Walls to Quaker Burial Ground

Summary

Walled enclosure, previously part of the gardens of the almshouses, used for Quaker burials from 1811.

Reasons for Designation

The boundary walls of the Quaker burial ground which was established in 1811 are listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* a well-built and largely intact boundary wall of mostly early-C19 date which incorporates earlier masonry.

Historic interest:
* as an historic boundary wall which has been associated with Bridport’s Quaker community since 1811.

Group value:
* it forms part of an important group with the Grade II listed Quaker meeting house which it continues to serve, and also the Grade II* listed Daniel Taylor’s almshouses (Grade II*), having been established within part of the almshouse garden.

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. From 1647 Fox travelled the country as an itinerant preacher. The Quakers, formally named the Religious Society of Friends, was thus established.

Quaker meetings were first noted at Bridport in 1657. They were held in a barn on South Street for some years before the building was given to the Friends in 1697 by Daniel Taylor, one of Bridport’s most prominent Quakers and a successful merchant. It has been their meeting house ever since. The previous year Taylor had provided the Friends with a plot of land in South Street for their burials, and was himself buried there in 1714. This had become full by 1810 and in 1811 a new burial ground was established within part of the garden, shown as a rectangular feature on a plan of 1774, at the rear of the Daniel Taylor almshouses (95 South Street), the property adjacent to the meeting house.

The burial ground contains a number of small semi-circular grave markers which are arranged in rows parallel with the south and north walls. The two earliest grave markers date from 1825 and they commemorate Jane Stephens and a member of the Kenway family respectively.

Details

Walls of enclosure, previously part of the garden of the almshouses, used for Quaker burials from 1811.

MATERIALS: the walls are constructed of coursed cut and squared Forest Marble limestone and random limestone rubble.

DESCRIPTION: the walls enclose a rectangular area, measuring 28m from west to east and 17m from north to south, and include lengths of earlier walling along the north side and part of the west. The walls are ramped at the south-west, south-east and north-east corners, and there is a string course to the west, south and east sides. Entry is via a semi-circular arched pedestrian gateway in the west wall. This retains a wooden door frame, but the door is missing.

Sources

Books and journals
Butler, D, The Quaker meeting houses of Britain, (1999), 146-148

Websites
Friends Meeting House, Bridport, Architectural History Practice, 2016, accessed 11 May 2020 from http://heritage.quaker.org.uk/files/Bridport%20LM.pdf

Other
1873 Plan of Porch House, Bridport

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