Ross-on-Wye Quaker Meeting House, Ross-on-Wye, County of Herefordshire

Summary

Quaker Meeting House built in 1804 on the site of an earlier C17 meeting house; kitchen and toilets were added in the C20.

Description

Quaker Meeting House built in 1804 on the site of an earlier c 1670s meeting house; kitchen and toilets were added in the C20.

MATERIALS: coursed red sandstone with a hipped roof of Welsh slate (the east roof has concrete tiles), lead rolls and cast-iron rainwater goods.

PLAN: L-plan.

EXTERIOR: the almost square large meeting room forms the west arm of the one-storey L-plan building, with the narrow smaller meeting room to the east and the entrance lobby, WC and staircase between the two meeting rooms. To the east of the small meeting room, the 1992 small stone infill extension houses the kitchen and WCs, with a plain boarded door facing south and a flat roof.

The street frontage facing east is formed by a stone screen wall with flat copings and a pair of semi-circular arches; the arch to the right is blind with recessed coursed stone and the left arch forms the entrance, with timber and metal gates. Each arch has an ashlar surround with imposts and has been lime-washed or painted; the arches appear to be early C19 in date but set into an older wall, perhaps the remains of the earlier 1670s meeting house. The north corner of the screen wall has prominent quoin stones.

The south elevation of the small meeting room has two 16-pane sash windows facing the side passage with stone sills and flat heads. The north elevation is blind, with evidence for rebuilding that may relate to the earlier 1670s meeting house.

The entrance lobby has a catslide roof and the doorway has a flat timber canopy on console brackets, moulded timber architrave and double boarded doors with iron furniture. To the left of the doorway is a fixed 12-pane stair window with stone sill and flat head (the head resembles gauged brick but is stone).

The roof to the large meeting room has deep eaves and below the south-east corner, the top quoin is inscribed 1804. The south and north elevations each has one sash window and the west elevation has two sashes, all are 12 pane and have horns (probably replacements). Set low into the west wall are four stones inscribed A, B, C and D that relate to burial grounds rows. Left of the entrance, the east wall is blind but with the ghost of a former smaller lean-to addition in the angle of the walls.

INTERIOR: the interior is entered by the lobby on the east side of the large meeting room; from this double pine doors with fielded panels lead into the large meeting room, the staircase leads off the south and to the north a small lobby leads to the small meeting room. The panelled door from the lobby has been re-set in a stud wall inserted in 2006 to form a disabled WC on the north side of the lobby. The dogleg staircase which leads to the gallery has pine stick balusters, square newels and elm treads.

The large meeting room has a gallery along the east side and the Elders' stand to the west. The gallery is supported on four timber columns with simple moulded caps and bases; one has been removed and a steel prop inserted. The front of the gallery and the stand have pine fielded panels, and walls are lined to dado level with plain vertical pine boards; the top rail swept up behind the stand. The raised platform to the stand continues along the other walls with fitted pine benches. The walls and ceiling are plain-plastered with a moulded cornice, and the floor is laid with plain pine boards (probably renewed). In the centre is a stone base for a heating stove. The latter is now ex situ but retained in the room.

The small meeting room to the east is a narrow rectangular space with a projecting chimney breast on the north wall, with cast-iron fireplace in plain stone surround. The alcove to the right has fitted cupboards with plain panelled doors, in painted pine. Walls and ceiling are plain plastered, with a reeded cornice, and the floor is carpeted. A door inserted in the east wall leads to the 1992 extension with two WCs and small kitchen, also served by a 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.

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. The work of the prolific Hubert Lidbetter, longtime Surveyor to the Six Weeks Meeting, demonstrates a range from the solid Classicism of Friends House, London (1924-27) to the more contemporary style of the Sheffield meeting house of 1964 (now in alternative use). In the post-war period, a small number of Quaker buildings in more emphatically modern styles were built; examples include the meeting house at Heswall, Merseyside, 1963 by Beech and Thomas, and buildings by Trevor Dannatt, of which the Blackheath Quaker Meeting House is one.

Quakers are first recorded in Ross-on-Wye in 1655 when Thomas Goodaire and George
Scaife walked here from the north to meet with a small group of Friends, and stayed with James Merricke, a tanner who lived off the Market Square. Meetings were held in Merricke’s house and in 1663 and 1668 when George Fox visited Ross, he stayed with Merricke. In 1675 Merricke gave a plot of land, some timber and £40 to Morgan Watkins and others to erect a house. Quakers in Ross were persecuted during this time and 16 were sent to Hereford jail. By 1677 the meeting house had been built on the present site and a burial ground was created in part of the garden; there was also a cottage on the front part of the site (List entry 1179150, Grade II).

From 1663, there was another burial ground in New Street, but this was sold in 1868.

Alterations and repairs were proposed to the meeting house in 1798 and by 1805 works to rebuild it were complete. The new building comprised two parts; the smaller women’s business meeting room to the east, probably partly incorporating the earlier meeting house, and a large meeting room to the west. The date 1804 is inscribed on a quoin below the south-eastern eaves. An arched screen wall was probably created at the same time, using part of an earlier wall.

The meeting declined during the C19 and closed in 1916, but was revived in 1926, with support from Arthur Williams of Gloucester Meeting. During the rest of the C20 the meeting was small and by the 1970s there was just one member. The meeting almost gave up on the building, and the west part of the garden was sold for £12,500 in 1982. Then a revival began, when in 1989-1990, the meeting house roof was repaired and further repairs were undertaken to the interior in 1992-93. The meeting house was formally re-opened in 1994.

The meeting house is set back from the street behind the 1804 screen wall, and is fronting a forecourt. This was partly infilled in 1992 to create a kitchen and toilets in an infill extension between the screen wall and the small meeting room. Access is via a narrow passage through an arch in the screen wall and the meeting house is largely hidden in views from the street. The meeting house is sited on a long plot that is narrowest at the street frontage and widens to the west for the burial ground.

The burial ground is on the west side of the meeting house. The L-plan plot is enclosed by stone walls with flat copings. The ground is no longer used for burials; the last burial was in the 1920s but ashes are scattered. The burial plots are laid out on a grid with the rows marked by letters and numbers on small metal plates and inscribed stones set in the boundary walls and the west wall of the meeting house. Burials are recorded on a framed copy of the burial ground plan dated 1823, hung inside the meeting house. The marker stones are all laid flat; the oldest dates from 1765. Prominent local Quakers buried here include Thomas Prichard (1765–1843) a businessman in the iron trade, and Henry Southall (1827-1916) meteorologist, who established a weather station in Ross.

Reasons for Listing

Ross-on-Wye Quaker Meeting House built in 1804, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* embodying the modest simplicity of Quaker meeting houses, the late Georgian meeting house retains much of its original character and distinctive arched screen wall;

* for its little altered interior and good quality internal joinery.

Historic interest:

* the meeting house includes evidence for the turbulent history of early Quakerism, especially during the 1670s, incorporating fabric from the earlier meeting house;

* it has strong associations with prominent local Quakers;

* for its association with the attached burial ground.

Group value:

* with 3 Brampton Street and Brook House, both Grade II.

External Links

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