Historical themes in the Diocese of London: How did churches respond to immigrants and newcomers to the local area?
Immigration and population movement has been an important dynamic affecting London society and culture.
Look
A walk around your local community will provide you with clues regarding its past character and development. The locations and dates of houses and industrial buildings might suggest where and when the community experienced change. You may also find out more about the particular ethnic and religious groups which settled in the area.
Listen
It will be useful to talk to long-standing members of the community and ask them how the area has changed during their lifetime. This might compliment the evidence you gathered as you looked around the local area. In particular, it will be well worth interviewing older members of well-established ethnic groups. What do they know about their past family history (for example: when and where did the first members of their family settle in the area?). What are the religious practices of these ethnic groups, and was there any interaction with Anglicanism? By talking to a range of individuals you may well tap into the communal memory of the community. See here for more information on oral history.
Read
The following books may well be useful:
Nick Merriman, ed, The Peopling of London: Fifteen Thousand Years of Settlement from Overseas, London: Museum of London, 1993.
Roger Swift and Sheridan Gilley, eds, The Irish in Britain, 1815-1939, London: Barnes and Noble, 1989.
John Wolffe, The Protestant Crusade in Britain, 1829-1860, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991.
To find histories of Anglo-Jewry visit www.jhse.org/rsrch-biblio
Research
The best place to begin is the local archive. Another useful resource for understanding the character of local areas is the Charles Booth survey of working class London. If you are examining a particular ethnic group(s) it will be important to consult individual archives and collections about them. Details on material relating to Black and Asian communities can be found at CASBAH (www.casbah.ac.uk), while the Catholic National Library (www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/special-coll/jewish.shtml) and Westminster Diocesan Archives contain sources on the Irish community in London.
To examine the perceptions of Anglican clergy of their local communities you could look at:
- Visitation returns – these will contain comments, by clergy or churchwardens, on the make up of individual parishes. These are held at Lambeth Palace Library.
- Parochial Sources – these, such as parish magazines and almanacs, will contain information and attitudes on local social issues. These may be found at the London Metropolitan Archives or in the Fulham Papers at Lambeth Palace Library.
- Fulham Papers – the papers of the Bishops of London, held at Lambeth Palace Library, contain correspondence between individual clergy and the Bishop on a variety of topics and concerns.
