The seemingly inexorable decline of religion in twentieth-century Britain has for long fascinated historians, sociologists and churchmen. In this cogent and original study, S.J.D. Green concentrates scholarly attention for the first time on the social history of the chapel in a characteristic industrial-urban setting. He demonstrates just why so many churches were built in these years, who built them, who went to them, and why, and he offers a fresh interpretation of the extent and the implications of the decline of religion in Britain.