Wallingford Quaker Meeting House, Wallingford, Oxfordshire

Summary

Quaker Meeting House. Built in 1724, restored about 1924, and with later alterations.

Description

Quaker Meeting House. Built in 1724, restored about 1924, and with later alterations.

MATERIALS: red and grey bricks laid to Flemish bond, flint, clay tile roof coverings.

PLAN: a single-storey single unit, rectangular on plan, with hipped roof.

EXTERIOR: the meeting house is situated in the garden to the rear of 13, Castle Street (the caretaker’s cottage), immediately to the east of the scheduled Saxon Town. It is oriented north-south, built in red and grey brick laid to Flemish bond over a low brick and flint plinth, with a brick plat band and dentilled cornice. The tall hipped roof is covered with clay tiles.

The main (east) front has a double-leaf six-panelled door with an architrave surround to the left and a six-over-six sash window to the right. The south elevation includes a six-over-six sash window to the centre. The rear (west) elevation has, from left to right, a further six-over-six sash window and, to the right, a four-panelled door with architrave surround (not aligned on the east door). The sash windows are unhorned, with thick glazing bars. The north elevation is partially obscured by an adjacent building.

INTERIOR: the meeting house interior comprises the meeting room with no ancillary spaces. The east entrance opens into the rear of the room. The south wall has a dado of vertical boarding, interrupted by the window opening, and a timber rail with hat and coat pegs. The other walls have a dado of plain horizontal boarding with fixed benches with curved armrests, except for the southern part of the west wall which houses a bookcase. The Elders’ stand to the north wall is a central ‘pulpit’ type approached up two steps to either side, with a backboard rising above the level of the dado, and curved sides to the upper fixed bench. The stand’s front, incorporating a fixed bench with armrests, carries a handrail mounted on short turned posts. The floor is of brick paviours. The plain ceiling has a centrally-placed roof hatch.

History

The Quaker movement emerged out of a period of religious and political turmoil in the mid-C17. Its main protagonist, George Fox, openly rejected traditional religious doctrine, instead promoting the theory that all people could have a direct relationship with God, without dependence on sermonising ministers, nor the necessity of consecrated places of worship. Fox, originally from Leicestershire, claimed the Holy Spirit was within each person, and from 1647 travelled the country as an itinerant preacher. 1652 was pivotal in his campaign; after a vision on Pendle Hill, Lancashire, Fox was moved to visit Firbank Fell, Cumbria, where he delivered a rousing, three-hour speech to an assembly of 1000 people, and recruited numerous converts. The Quakers, formally named the Religious Society of Friends, was thus established.

Fox asserted that no one place was holier than another, and in their early days, the new congregations often met for silent worship at outdoor locations; the use of members’ houses, barns, and other secular premises followed. Persecution of Nonconformists proliferated in the period, with Quakers suffering disproportionately. The Quaker Act of 1662, and the Conventicle Act of 1664, forbade their meetings, though they continued in defiance, and a number of meeting houses date from this early period. Broad Campden, Gloucestershire, came into Quaker use in 1663 and is the earliest meeting house in Britain, although it was out of use from 1871 to 1961. The meeting house at Hertford, 1670, is the oldest to be purpose built. The Act of Toleration, passed in 1689, was one of several steps towards freedom of worship outside the established church, and thereafter meeting houses began to make their mark on the landscape.

Quaker meeting houses are generally characterised by simplicity of design, both externally and internally, reflecting the form of worship they were designed to accommodate. The earliest purpose-built meeting houses were built by local craftsmen following regional traditions and were on a domestic scale, frequently resembling vernacular houses; at the same time, a number of older buildings were converted to Quaker use. From the first, most meeting houses shared certain characteristics, containing a well-lit meeting hall with a simple arrangement of seating. In time a raised stand became common behind the bench for the Elders, so that traveling ministers could be better heard. Where possible, a meeting house would provide separate accommodation for the women’s business meetings, and early meeting houses may retain a timber screen, allowing the separation (and combination) of spaces for business and worship. In general, the meeting house will have little or no decoration or enrichment, with joinery frequently left unpainted. Ancillary buildings erected in addition to a meeting house could include stabling and covered spaces such as a gig house; caretaker’s accommodation; or a school room or adult school.

Throughout the C18 and early C19 many new meeting houses were built, or earlier buildings remodelled, with ‘polite’, Classically-informed designs appearing, reflecting architectural trends more widely. However, the buildings were generally of modest size and with minimal ornament, although examples in urban settings tended to be more architecturally ambitious. After 1800, it became more common for meeting houses to be designed by an architect or surveyor. The Victorian and Edwardian periods saw greater stylistic eclecticism, though the Gothic Revival associated with the Established Church was not embraced; on the other hand, Arts and Crafts principles had much in common with those of the Quakers, and a number of meeting houses show the influence of that movement.

The C20 saw changes in the way meeting houses were used which influenced their design and layout. In 1896 it was decided to unite men’s and women’s business, so separate rooms were no longer needed, whilst from the mid-1920s ministers were not recorded, and consequently stands were rarely provided in new buildings. Seating was therefore rearranged without reference to the stand, with moveable chairs set in concentric circles becoming the norm in smaller meeting houses. By the interwar years, there was a shift towards more flexible internal planning, together with the provision of additional rooms for purposes other than worship, reflecting the meeting house’s community role – the need for greater contact with other Christians and a more active contribution within the wider world had been an increasing concern since the 1890s. Traditional styles continued to be favoured, from grander Classical buildings in urban centres to local examples in domestic neo-Georgian.

Wallingford Meeting House was built in 1724, two years after the Castle Street plot was bought for the purpose. Despite the discontinuation of the meeting between 1855 and 1861 and again between 1877 and 1922, the building has continued in service and was restored around 1924 prior to re-opening in 1926. Further repairs were carried out in 1964 and 1983, and a small outbuilding to the rear was demolished in the later C20.

Reasons for Listing

Wallingford Quaker Meeting House, situated on Castle Street, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an historic survivor of an early-C18 Friends meeting house which retains its essential historic form and character;
* the simple plan form, very unusual Elders’ stand and other historic fabric preserved in the interior provide evidence for the internal arrangements typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses.

Historic interest:

* as an early purpose-built meeting house dating to 1724, its discreet location and modest form are expressive of the early history of the Quaker movement.

Group value:

* with the Grade II-listed Strafford House.

External Links

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