Seventeenth-century life reenacted for Almeley anniversary

'The day on 27 July was to coincide with the 350th anniversary since the building was donated to Quakers in 1672.'

Almeley Friends held an enactment day last month for children to recreate life when the Quaker Meeting house opened.

Stella Sterry, of Almeley Wootton Meeting, told the Friend that the day on 27 July was to coincide with the 350th anniversary since the building was donated to Quakers in 1672.
Primary school children were ‘encouraged to find out what life was like for children in the seventeenth century through dressing up, making bread and soup, and playing games, as well as learning what a sea voyage was like’.

Almeley Friends have also been celebrating the gift of a gold-sealed ‘proclamation’ from the governor of Pennsylvania commemorating the historic ties between Quakers from Almeley’s Meeting House, and the state of Pennsylvania. Almeley Friends are planning Zoom meetings with Philadelphia Friends to mark the occasion.

Edward Pritchard, an early member of Almeley Meeting, was one of thirteen signatures witnessing William Penn’s 1682 document, ‘A Frame of Government for his colony’, which is believed to be a template from which the United States drew its constitution. Edward Pritchard’s parents donated the Meeting house to Almeley Meeting in 1672.

Other events hosted to mark their 350th anniversary include a concert and exhibition.

Stella Sterry said that last month there were also talks on ‘George Fox’s trip to America in 1672; street entertainment of the seventeenth century; an Almeley Missioner of the 1880’s, William Hall; and a personal story regarding a locally Quaker-founded orphanage of the 1880s’.

About seventy people attended an Open Day on 23 June to see the exhibition and enjoy a cream tea.

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