During the 18th century AD the Church of England was seen as a wealthy and remote institution, complaisant and a source of patronage for the landed classes. Ordinary people often went to church only because their squires required it. The new industrial towns and their growing populations were ignored. In 1750 Manchester, with 20,000 inhabitants, had one church.

Into this spiritual vacuum came the dissenters (or non-conformists), Protestants who did not belong to the Church of England. Allowed freedom of worship, but barred from universities and local and national government, they included Quakers, Baptists and Congregationalists. Methodism, established by John Wesley (1703-91), himself a convinced Anglican, began a religious revival in the 1740s that made it the largest non-conformist church by the mid-19th century.

Wesley had a mystical experience in 1738; he felt his heart ‘strangely warmed’ and he knew that Christ had saved him from sin and death. From that moment he never ceased to travel all over the country, preaching (often out of doors) and bringing his message of personal salvation. His emotional and charismatic style drew huge crowds. By the 1830s, the congregations of Methodist Chapels in the large northern towns were full of mill-owners and businessmen.