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Late last night, I disappeared down the rabbit hole of researching the Church of England's extra-parochial places. Here follows a short thread... https://twitter.com/chinmj/status/1353106904483061761
You often hear that the Church of England is the church for the entire population, or that every blade of grass falls into a Church of England parish. But this is not technically true. There are a whole range of (small) areas which fall outside of the parish system entirely.
Looking at the 2011 census data (brilliantly processed by the brilliant CofE stats department @cofestats) I've found at least 128 of these extra-parochial areas. As at 2011 they had a combined population of 16,354. Or about one person in every 3,000.
There are perfectly good reasons for many of them, and where a clear link to a local church can be demonstrated. For example, most Cathedral Closes are extra-parochial areas (and the cathedral is responsible for ministering to them. Though Guildford's "close" has 2,425 people!
Other notable ones include the Royal Palaces and certain ancient institutions (some of the Inns of Court, St Bartholomew's Hospital etc). All tend to have structured provision for the Cure of Souls in those places, through Chaplains or similar.
But then there are some where the logic is less clear. For various historical reasons, these places have just never been assigned to a parish. Some are virtually uninhabited, but many are not. To take a couple of examples...
Other than Guildford Cathedral Precincts, the most populous extra-parochial place is Beauchief, the history of which is fascinating. It is a former abbey, which became a family chapel in the 17th Century. It was gifted to the people of Sheffield in the 20th Century.
It is now a "liberty" in the Diocese of Sheffield. Not part of a parish, run on essentially congregationalist lines - the congregation arrange for visiting clergy to take services. You can read about it here: https://beauchiefabbey.org.uk/index.php/the-abbey-today
Others may have historically been part of a parish, but managed to get themselves removed from the parochial system, in the days when civil and ecclesiastical parishes were one and the same, and doing so got the landowners out of paying tithes or poor law taxes.
Glorious anomalies such as Beauchief aside, there are some places where I can't see that the Church of England has any place of worship, or indeed any official presence whatever (do correct me if I'm wrong on any of these, those with local knowledge!).
I think these may include Haywood Oaks (population 992), Shotover (population 429) and a swathe of the New Forest (population 401).
For a church which makes such a point of the unique benefits of a universal parish system, isn't this a bit odd?
For a church which makes such a point of the unique benefits of a universal parish system, isn't this a bit odd?
Luckily the drafters of the Marriage Act 1949 dealt with this point. Under section 6 (3), a resident of an extra-parochial area which does not have a chapel authorised for marriages is deemed to live in an adjoining parish of their choice. https://twitter.com/liambeadle/status/1353343659706638336
Yes (mostly in the days before Bishop's Mission Orders) new Extra-parochial places were sometimes created for Fresh Expressions of Church or church plants, so that they could operate outside the ordinary parish system. https://twitter.com/Gerrarrdus/status/1353345476540641282
Some of the old place names are wonderfully descriptive. There is an extra-parochial place in the Diocese of Winchester called "No Mans Land". Probably true when they drew the parish boundaries, but now 16 people live there in 6 households!
So far I've found only one extra-parochial place that is also in a different Diocese to all the land surrounding it. Perhaps unsurprisingly, that is Lambeth Palace, an EPP "in" the Diocese of Canterbury. I'm sure there are some others, that I can't identify from the spreadsheet!
The best-named is Grunty Fen (148 residents). Even stranger on this one, two tiny individual fields in the middle of it appear to be part of the parish of Ely!
STOP PRESS: I've found some more - I'm now up to 138 EPPs with a combined population of 22,094!
And the Precincts of Southwell Minster (name subject to change, I understand...) are even larger than Guildford. Over 5,000 people!
