Society and culture in the United Kingdom during the Victorian era saw a rapidly growing middle class who became an important cultural influence; to a significant extent replacing the aristocracy as the dominant class in British society. A distinctive middle class lifestyle developed which influenced what was valued by society as a whole. Increased importance was placed on the value of the family and a private home. Women had limited legal rights in most areas of life and were expected to focus on domestic matters relying on men as breadwinners. Whilst parental authority was seen as important, children were given legal protections against abuse and neglect for the first time. The growing middle class and strong evangelical movement placed great emphasis on a respectable and moral code of behaviour.

As well as personal improvement, importance was given to social reform. The idea of "reform" was a motivating force, as seen in the political activity of religious groups and the newly formed labour unions. Reform efforts included the expansion of voting rights and the alleviation of harmful policies in industry. Utilitarianism was another philosophy which saw itself as based on science rather than on morality, but also emphasised social progress. An alliance formed between these two ideological strands.

A growing number of Christians in England and Wales were not Anglicans, and nonconformists pushed for the disestablishment of the Church of England. Legal discrimination against nonconformists and Catholics was reduced. Secularism and doubts about the accuracy of the Old Testament grew among people with higher levels of education. Northern English and Scottish academics tended to be more religiously conservative, whilst agnosticism and even atheism (though its promotion was illegal) gained appeal among academics in the south. Historians refer to a "Victorian Crisis of Faith" as a period when religious views had to readjust to suit new scientific knowledge and criticism of the Bible.

Access to education increased rapidly during the 19th century. State funded schools were established in England and Wales for the first time. Education became compulsory for pre-teenaged children in England, Scotland and Wales. Literacy rates increased rapidly and had become nearly universal by the end of the century. Private education for wealthier children, both boys and more gradually girls, became more formalised over the course of the century. A variety of reading materials grew in popularity during the period. Other popular forms of entertainment included brass bands, circuses, "spectacles" (alleged paranormal activities), amateur nature collecting, gentlemen's clubs for wealthier men and seaside holidays for the middle class. Many sports were introduced or popularised during the Victorian era. They became important to male identity. Popular sports of the period included cricket, cycling, croquet, horse-riding, and many water activities. Opportunities for leisure increased as restrictions were placed on maximum working hours, wages increased and routine annual leave became increasingly common.

Common culture

The rise of the middle class during the era had a formative effect on its character; the historian Walter E. Houghton reflects that "once the middle class attained political as well as financial eminence, their social influence became decisive. The Victorian frame of mind is largely composed of their characteristic modes of thought and feeling".Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, p. 1

Industrialisation brought with it a rapidly growing middle class whose increase in numbers had a significant effect on the social strata itself: cultural norms, lifestyle, values and morality. Identifiable characteristics came to define the middle-class home and lifestyle. Previously, in town and city, residential space was adjacent to or incorporated into the work site, virtually occupying the same geographical space. The difference between private life and commerce was a fluid one distinguished by an informal demarcation of function. In the Victorian era, English family life increasingly became compartmentalised, the home a self-contained structure housing a nuclear family extended according to need and circumstance to include blood relations. The concept of "privacy" became a hallmark of the middle-class life.

Reform movements The central feature of Victorian-era politics is the search for reform and improvement, including both the individual personality and society.Asa Briggs, The Age of Improvement 1783–1867 (1957) pp 236–85. Three powerful forces were at work. First was the rapid rise of the middle class, in large part displacing the complete control long exercised by the aristocracy. Respectability was their code—a businessman had to be trusted and must avoid reckless gambling and heavy drinking. Second, the spiritual reform closely linked to evangelical Christianity, including both the Nonconformist sects, such as the Methodists, and especially the evangelical or Low Church element in the established Church of England, typified by Lord Shaftesbury (1801–1885).On the interactions of evangelicalism and utilitarianism see Élie Halévy, A History of the English People in 1815 (1924) 585–95; also 3:213–15. It imposed fresh moralistic values on society, such as Sabbath observance, responsibility, widespread charity, discipline in the home, and self-examination for the smallest faults and needs of improvement. Starting with the anti-slavery movement of the 1790s, the evangelical moralizers developed highly effective techniques of enhancing the moral sensibilities of all family members and reaching the public at large through intense, very well organized agitation and propaganda. They focused on exciting a personal revulsion against social evils and personal misbehaviour.G.M. Young, Victorian England: Portrait of an Age (1936, 2nd ed, 1953), pp 1–6. Asa Briggs points out, "There were as many treatises on 'domestic economy' in mid-Victorian England as on political economy"Briggs, The Age of Improvement 1783–1867 (1957) p 447.

The third effect came from the liberalism of philosophical utilitarians, led by intellectuals Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832), James Mill (1773–1836) and his son John Stuart Mill (1806–1873).John Roach, "Liberalism and the Victorian Intelligentsia." Cambridge Historical Journal 13#1 (1957): 58–81. online. They were not moralistic but scientific. Their movement, often called "Philosophic Radicalism," fashioned a formula for promoting the goal of "progress" using scientific rationality, and business-like efficiency, to identify, measure, and discover solutions to social problems. The formula was an inquiry, legislation, execution, inspection, and report.Young, Victorian England: Portrait of an Age pp 10–12. In public affairs, their leading exponent was Edwin Chadwick (1800–1890). Evangelicals and utilitarians shared a basic middle-class ethic of responsibility and formed a political alliance. The result was an irresistible force for reform.On the interactions of evangelicalism and utilitarianism see Élie Halévy, A History of the English People in 1815 (1924) 585–95; see pp 213–15.

Social reforms focused on ending slavery, removing the slavery-like burdens on women and children, and reforming the police to prevent crime, rather than emphasizing the very harsh punishment of criminals. Even more important were political reforms, especially the lifting of disabilities on nonconformists and Roman Catholics, and above all, the reform of Parliament and elections to introduce democracy and replace the old system whereby senior aristocrats controlled dozens of seats in parliament.Llewellyn Woodward, The Age of Reform, 1815–1870 (1962), pp 28, 78–90, 446, 456, 464–65.

The long-term effect of the reform movements was to tightly link the nonconformist element with the Liberal party. The dissenters gave significant support to moralistic issues, such as temperance and sabbath enforcement. The nonconformist conscience, as it was called, was repeatedly called upon by Gladstone for support for his moralistic foreign policy.D. W. Bebbington, The Nonconformist Conscience: Chapel and Politics, 1870–1914 (George Allen & Unwin, 1982) In election after election, Protestant ministers rallied their congregations to the Liberal ticket. In Scotland, the Presbyterians played a similar role to the Nonconformist Methodists, Baptists and other groups in England and Wales. The political strength of Dissent faded sharply after 1920 with the secularization of British society in the 20th century.Steve Bruce, and Tony Glendinning, "When was secularization? Dating the decline of the British churches and locating its cause". British Journal of Sociology 61#1 (2010): 107–126. .Callum G. Brown, The Death of Christian Britain: Understanding Secularisation, 1800–2000 (2009)Alan D. Gilbert, The making of post-Christian Britain: a history of the secularization of modern society (Longman, 1980).

Religion

Religion was a battleground during this era, with the Nonconformists fighting bitterly against the established status of the Church of England, especially regarding education and access to universities and public office. Penalties on Roman Catholics were mostly removed. The Vatican restored the English Catholic bishoprics in 1850 and numbers grew through conversions and immigration from Ireland.Owen Chadwick, The Victorian church (1966) 1:7–9, 47–48. The Oxford Movement was also occurring around this time, which would draw in new converts to the Catholic Church; among these was John Henry Newman. Secularism and doubts about the accuracy of the Old Testament grew as the scientific outlook rapidly gained ground among the better educated. This doubt made them receptive to German idealism, which was imported to England principally by Thomas Carlyle and, before him though less successfully, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Coleridge resisted the empirical legacy of the Age of Enlightenment, while Carlyle, a Scotsman, critiqued utilitarianism from within the tradition of Scottish metaphysics. Walter E. Houghton argues, "Perhaps the most important development in 19th-century intellectual history was the extension of scientific assumptions and methods from the physical world to the whole life of man."Walter E. Houghton, The Victorian Frame of Mind, 1830–1870 (1957) p 33.

During the mid-nineteenth century, there were two distinct religious mentalities among British academics. The North British school was religiously conservative and commercially engaged thanks to the influence of Presbyterianism and Calvinism. Northern English and Scottish researchers played a key role in the development of thermodynamics, which was motivated by the desire to design ever more efficient engines. By contrast, in the South, mentalities of Anglicanism, agnosticism, and even atheism were more common. Academics such as the biologist Thomas Huxley promoted "scientific naturalism."

Church of England

During the 19th century, the established Church of England expanded greatly at home and abroad.Owen Chadwick, The Victorian church. Pt. 1 (1966) online; also Owen Chadwick, The Victorian church. Pt. 2 (1970) online It enrolled about half the population, especially in rural areas where the local gentry dominated religious affairs. However it was much weaker in the fast-growing industrial cities.