Plans to extend historic Meeting house
Blue Idol Meeting hopes to create a visitor lobby and toilets at the property in Old House Lane
Quakers are seeking listed building consent to repair and rebuild a workshop linked to the historic Blue Idol Meeting in West Sussex.
Trustees are seeking planning permission to use the space in Coolham to create a visitor lobby and toilets at the property in Old House Lane. According to the Sussex Express, they want to replace the roof and wall cladding of the workshop building, and build a new extension on the west side of it to provide visitors’ toilets.
William Penn and other Friends in the area bought the former farmhouse shortly after his return to Britain from the US in 1691. It was converted into a permanent Quaker Meeting House after being used for Quaker worship for a number of years, and is still used by Quakers today.
Writing on their website, Blue Idol Quakers say: ‘We are conscious that we are custodians of what we have inherited and love to share this wonderful space so that others may find peace here too.
