Farfield Meeting House. Photo: Julian Osley / geograph.org.uk CC.
Farfield Meeting House
Barbara Henderson writes about an historic Meeting house
‘This is the most peaceful place, away from the noise and stress of life, very spiritual’ is a comment written in the visitors’ book at Farfield Meeting House in West Yorkshire.
The reverend David Ison, dean of St Paul’s Cathedral and the judge of the ‘Faith and Belief’ category in Historic England’s choice of the ten most significant faith and belief places in England, says that Farfield Meeting House ‘represents the rootedness of Christian nonconformity in the English landscape’.
In 1955 Farfield Meeting House was about to be sold to a local resident, who planned ‘improvements’. Four conservationist Friends, including the Religious Society of Friends’ librarian Edward H Milligan and well-known author Elfrida Vipont Foulds bought the building to avoid it being lost to Quakers.
When Elfrida Vipont Foulds died, the three remaining Friends realised that ownership was not a viable long-term solution.
In 1993 the newly formed Historic Chapels Trust (HCT) offered to buy the building. It was the HCT’s first acquisition and since that time the Meeting house has been cared for by a small committee of Quakers and local friends, overseen by the HCT.
This care consists of clearing the drive, organising the gardening, sweeping, cleaning the windows and polishing the original benches. A member of the present committee, an architect with specialist experience of old buildings, concentrates on the structure of the building and its problems.
Copies of Quaker faith & practice are available for visitors to read and Advices & queries booklets are available to take away.
For the hundreds of visitors from all over the world who arrive at the Meeting house unexpectedly (it is situated on the Dales Way), and for those who intend to visit, it is a revelation. From the moving comments in the visitors’ book, it is obvious that visitors experience a sense of awe.
When you enter the Meeting house there is an instant feeling of stepping back in time, as well as a powerful sense of spirituality and peace.
Farfield Meeting House was built in 1689, the year of the Act of Toleration. There are older Meeting houses built by Friends, who had faith that the persecution of Quakers and other nonconformist groups would cease, but Farfield, built on land given by a local landowner, Anthony Myers, is still very much as it was that year, when Quakerism was allowed to exist as an accepted form of worship for the first time.
Farfield Meeting House Committee believes that it is because of these reasons that Farfield was chosen by Historic England (originally English Heritage) as one of the ten most significant places in England in the ‘Faith and Belief’ category. Others in this group include Canterbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, Lindisfarne, a Sikh temple, a mosque and a Jewish cemetery.
Our committee has been overwhelmed by the fact the Farfield has been recognised as having so much significance. It is such a simple, quiet building, which clearly gives solace to visitors. It is wonderful that the quiet act of Quaker worship is seen to be so important and valuable.
