SKIPTON MEETING HOUSE

Friends in Truth, nicknamed Quakers, met at Skipton from the beginnings in about 1652 of what we now call the Religious Society of Friends. William Dewsbury, James Nayler and others preached in the town and nearby in Bradley and Rylstone. Especially in the first ten years this area was formative of the Society. General Meetings of the North taking significant decisions gathered at Scale House in Rylstone, and in 1660 Friends at Skipton hosted the first Yearly Meeting for the whole country. They met in houses and barns, and in the open air. Harsh harassment during most of forty years strengthened their faith; at Settle they bravely used a lull to build a meeting house that is still used.

Partial toleration after 1689 made meeting houses lawful. Friends at Farfield near Addingham built one immediately. Skipton followed in 1693. With adaptations the present meeting room is what Friends erected more than 300 years ago; then it would have been open to the rafters.

Its simplicity, without religious symbols, is the Quaker norm. The group worship of Friends is based on silence; their spoken ministry aims to stay close to their own experience and perception of the Holy Spirit at work, unconstrained by traditional symbolism.

On the back panels of the "ministers' gallery" can be seen scratched initials. Most were done by boys of a Quaker boarding school run by David Hall from 1703 to 1756. He and the boys came here to meeting and possibly for lessons, though the school premises fronted what is now Caroline Square, its ground extending through the present Brook Streets and down to the beck. In the 1760s the cleverly-crafted dividing screen was fitted. With the shutters down, the women met for pastoral affairs in the smaller, warmer, part and the men for general business of the meeting in the other part. Then the shutters were swung up and all joined for an hour or more of worship.

Stabling was available for those arriving on horseback. By 1874 this was no longer needed and a cottage was built on its site, paid for partly by selling the seventeenth-century Quaker burial ground at Bradley. At the 1693-1993 tercentenary the cottage was enlarged, incorporating a new room for use by the Meeting and others. At the same time a new entrance, reached through a lobby, was made in the west gable-end, balancing the library, formerly a washhouse, at the east gable.

The last burial here was in 1893; since then it has become a garden, but we remain aware that the bodies of at least 234 Friends lie beneath the flowers.

OLD QUAKER PLACES AROUND SKIPTON

Today's Quakerism is more important for us than yesterday's, yet the past is a dimension of the present.

Wharfedale

On George Fox's transforming journey in 1652 from Pendle Hill he first went to Scar House above Hubberholme. There he met James Tennant and his wife whose farmstead was perhaps already a centre for Seekers, with a little burial ground. The house is still there though the facade is later. James Tennant died in York prison for his faith. In 1677 George Fox came again for a great meeting and was warmly received by James' widow.

To visit Scar House go through the farm gate at the east end of Huberholme churchyard, and follow the track behind the church for half a mile to the top where the house stands. From its left-hand gable turn left through a gate to the burial ground with tall sycamores. The whole of this is National Trust property.

Later Friends met also in Starbotton but we are not sure where. Their burial ground is known. At the down-Dale end of the village a walled track leads to a footbridge over the Wharfe. At a hand gate part way down this track on the right you see a group of trees a short paddock away; they stand in the burial ground, which lies open to the field beyond.

At Kettlewell a free school was established soon after 1660 by Sir Solomon Swale along with three Quakers - his nephew Philip Swale, Francis Smithson and Robert Barker, all of Swaledale but lessees of the Kettlewell lead mines. It was at the top of the village by the Park Rash road and ran till 1875. A victorian School building, now a house, stands beside the site.

Travelling down the Dale you see no other Quaker places until Farfield, nearly at Addingham. The 1689 meeting house there is on your right with its entrance up a farm road just before the long roadside wall of Farfield Hall. It is no longer in regular use for meetings but the Historic Chapels Trust is caring for it. The elaborate gravestones record members of the Myers family who were faithful Friends.

Airedale

Rylstone meeting house, now a private dwelling,was built in 1711 on a plot which had been used for Quaker burials already for more than fifty years. It stands back from the road leading from Rylstone to Hetton. The stone arch leads into the burial ground.
Scale House is the imposing building with corner towers standing amongst trees on the left of the road from Rylstone to Skipton. Its towers are 19th. century, most of its facade 18th. century, but it incorporates the farmhouse of the Watkinsons where general meetings for the northern counties were held in the 1650's.

Skipton meeting house was built in 1693, a generation later than the great days of 1660 when the first Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends was held in Skipton. Close by in the town David Hall kept a Quaker boarding school from 1703-53; you can see the illicit carving that the boys did on the ministers' gallery of the meeting house. Guy Ollerenshaw, 1903-71, whose name is on an outside seat, pioneered group medical practice. To find the meeting house, from the foot of the High Street go east along Newmarket Street to the paper shop on the right; there turn down The Ginnel, a walled path.

The purpose-built meeting houses at Lothersdale (1729) and Salterforth (1726) are now dwellings. At Bradley Friends met upstairs in the building dated 1686 in West Lane.

From Haworth a road leads to Stanbury where on the right of the village street is Horton Croft, a plot once used for meetings and for burials.

Malhamdale

The meeting house at Airton is used for occasional metings for worship; Friends gather from near and far. It was built in 1700 by William and Alice Ellis whose house stands opposite. He was a linen manufacturer who travelled in the ministry in Britain, Ireland and America. A recent member was Constance Pearson, 1886-1970, who painted landscapes that are treasured. In the meeting house is preserved a bench from Newton-in-Bowland. Entered from the burial ground is a hostel run by Friends which offers 14 beds at a modest charge.

Ribblesdale

Settle meeting house in Kirkgate is dated 1678. Among former members are John Coakley Lettsom, 1744-1812, pioneer London doctor and botanist, and George Birkbeck, 1776-1841, another doctor, who initiated Mechanics Institutes.

At Knight Stainforth, across the river from Stainforth, stands the Hall which was the home of Samuel Watson, 1620-1708, another member of the Settle meeting, valiant under persecution. He built the river bridge.

At Newton-in-Bowland the meeting house, now a dwelling, stands on the right of the narrow uphill road leading roundabout to Slaidburn. Up a little further on the left is the walled burial ground. Below, in the village, was a Quaker school attended by John Bright, who carved his name (or some of it!) on the bench now at Airton: "J.B....t 1826"; he was 14.

Pendle Hill is best climbed from Barley. From the top in 1652 George Fox saw Morecombe Bay and the country thereabouts where the Lord had "a great people to be gathered". He was moved there "to sound the day of the Lord". On a clear day you can see the same view. Maybe you too will feel inspired.

For further information ring 020 7663 1025

The website for the Religious Society of Friends (or Quakers) in Britain is at: www.quaker.org.uk

Reproduced by kind permission