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The people of Hereford are predicted to be the country's strongest Christmas churchgoers, according to research by David Voas, a specialist in religious change in modern societies at Manchester University.

Church statistics show that more than one in ten people in Hereford will be in an Anglican church at Christmas - three times as many as in London, four times as many as in Birmingham and five times as many as in Manchester.

Dr Voas said: "Barely 2 per cent of people in Manchester make it to an Anglican church on Christmas Eve or Day."