Clitheroe Meeting House celebrates first birthday

Clitheroe Quakers celebrate the first birthday of their new Meeting house

Friends in Clitheroe celebrated the first birthday of their new Meeting house last week, with cake after its Meeting for Worship.

The Meeting house in Lancashire opened its doors last March, when they moved from their former historic site in Sawley due to its remote location and dwindling numbers.

Friends had been at Sawley Meeting House since 1778.

Ben Pink Dandelion, a member of Clitheroe Meeting and correspondence clerk for Pendle Hill Area Meeting, told the Friend: ‘The new Meeting house is just lovely and our numbers have doubled since we moved.

‘It’s warm and comfortable and right in the middle of the town. We’re right on the market-place too, so we’ve had lots of shoppers coming in, and, most importantly, people are coming back. We’ve connected with local faith groups as well.’

Sawley Meeting House and its adjoining cottage are now a residential dwelling. Wendy Hampton, who was Local Meeting clerk at the time, said: ‘It was a lovely old Meeting house with hardly anybody in the local area.’

But, despite ‘trying really hard with it’, numbers were falling, and Friends decided to explore finding a new, more central property. ‘The Meeting needed to be where the people were.’

Friends inaugurated their new Meeting house on 11 March when they hosted Pendle Hill Area Meeting. Britain Yearly Meeting recording clerk Paul Parker attended the celebrations.

The new Meeting house was previously a restaurant and offices.

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