‘Drive-A-Good-Bargain’: The Mechanics of Formal Pew-Renting Since 1818

The nineteenth-century Church Building Acts centralised control of formal pew-renting in all forthcoming and most newly erected churches that qualified for a Commissioners’ grant. The practice accordingly blossomed—for a time—among both those churches that could legally engage in the practice and those whose officials either did not realise applicable law or believed—usually accurately—that they could get away with it.