Aston Cantlow v Wallbank: a twenty-year retrospective

To mark the passing of two decades since the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords handed down their judgment in the appeal of Aston Cantlow and Wilmcote with Billesley Parochial Church Council v Wallbank this article considers the enduring impact of the decision in terms of the constitutional position of the Church of England as a national church and analyses the public and private functions which it undertakes. In the altered landscape of the new Carolean era, with a decline in church attendance and a rise in secularism, it examines the reasoning of the five separate opinions delivered by the Law Lords and evaluates in retrospect various of the issues raised.