Eye - 28 June 2024

From Finding Fox in Fenny Drayton to Walking worship

Finding Fox in Fenny Drayton

Rosemary Sturge, of Northamptonshire Area Meeting, reached out to tell Eye about a recent journey Friends undertook to mark an upcoming milestone.

She writes that: ‘Northamptonshire Area Meeting Quakers like to plan a social activity in June, and this year decided to celebrate the 400th anniversary of George Fox’s birth by visiting the village where he was born, Fenny Drayton, in Leicestershire.

‘The village church there contains mementoes of the Fox family and on the village street there is a monument to him. We were also able to see the spot where it is believed the Foxes’ family home stood.

‘We were made extremely welcome by church members at St Michael’s in Fenny Drayton and also in the nearby village of Hartshill where Hartshill Quakers shared the history of their Meeting. This dates back to George’s lifetime when relatives of his were “convinced” and founded what must have been one of the first Meetings for Worship, which was held in a local barn.’

Camping and complications

The collection at Meeting can sometimes nudge memories to bloom after many years.

One such collection, for the Glenthorne Quaker Centre near Grasmere, inspired Jill Sykes, of Settle Meeting, to share a story from 1961 with Eye.

It ‘reminded me of the first visit my husband Michael and I made, with our one-year-old daughter, when Michael had been asked to survey the property, which had just been bequeathed to Friends by Linton Taylor.

‘The house was empty of furniture… so we took a tent and camping equipment! We set up our ancient primus stove in the butler’s pantry and almost set the old pine cupboards alight! When we turned on the water for our needs we found a fountain of a leak coming from the stone-paved kitchen floor.

‘We abandoned the indoors, pitched the tent on the lawn under the pine trees, near the present dining room…

‘That all sounds like a Lake District holiday. In fact we spent a very busy weekend surveying the complicated house, which we discovered had been extended many times, having originally been a small lodge…

‘At the end of our working weekend we were visited by a retired architect from the village who, unbeknown to the early committee, had been asked by Linton Taylor’s widow to do a survey to help Friends!’

Walking worship

Friends in Winchmore Hill have started a new Walking Meeting for Worship.

Kate Marrs-Gant told Eye the idea was inspired by the Buddhist practice of meditative walking: ‘I first had the idea during lockdown, when it was difficult for Friends to meet in the Meeting house.’ However, it became subsumed by bringing Friends back together and blended Meetings. But now’s the time! In May the North London Friends had their first monthly worshipful stroll around Forty Hall Estate, on the edges of the borough of Enfield.

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