During the 1930s, farming communities waged a campaign of ‘passive resistance’ against Tithe Rentcharge, the modern version of medieval tithe. Led by the National Tithepayers’ Association, farmers refused to pay the charge, disrupted auctions of seized stock and joined demonstrations to prevent action by bailiffs. The National Government condemned their ‘unconstitutional action’, ruled out changes in the law and mobilised police to support the titheowners. The Church and lay titheowners – including Oxford and Cambridge Universities, public schools and big landowners – sought ‘to vindicate’ their right to tithe. In a shameful episode, the Church established a secret company to buy seized produce and remove it from farms.

The ‘tithe war’ was fought outside farms, in the courts, in the press and in the wider arena of public opinion. It posed problems for the Church, legal system, every political party; split the National Farmers’ Union and provided opportunities for the British Union of Fascists and other sections of the extreme right.

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