Oakham Quaker Meeting House, Oakham, Rutland

Summary

Quaker meeting house. 1719, repaired in 1806 and with later alterations including refurbishment in 2016.

Description

Quaker meeting house. 1719, repaired in 1806 and with later alterations including refurbishment in 2016.

MATERIALS: ironstone, Collyweston slate roof coverings.

PLAN: the single-storey meeting house is rectangular on plan, oriented east-west with a pitched roof including a ridge stack to the west gable.

EXTERIOR: Oakham Quaker Meeting House stands towards the south end of Gaol Lane at the junction with South Street, on a walled plot entered from the south. It is to the north-east of the Grade II-listed C18 barn at the rear of Number 64 High Street.

The meeting house is built in coursed ironstone. It has a pitched roof with Collyweston slate roof coverings. The ridge stack for the building’s sole fireplace is to the west gable. The main (south) elevation in three bays comprises a centrally-placed entrance doorway with a rectangular two-light fanlight, and a casement window to each bay either side. The six-light casements include awning windows. Each opening has a thin timber lintel and the casement windows have narrow sills. The other elevations are blind. The east gable, facing onto Gaol Lane, includes a date stone inscribed RH 1719.

INTERIOR: the meeting house comprises one single-storey space. The meeting room is entered through a double-leaf door to the south elevation. The plainly plastered room has a painted timber wainscot with a moulded dado rail, the ceiling is plaster laid on reed. The wainscot incorporates fixed benches to each wall. The fireplace to the centre of the west wall has a tiled surround and simple timber mantle-shelf carried on timber brackets. The Elders’ stand occupies the east wall, entered from either end.

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.

The Minute Book of Oakham Monthly Meeting preserved in Leicestershire Record Office (12D39/25/1 (DE1624)) records that Quakers were established in the area by 1675, and a burial ground on Long Row was in use by 1670. In 1720 Robert Hawley conveyed a meeting house, built in 1719 at the southern end of Gaol Lane, to the Friends. The building had cost £166, to which Hawley contributed £35.

The meeting house was repaired in 1806 at a cost of £74 paid for by Richard Weaver, but in 1838 the meeting was discontinued and the building was let to other non-conformist congregations. During the C20 it was used as a Women’s Institute hall, but Quaker meeting recommenced in 1969. Internal alterations were made in 1989. In 1992 a new block including a kitchen, classroom and toilet, and an entrance gate, was built to the south of the meeting house in its forecourt, to the design of Thomas Allen. The meeting house underwent a major refurbishment in 2016 and the timber window frames in the south elevation were replaced in 2020.

Reasons for Listing

Oakham Quaker Meeting House, situated on South Street, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early C18 Quaker meeting house that typifies the modest and often discrete nature of these buildings for worship;
* the simple plan form, plain interior and historic fabric preserved in the interior including the Elders’ stand and fixed benches provide evidence for the division of space and internal arrangements typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses.

Historic interest:

* as an early purpose-built Quaker meeting house dating to 1719.

Group value:

* with the Barn to rear of Number 64 High Street (Grade II).

External Links

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