Earls Colne Quaker Meeting House, Earls Colne, Essex

Summary

Quaker Meeting House. Built in about 1733 with alterations principally of the C19 and 1986-1987.

Description

Quaker Meeting House. Built in about 1733 with alterations principally of the C19 and 1986-1987.

MATERIALS: red brick with some burnt headers laid to Flemish bond, with clay tile roof coverings.

PLAN: the meeting house is a single-storey building, square on plan, with a pavilion roof. To the north, a short glazed link leads to the single-storey extension, rectangular on plan, with a hipped roof.

EXTERIOR: the meeting house is situated in the Quaker burial ground on Burrows Road. The main (west) front comprises three bays. To the centre, the former door opening with a segmental head now comprises a large lattice window of nine lights which includes six upper smaller lights above the transoms and three larger lights below. To either side are similar lattice windows of six lights. These windows have raised sills over the once larger bricked-up openings below.

The meeting house south elevation is blind, whilst the east elevation includes to the centre the bricked-up former entrance with a window to either side. The north elevation includes to the centre the glazed link to the extension. The extension’s east and west walls are blind, with fixed lettering to the west wall reading QUAKER/ MEETING/ HOUSE. The north elevation, facing into the burial ground, comprises a full-height window of four lights to the left, and three small windows with brick sills to the right.

The meeting house has a pavilion roof covered with clay tiles. The glazed link has a pitched roof which is part-glazed and part-tiled, whilst the extension has a hipped roof covered with clay tiles.

INTERIOR: the meeting house comprises a single space entered through a double-leaf door with timber surround to the north. The north wall includes recent cupboards and shelving. The central space has no interior divisions, but two chamfered timber columns support the flat ceiling which conceals the loft gallery above. The Elders’ stand occupies the full length of the south wall. The stand is entered from the west end up a short stair of three steps with a turned newel post and moulded handrail, stick balusters and a closed string. The stand has a horizontally boarded dado, a panelled front with a moulded handrail, and fixed seating.

The modern extension to the north includes toilets, a kitchen and committee room.

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.

A meeting house was built by Friend John Garrod on Burrows Road, Earls Colne, in 1674, to serve a meeting that had been active since the mid-1650s. The burial ground had been established by 1689. The present building is thought to be C18 in date, suggested by a brick in the north wall carrying the date 1733. Originally there was a loft to the north side of the meeting house, and a roof loft in the form of an octagonal gallery. The Elders’ stand appears C18 in character, but is reported to be C19.

Later in the C19, or perhaps early C20, the entrance was relocated from the east wall to the west side of the meeting room, accessed through a gabled porch. The windows in the west elevation were accordingly reduced in size by bricking up their lower halves, and the wall rendered to cover this work. The meeting house was requisitioned during the Second World War, but re-opened in 1949. Repairs were carried out in 1978.

The porch was removed during works carried out between 1986 and 1987 by Alan Bragg Associates, when the brickwork was also restored and a small extension built to the north. That is attached to the meeting house by a glazed link, which now forms the main entrance to the complex. The meeting house’s octagonal roof loft, described by Butler (1999, 185) as ‘a feature not known elsewhere’, is now concealed by the meeting house’s flat ceiling.

Reasons for Listing

Earls Colne Quaker Meeting House, situated on Burrows Road, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* as an early-C18 meeting house, typical of the vernacular architectural style associated with the Quaker movement;
* fittings including the Elders’ stand and dado preserved in the meeting house interior, and the unusual octagonal gallery in the roof space, provide evidence for the division of space and internal arrangements typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses.

Historic interest:

* a simple purpose-built meeting house standing in its attached burial ground, the site is associated with Quakerism in this locality since the later-C17.

Group value:

* with The Lion Public House and The Manse (both on the High Street),1 and 3 Burrows Road, and 9 and 11 Burrows Road (all Grade II-listed).

External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.