TODAY References

Joseph Besse (facsimile edition, 2008) Quakers began as a religious Collection of sufferings of the people movement. It included called Quakers – West Midlands 1650- pamphleteers, travelling ministers 1690 (first published 1753) pub. and prophets, followed soon after by Sessions BookTrust, York social reformers, missionaries and Margaret Heathfield (1994) Being ‘plain Quakers’. By the twentieth together: our corporate life in the Nailsworth century, Quaker meetings were Religious Society of Friends, established in many countries of the Swarthmore lecture 1994, pub.. Quaker world, with a variety of faith and Books Quakers practice: deists and universalists, Norman Penny (1907) ‘The first past and present evangelicals and liberals. publishers of truth’ – the early - and throughout its history, the Records of the introduction of ground of Quaker faith has remained Quakerism into the counties of constant. England and Wales, pub. Headley Brothers

Quakers hold on to our inherited Nikolaus Pevsner (1970) The buildings traditions; we remain open to new of England – Gloucestershire - the light. Here in Nailsworth, we Cotswolds pub. Yale University Press welcome visitors to this meeting house seven days a week. In continuous use for over three hundred years, it has been maintained and cared for as a place of worship and as a centre for the Nailsworth Quaker Meeting House community. Quaker Close, Chestnut Hill, Nailsworth, To know more about Quaker faith, Glos GL6 0RA about Quaker meetings in email:[email protected] Gloucestershire, or about hiring a tel: 01453 832684 room in the meeting house, please pick up one of our leaflets - or visit the national and local websites: www.quaker.org.uk, (2013) www.glosquakers.org THE PEOPLE THE BUILDINGS

The Religious Society of Friends, known as Farmhouse Quakers, arose during the turmoil of On entering the Close, you see in front of you Inside, through the door to the left, is a spiral seventeenth-century England following the the oldest of the group. Originally a staircase. In the early years, this upper Civil War of 1642-49. Many who were farmhouse, its doorway has the original stone room was used by day as a school and by seeking religious freedom came together surround, with flat Tudor arch and dripmould. night housed travelling ministers. Two of the under the leadership of George Fox (1624- To the right of this, carved in the stone wall, original wooden benches are here. Carved 1691). Their belief was that the spirit of God can still be seen the roman numerals III, IV into the stone on the window ledges are the is accessible to everyone, without the need and V - once used to measure bales of wool initials of some of those who attended the for a priest. stacked up in the doorway. day school in the 1680s.

In Gloucestershire, the first public meeting of Weaver’s cottage Downstairs, beyond the kitchen, is a room Quakers took place in 1654 - in an open In about 1620, a weaver’s cottage (now used today for our children’s meeting on field. By then, Quakers across the country number 1 Quaker Close) was added to the left Sundays as well as community groups. The were being persecuted for their beliefs. of the farmhouse. A vertical line in the mortar old stone fireplace, bread oven and wooden Bailiffs took away their furniture and cattle. to the right of its front door marks the join bench remind us of its former use as the Some were beaten and imprisoned. between the two buildings. farm house kitchen.

In 1655, one of the travelling ministers of the At the top of the cottage is the weavers’ loft. Meeting room new movement had a meeting in Painswick. Its cross-gabled roof, supported by purloins In the panelled meeting room, benches and Many who attended it from Nailsworth came and wins braces, made an area wide and high chairs are set out ‘in the manner of Friends’ back ‘convinced’ and continued a pattern of enough to accommodate weaving looms. with a table in the centre. Some say George regular meetings at their homes, meeting in Fox gave this to the early Nailsworth Friends secret ‘seeking to know the way of the truth’. Meeting house (he records two visits here in his journal). In Nailsworth, a group of such independents The meeting house itself, to the right of the However, it has been much renovated, and th met in the house of a man called William main gate, was originally a barn. It was only the drawer remains of its 17 century Beale. around 1680 that Quakers first met there – but origin.

th it was not until after the Act of Toleration in On 17 January 1660, soldiers took William 1689 that the house was registered as a The wooden screened raised benches Beale and ten others from their homes in public place of worship – the Meeting House would have been the seats for ‘recorded Nailsworth to Gloucester prison. Their that you see today. ministers’ (those who Friends felt gave the crimes were: refusing to take the Oath of most helpful spoken ministry); while elders Allegiance to the king and holding meetings The keystones, imposts, dripmould with large (responsible for the meeting’s spiritual for worship in their homes. diamond stops around the door are unusual welfare) upheld them from the bench in for the time. To the right of it, the leaded front. Nowadays, everyone is welcome to The present Meeting House, in a group of window formerly had four lights with a sit on these. buildings in Quaker Close, was one such transom (probably modified in 1794-5.) meeting place.