Summary
Quaker meeting house, at least late C17 in origin; substantially altered, enlarged or rebuilt and refitted in the C18, with various later alterations and additions.
Reasons for Designation
Bridport Quaker Meeting House, which dates from at least the late C17 and was altered or rebuilt and refitted in the early C18 and C19, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* the building retains its essential historic form and character, and has a simple, vernacular style that typifies the modest nature of Quaker meeting houses;
* the interior provides evidence for the division of space and internal arrangements.
Historic interest:
* as an important survival which illustrates the history of Bridport's Quaker community since at least the late C17.
Group value:
* for its strong association with the Quaker burial ground (walls listed at Grade II) and the adjacent Grade II* listed almshouses and Caretaker's Cottage (95 and 97A South Street).
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. 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 or Friends meeting houses are generally characterised by simplicity of design, both externally and internally, reflecting the form of worship they were built to accommodate. The earliest purpose-built meeting houses 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 facing a raised stand for the ministers and elders. 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.
Quaker meetings were first noted at Bridport from at least 1657. They were held initially in a semi-derelict building on South Street, but from 1697 another building slightly further to the north and described in late-C17 documents as ‘house edifice or building used for a barn (Dorset History Centre, see Sources)’ was used for meetings. It formed part of a complex of medieval and post-medieval buildings on South Street that was owned by Daniel Taylor, a successful merchant and one of Bridport’s most prominent Quakers, who in 1696 had provided a plot of land towards the south end of South Street for a Quaker burial ground. That same year he gave the habitable northern portion of the complex in trust to be used as almshouses and the southern portion, which included the building being used for meetings, came into the possession of Taylor's sons-in-law, John and Elias Nicholls, who ran the business of the Quaker Meeting. This building was subsequently registered as the meeting house in 1708. In 1715 the Quakers' property and land were placed in a trust, which later became the Dunster Trust. By 1721 the meeting house had been substantially altered or partially rebuilt and doubled in size, and the interior refitted. The windows in the north and east elevations may also have been added at this time. In 1761, after resisting demands for the separation of men and women’s meetings for decades, a separate women’s meeting house and offices were created. The building work is recorded in contemporary documents as an adaptaion of an earlier structure, probably a former tenement. It was registered in 1775 and is described on a plan of 1873 (See Sources) as ‘new meeting room’. A document of 1826 records ‘Pulling down & Rebuild at meeting house’ and itemises the number of bricks and other building materials that were purchased, but it is unclear which building it relates to. The small extensions built of Bothenhampton brick are probably of this date. By the early C19 the original Quaker burial ground was full and a new one (its walls are listed at Grade II) was laid out on land to the north-east. An outbuilding to the rear of the meeting house was altered in the late C19 to provide toilet facilities; reputedly one of the first flushing toilets in the town. In the early 1950s the original South Street entrance into the meeting house was blocked and the building was then accessed from the courtyard to the west. Internal alterations were also carried out at this time, including the removal of the north gallery and the Elders’ stand. Small C20 and C21 additions to the rear, linked by a glazed corridor, provide kitchen and toilet facilities. In the early C21 a boiler house was added in the courtyard.
Details
Quaker meeting house, at least late C17 in origin; substantially altered, enlarged or rebuilt and refitted in the C18, with various later alterations and additions.
MATERIALS: it is constructed mostly of local Forest Marble limestone rubble brought to course and some brick, under gabled and hipped roofs of slate with ashlar copings.
PLAN: it comprises the meeting house and an adjoining building at right angles to the rear which was previously the women’s meeting room (now small meeting or committee room). The two define the south and east side of a small central courtyard and have an L-shaped footprint, with late-C20 additions to the rear. The west and north sides of the courtyard are formed by the Grade II*-listed Daniel Taylor Almshouses and Caretaker’s Cottage (95 and 97A South Street).
EXTERIOR: the west front which faces onto South Street has two tall, mid-C20 rectangular windows with timber mullions and transoms and leaded panes under modern timber lintels which flank a former central entrance that has been blocked. Beneath the left-hand window is an area of infill since this was, at one time a doorway that led to a staircase and the north gallery (not extant). There is also evidence for some rebuilding. A passageway in 95 South Street leads into the rear courtyard. The north (courtyard) elevation of the meeting house has two ground-floor cross windows and two two-light casements above; all have timber frames, iron casements and lead glazing bars, and probably date to the C18. To the left is a single-storey entrance lobby under a catslide and an attached modern brick boiler house. The entrance lobby has a modern timber door and to the right return is a leaded two-light casement which lights the gallery stairs. At right angles to this, the adjoining building has one multi-pane window with glazing bars in its west elevation. The rear (east) elevation of the meeting house has two first-floor casements and an attached late-C20 lean-to extension of red brick at ground-floor level; this is linked to a late-C20 kitchen addition by a glazed corridor of uPVC. Above the corridor, in the south elevation of the adjoining building is an opening with a C20 window.
INTERIOR: the galley staircase is located in the entrance lobby and has stick balusters and a plain handrail. Beyond the stairs is a pair of doors (resited) with raised and fielded panels and L-hinges which lead into the meeting room. This is a rectangular space, with plain plastered walls, a flat ceiling and the exposed ends of the principal rafters are visible in the north end of the room. The windows in the north and east walls have wrought-iron catches and stays; and there is secondary glazing. There is no fixed furniture. At the east end, carried on two timber posts, is a gallery which has a timber front of raised and fielded panelling and modern timber rails above. The space beneath has been enclosed by a modern partition to provide cupboards within the hallway. A gallery on the north side of the room was removed in the mid-C20. The adjoining building which serves as a smaller meeting or committee room retains several four-panel doors and a blocked fireplace with a C19 surround and bracketed mantel.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: within the rear courtyard is a water pump dated 1814. It is encased with painted, raised and fielded panels with an iron circular spout and handle. The upper panel was renewed in the early C20, but an historic photograph (undated) shows a small door in the upper part of the casing. In front of the pump is a stone trough (not fixed), and below is a stone-lined channel that crosses the courtyard to a drain.
