The Friends Meeting House

Details

SW 84 SW,
2/134

KEA,
COME-TO-GOOD,
The Friends Meeting House

(Formerly listed as "Come- to-Good Friend's Meeting House")

30.5.67

I

Quaker meeting house. Circa 1710. Painted cob on stone rubble footings. Steep wheat reed thatched roof, half-hipped to left, west, and sweeping lower to right over later linhay. Originally plan of 1 rectangular room open to the roof. Galleried loft inserted in 1717. Linhay added circa mid C19, probably when window from east end was resited in original doorway position and new doorway cut in west end. Weatherboarded lean-to porch added to west now demolished and replaced by thatch-roofed concrete structure in 1967. Symmetrical 3-window south front plus open-fronted linhay to right. Central shallow open porch now with 2-light window in original doorway position. Original leaded latticed windows within oak frames with oak mullions with ogee internal mouldings. Frames of 3-light windows in situ, left and right, and original frame of central window survives high up in east wall, now within linhay. Opening lights are hung on pin-tail hinges and all have wooden saddle bars holding original lead cames and crown glass. Some intermediate bars set diagonally. Old wood shutters. Ovolo-moulded oak lintels with ogee tongue stops over doorway, porch and windows. (These lintels and the windows are of a slightly archaic design. Contemporary with the Meeting House is the remodelling of Penelewey Barton, in 1710, with up-to-date sashes, and where even the rear outshuts have wooden casements. It is quite possible that the lintels and windows are reused to save money). Buttresses to far left, and right of right-hand window are later. Further old leaded window of 3 lights but with rectangular panes is high up in west wall towards front.

INTERIOR: is almost intact with many original fittings. Exposed roof structure with pegged apices and lapped collars, which, together with loft gallery and fittings is of unpainted and unstained pine. Stair of 2 short flights is in north west corner replacing original 1717 stair which ran along north wall, rising to 2-panel door with wide stiles and rails, (also archaic and possibly renewed). Gallery front is supported on 2 pine posts, and floor structure of gallery is carried on planed pine beams with simple side mouldings. Ministers gallery at east end is complete, in the form of a wall settle approached by 2 wooden steps to either side. Shaped ends to settle and full width lectern in front. All this is flanked by wall settles at a lower level returning along north and south walls and with original armrests. Further built-in seat to south of doorway at west end. Some possibly original loose benches survive but fitted with later backs. These, and the later ones, together with all constructional features, are very simple, exemplifying the attitudes of the Quaker movement. Door to west is of plank construction, hinged also in the middle to fold back against west wall when open.
Linhay is of very primitive construction of un-hewn timber. A mounting block survives to the south east.

The Meeting House was built in 1710 using funds' raised from Quaker subscribers in 1707 and 1710. (Meeting House guide). Research by Mr Withers of Penelewey Barton shows that the farm, including the land on which the meeting house stands, was owned by James Mayo, a Quaker, and was later leased to Vyvian, whose name with the date 1716 is scratched on one of the window panes at the farmhouse. In spite of the C20 porch on the west end, this little meeting house has been remarkably unaltered since the C19 and still retains much of its original character and fabric.
Further source: NONCONFORMIST CHAPELS, by Christopher Stell.


Listing NGR: SW8127840325

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

63420

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Stell, C, An Inventory of Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in South West England, (1991)

End of official list entry

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