I don't know how long this has been the case. If you know, please leave a comment to educate me about this. However, England is divided up into a number of distinct, non-overlapping, spanning, ecclesiastical parishes. This is a parallel system to the civic parish system (think of your local parish council, that manages footpaths, considers local planning requests and so on). However whilst the concept is the same, it is not the same as the civil parish system. One ecclesiastical parish may span several civil parishes, or the other way around, or anything.
People rarely need to know which church's Parish they live in. One time when you do need to know this, however, is if you want to get married in a church. There are a number of ways you can be eligible to marry in a particular church; the number of ways you can qualify has increased significantly since the 2008 Marriage Measure. But the most straight-forward is to live in the Parish for the church you would like to have your wedding in. Regardless of whether you plan to marry in your local parish church, or another one, you would need (usually) to have your Banns of Marriage published. They need to be published in the Parish the groom lives in, and the Parish in which the bride lives. They also (if this isn't already covered) need to be published in the church where the wedding is to take place, where the phrase "of the Parish of St Michael's Puddleton", or similar, is included.
So, if you were planning a church wedding, you would need to know which Parish you live in.
Or, you need to know someone who can tell you.
Like your local vicar.
Like me.
Oh dear. That means I need to know how to find out.
Well:
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