Summary
Quaker Meeting House, 1798, with later alterations including in the C20 to the design of Michael Sykes.
Reasons for Designation
Bentham Meeting House and Burial Ground Walls, of 1798, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an C18 Quaker meeting house in a vernacular style that typifies the modest nature of these buildings for worship;
* the plan-form and the gallery, Elders’ stand and other historic fabric preserved in the interior provide evidence for the division of space and internal arrangements typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses.
Group value:
* with Calf Cop Farmhouse and the Barn to Left of Calf Cop Farmhouse (both Grade II-listed).
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 1,000 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.
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.
Quaker proselytisers 'convinced' by George Fox had visited Low Bentham as early as 1652. Friends meetings for worship were settled in the adjacent villages of High Bentham (by 1665) and Low Bentham (by 1687), before the Act of Toleration of 1689. In Low Bentham the first meetings were held in a barn. A new meeting house had been built by 1720 but this was replaced by 1768 when another building was acquired approximately 300m to the north. That was in time also replaced and in 1798 the present meeting house was built on its site, adjacent to Calf Cop Farm.
During the C19 the Low Bentham meeting declined but the meeting house was still occasionally used. An estate plan of 1850 shows the meeting house set within a burial ground and almost opposite is shown Calf Cop Farmhouse (Grade II) which also belonged to the Friends. C19 additions to the meeting house include a porch and some of the windows were also replaced at that time. The High Bentham and Low Bentham meetings merged, eventually selling the High Bentham meeting house in 1973. In 1975 the former women’s business room in the Low Bentham meeting house was converted into a kitchen and toilets as part of a campaign of repairs made using proceeds from the sale of the High Bentham meeting house.
Details
Quaker Meeting House, 1798, with later alterations including in the C20 to the design of Michael Sykes.
MATERIALS: roughly-coursed rubblestone, ashlar dressings, timber gutters carried on stone corbels, stone slate roof coverings.
PLAN: rectangular on plan, with a small porch to the east elevation leading into an east-west cross passage providing access to the main meeting room to the south, small rooms to the north, and the gallery staircase.
EXTERIOR: the meeting house stands in the Quaker burial ground to the west of Burton Road. The building is oriented north-south, incorporating the full-height single-storey main meeting room and a gallery over the cross-passage and former women’s business room. The gable roof includes a stack to the north gable. The window openings all have stone surrounds.
The main (east) elevation of four bays comprises, from left to right, two large twelve-over-twelve sash windows, then the porch, then a C19 three-over-three sash window lighting the ground floor with an eight-over-eight sash window above lighting the gallery. The porch with a gable roof is built in tooled ashlar, with a low plinth and an impost band. Its gable end forms a simple pediment, surmounted by a ball finial.
The north and south gable ends are blind, but there is a built-up window to the south gable. The chimney stack to the north gable projects slightly. The rear (west) elevation in three bays includes, from right the left, a large twelve-over-twelve sash window lighting the main meeting room, then a fixed four-pane window lighting the gallery staircase, then a small sash window lighting the ground floor with an eight-over-eight sash window above lighting the gallery.
INTERIOR: the eastern porch leads to the entrance doorway that incorporates a lintel dated 1718, re-used from the earlier meeting house that had stood about 300m to the south of the present building. A six-panelled door with an iron latch leads into the stone-paved cross-passage. Centrally-placed door openings in the cross-passage walls lead into the rooms to north and south, whilst the gallery's stone-built staircase is fitted into its west end. This dogleg staircase has stick balusters, a closed string, square newels and a plain moulded handrail.
To the south side of the cross-passage a six-panelled door leads into the full-height main meeting room. On the meeting room side the doorway has an architrave with fluted pilasters and a cornice, supporting the balustrade of the gallery to the north. The main meeting room walls are plainly plastered with a dado of fielded panelling reaching to the base of the window openings to the east and west walls. The dado continues along the south wall, where it is raised above the level of the Elders' Stand which occupies the full width of the room. The Elders’ Stand includes two raked fixed benches. Fielded panelling forms the back of the front bench and there are two short flights of steps at either end. Fitted to the rear of the front panelling, two folding wrought iron brackets formerly supported a missing hinged table. The floor is of wide pine boards. The flat ceiling of pine tongue-and-groove boards dates to 1975.
To the north side of the cross-passage, the former women’s business room has been altered and is now sub-divided into small utility rooms. The six-panelled door in the cross-passage wall leads into a kitchen, whilst at the east end the passage wall has been replaced with new partitions forming the conveniences in the north-east corner. The gallery over the passage and utility rooms has a sloping floor supporting fixed raked benches. Its balustrade overlooking the main meeting room has slender turned balusters carrying a moulded handrail.
SUBSIDIARY ITEMS: the meeting house stands in the north-east quarter of the large square burial ground, enclosed by mortared stone walls about 2m tall with half-round copings. The main entrance to the east side, aligned with the meeting house porch, has gate piers formed of tooled ashlar quoins. There is also a small (recent) gateway in the south wall, providing access to the adjoining allotments.
