A gentlemanly pastime: antiquarianism, adult education and the clergy in England, c.1750–1960

Abstract

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Anglican clergymen in England contributed significantly to the development of archaeology and local history as, first, subjects for polite study, but secondly as academic disciplines at the heart of the university extension and extra‐mural movements. Initially working as lone antiquarian scholars, clergymen formed networks amongst themselves and the gentry, dominated the emerging national and county societies, and moved into university work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with the establishment of formal courses for adults. With their broad Oxbridge education and ready‐made audiences, clergymen disseminated ‘safe’ secular knowledge via the tutorial class. But this contribution had diminished by the mid‐twentieth century, by which time the education of the clergy had become more narrowly focused upon vocation, and as new academic posts facilitated the establishment of mainstream university Departments of Archaeology and Local History. This paper explores the contribution of the Anglican clergy to the education of adults in the period c.1750–1960 and suggests reasons for its initial strength and eventual decline.