High Wycombe Quaker Meeting House, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

Summary

Quaker meeting house. Probably early C19, adapted in 1930 to designs by Sam North, extended in 1982 to a design by Roy Roe Associates.

Description

Quaker meeting house. Probably early C19, adapted in 1930 to designs by Sam North, extended in 1982 to a design by Roy Roe Associates.

MATERIALS: red and black brick, slate roof coverings.

PLAN: the east to west oriented meeting house range is rectangular on plan, with an irregularly composed rear extension comprising a north to south oriented two-storey domestic range with adjacent single-storey toilet block, and the east to west oriented single-storey kitchen and classroom range of 1982.

EXTERIOR: the meeting house stands on the north side of London Road overlooking its small front garden in a group of other Grade II-listed properties all of which are, or originated as, domestic dwellings. The two-storey meeting house range is built in brick, with timber eaves and slate coverings to the gable roof. There are brick chimney stacks with yellow clay pots to each gable end. The rear extensions are also built in brick with slate roof coverings to their gable roofs and simply ornamented bargeboards.

The front (south) elevation of the main meeting house is in red brick laid to Flemish bond with fine lime putty joints and corner pilasters. Its three bays comprise the centrally-placed front door, flanked by two three-over-three sash windows under flat arches of gauged brick. There are three similar windows in the upper storey. The door has a trellis porch, whilst the windows are set in rendered reveals with painted sills. A small tablet over the door reads FRIENDS/ HOUSE.

The west and east elevations are in red and black brick laid to Flemish bond. The west elevation is blind whilst the east includes an eight-over-eight sash window lighting the upper storey on the right-hand side. The red brick rear elevation of the meeting house range is largely obscured by the north-south oriented two-storey domestic range, but includes an eight-over-eight sash window in the upper storey to the east side and a window in each storey to the west side.

The east elevation of the domestic range is irregularly composed. It includes, from left to right, a curved structure of narrow full-height windows with a conical roof covered in lead sheet in the junction of the meeting house range and the domestic range, then two small windows in the ground floor and a doorway under a small porch with a gable roof. One small window lights the upper storey to the left-hand side. A window in the range’s north gable and another in its west wall light the upper storey. Whilst the domestic range is in brick laid to Flemish bond, the single-storey kitchen and classroom range of 1982 is in brick laid to stretcher bond with windows in the north elevation.

INTERIOR: the main meeting room occupies the ground floor of the meeting house range. The former hallway, front rooms and a rear room have been opened up to create a single space for meeting for worship. A folding timber partition can be drawn between the north and south walls to divide the main meeting room into two separate spaces. Fittings include the fireplace with an eared timber surround and cupboards in the east wall.

The warden’s flat occupies the upper story of the main meeting house range. Access to the single-storey toilet block and to the kitchen and classroom range is through the ground floor of the domestic range.

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 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.

In 1665 the keeper of Aylesbury gaol was ordered to imprison ten Quakers, and Quakers had established a meeting house in High Wycombe as early as 1687, two years before the Act of Toleration. It stood in approximately the position of 19 and 21 Crendon Street and was the property of local landowner John Archdale (1642-1717) who had become a Quaker in 1678. He leased his barn and cottage in High Wycombe to Quakers in 1693, and provided land to enlarge the burial ground which had been in use since at least 1682.

The Meeting was laid down in 1871 and not revived until 1914. Meeting for worship recommenced at the Crendon Street meeting house until 1924, when it moved for a few years to a former mission house in Corporation Street; the architect George North, working with his son Sam, adapted the building for Quaker worship. In 1929 the Meeting moved once more, to The Limes, Easton Street, whilst the old meeting house on Crendon Street was demolished in about 1930.

High Wycombe Quaker Meeting then bought the freehold of Fairwood Cottage, a domestic dwelling on the London Road just to the south-east of Easton Street. The house had been occupied by antiques dealer Fred Skull and it may be that some of the internal features had been installed by him, accounting for their mid-C18 character in what is probably a building of about 1820. Sam North made the alterations to equip the meeting house, including an upstairs warden's flat. New furnishings were designed by Sam's father George and some were re-used from the Crendon Street and Corporation Street properties. The new meeting house opened in March 1931.

The Quaker burial ground on Station Road, approximately 200m to the north-west of the meeting house, was given to the local authority in 1937 to be a small park. In 1982 a kitchen and classroom were added to the meeting house in a rear extension designed by Roy Roe Associates.

Reasons for Listing

High Wycombe Quaker Meeting House, situated on London Road, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as a modest, vernacular, meeting house serving the characteristically simple requirements of Quaker worship;
* typifying the development of the meeting house type as a C19 villa adapted for worship, retaining the legibility of the former domestic dwelling;
* for its late inclusion of a timber partition and other fittings which hark back to divisions of space and internal arrangements in earlier Quaker meeting houses.

Historic interest:

* associated with the early development of Quakerism in Buckinghamshire.

Group value:

* with numerous listed buildings on the north side of London Road including 21 and 23 London Road and Rye Cottage (all Grade II-listed).

External Links

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