 people all seated as dictated by the rigid class system of the day.