The oldest Quaker Meeting house?
Is Airton Meeting house the oldest?
A new book on Airton Meeting House has prompted an intriguing question: is it the oldest extant Quaker Meeting house?
The book, Hidden in Plain Sight: the history and architecture of Airton Meeting House, is published by Quack Books and will be launched on Saturday 8 April at the Meeting house in Malhamdale, North Yorkshire.
In the book authors Laurel Phillipson and Alison Armstrong set forth evidence that the Meeting house was purpose built on the foundations of an older barn in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. George Fox may have visited it in 1652 when he walked from Pendle Hill to Sedbergh. The authors suggest it was originally used as a meeting place for Seekers.
David Hall, a prominent Skipton Quaker schoolmaster at the time, described Friends Meetings at Airton in the mid-1650s that were attended by his father, who lived in Airton. He had been a tailor to major general Lambert, of civil war fame. The Meeting house was owned by the major general’s family in the seventeenth century.
A 1700 date-stone over the Meeting house doorway implies that the building was constructed on this date. In fact, the stone commemorates when the building was purchased from the Lambert estate by William and Alice Ellis, who endowed it to Quaker trustees. The first known Quaker burial at Airton was in 1663.
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, will speak on ‘Who are the Quakers, and why do they matter today’ at the 2.30pm launch on Saturday of the new book.
