Wisbech Meeting House (1864), Cambridgeshire. Photo: Photo: John Hall.
Meeting Houses Heritage Project launched
New heritage project launched
An exciting new heritage project was launched on 3 May at Hartington Grove Meeting House in Cambridge. Friends from Area Meetings across East Anglia heard about the The Quaker Meeting Houses Heritage Project, for which English Heritage is providing generous non-Lottery funding. The new project will provide Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) with an updated record of Meeting houses, a snapshot of how they are used, their potential for change and sustainability, and provide information that will assist with making grant and planning applications.
English Heritage regards the project as ground breaking in its use of volunteers and the wide reach of its remit. It is part of its National Heritage Protection Plan. Many protected buildings are places of worship. This research will help them and others, such as local planning officers and conservation officers, to give sound advice when change or development to properties in England is proposed.
At the information and training day in Cambridge, Friends met representatives from BYM trustees, Quaker Stewardship Committee, Friends House staff, English Heritage and the Architectural History Practice (AHP), who are the consultants. Friends commented on and refined the project questionnaire.
The pilot project requires a volunteer from each Local Meeting in East Anglia to complete a four-page questionnaire about the Meeting house’s history, amenities, use, management and burial ground, if any. During the summer, a member of AHP will visit each Meeting to collect information and photograph building plans and pictorial records.
By the autumn the draft pilot survey will go for comment to Area Meetings. If successful, the survey will be rolled out to the rest of England in 2015, with further training days. It is then hoped to extend the project to Scotland and Wales.
