Barrow Wife, Height Friends Meeting House, Cartmel Fell, Cumbria
Posted by: Groundspeak Premium Member flipflopnick
N 54° 15.333 W 002° 54.707
30U E 505747 N 6011958
Height Friends Meeting House was sold in 1922, and converted to a dwelling called Barrow Wife. Not open to the public. This appealing house can be viewed from the road. Delightful Quaker burial ground further up the road. Once again a tranquil place.
Waymark Code: WM1RZQ
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/04/2007
Published By:Groundspeak Charter Member BruceS
Views: 84

Above the porch is a stone inscribed with "LN Anno Domini 1677". Lawrence Newton gave the land in 1677, and the money to build Height Friends Meeting House, within the year. Hence his initials above the door. This is rare from before the Act of Tolerance in 1689, when religious dissenters were not allowed to own or use a meeting house and few were therefore built. Quaker meetings often keep meticulous notes, and the construction cost was £107 9/6 (9 shilling and 6 pence).

As with most meeting houses, it was spartan inside with unusually, two wooden separating screens and fixed wooden benches with back rests. Fixed to the minister's stand was a piece of wood with MT 1697 carved on. Stables were added in 1691, and a cottage was built adjoining the north wall in 1712 for £22 10/0.

But in 1840 the meetings were at a low ebb, and in 1890 stopped, to be restarted in 1910, briefly. The meeting house was first sold in 1922, and changed hands again in 1926, when the women's upper room and floor below were added into the cottage. In 1964 it was sold again for use by the artist Claude Harrison, with little alteration.

Sources: Quaker Meeting Houses of the Lake District by David M Butler,
And Sometime Upon The Hills by Donald A Rooksby
Date the Church was built, dedicated or cornerstone laid: 01/01/1677

Age of Church building determined by?: Cornerstone or plaque

If denomination of Church is not part of the name, please provide it here: Quaker

Street address of Church:
Barrow Wife
Cartmel Fell
GRANGE-OVER-SANDS, Cumbria England
LA11 6NZ


Primary website for Church or Historic Church Building: [Web Link]

Secondary Website for Church or Historic Church Building: [Web Link]

If Church is open to the public, please indicate hours: Not listed

If Church holds a weekly worship service and "all are welcome", please give the day of the week: Not listed

Indicate the time that the primary worship service is held. List only one: Not Listed

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