Osmotherley Quaker Meeting House, Osmotherley, North Yorkshire

Summary

Quaker Meeting House, built by 1733 and extended in 1947, with later alterations.

Description

Quaker Meeting House, built by 1733 and extended in 1947, with later alterations.

MATERIALS: ashlar with clay pantile roof coverings.

PLAN: a rectangular on plan, single-storey meeting house with a gabled roof and chimney stack to the east gable end, with a single-storey lean-to to the east gable.

EXTERIOR: the meeting house is situated facing into the Quaker burial ground off West End, oriented west-east and built in ashlar with raised quoins. The roof has clay pantile coverings with shaped stone kneelers and coped gables. The shed roof of the eastern lean-to extension is also covered in clay pantiles. The main (south) front comprises five bays with, from left to right, two four-light windows, a built-up doorway with a stone lintel, another four-light window, and then the entrance door in a plain opening with a lintel that bears the date 1723. The window openings have plain stone surrounds with projecting sills. The south elevation of the eastern lean-to includes a casement window.

The east elevation of the lean-to includes a casement window and built-up doorway, whilst to its rear (north) are three small casement windows. A small four-light window in the upper level of the meeting house east gable lights the gallery. The north and west elevations of the meeting house are blind. The west elevation has a small outbuilding attached.

INTERIOR: the meeting house entrance door leads into a small lobby, part-enclosed by tongue and groove panelling, with a four-panelled door leading into the main meeting room. The meeting room has a timber floor and is plastered and painted. Below the gallery to the east wall is a modern stone fireplace and the gallery stairs in the north-east corner are enclosed by panelling including a four-panelled door. The gallery is now fully-enclosed, providing an upper room. Its north-south floor joists are visible forming the ceiling below. The leant-to to the east includes a kitchen and toilets.

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 1,000 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 travelling 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.

A Quaker meeting was settled in Osmotherley in 1652 by John Whitehead who, himself converted by George Fox, converted villagers including Thomas Foster, Cuthbert Tyreman, and James Hildreth. The early Friends met in one another’s houses and maintained a burial ground from 1660, experiencing persecution during that time. Headstones had been removed from the burial ground in 1717, some of which were reused in the present burial ground wall constructed in 1724. The Tyreman family had provided a plot of land for a burial ground by 1723, and Thomas Tyreman’s house and garth were registered as a meeting house in 1728. That property was given to Friends in 1732 for one guinea for 1,000 years, and a meeting house – either a new building, or Tyreman’s house remodelled – was reported to the Yearly Meeting in 1733.

The early-C18 meeting house appears to have included a partition, western Elders’ stand, fixed benches to the walls, and a later eastern gallery with a shuttered front. The meeting closed in the 1760s. During the 1820s, Friends used the building for a village school and library. When the nearby Borrowby Meeting closed in 1838, Osmotherley meeting house returned to regular use for worship but was again laid down in 1856. Used by Independent Methodists until 1890, the meeting house then returned to Quaker worship.

During the 1940s the meeting house was used by the Women’s Voluntary Service, and by the Young Friends organisation as a hostel. The benches were removed at that time, and the Elders’ stand in about 1950. Part of the gallery was damaged by fire in 1954. A small extension was built in 1947 to provide a kitchen and toilets and whilst worship again ceased in 1950, the use as a hostel continued. Dormitory accommodation was provided in a timber hut to the rear of the meeting house, replaced by a concrete structure in the 1970s. The meeting house's ground-floor partition and gallery shuttering were removed in the C20. The meeting house returned to use for public worship in 1993. During the 1990s it was re-roofed and the kitchen was remodelled.

Reasons for Listing

Osmotherley Quaker Meeting House, situated on West End, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a Quaker meeting house in a vernacular style, typifying the modest nature of these buildings for worship;
* the simple plan-form and interior gallery provide evidence for the division of space typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses.

Historic interest:

* as a purpose-built early-C18 meeting house standing in its attached burial ground, set back from the road reflecting experiences of intolerance during the early development of Quakerism.

Group value:

* with numerous Grade II-listed buildings along West End (Main Street) from which the meeting house is approached.

External Links

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