Quaker Meeting House

The timber-framed house that Joseph Winch built in 1624 was registered as a Quaker meeting place in 1689, the top end of the garden being used as a burial ground. In the same year, one of the main rooms was enlarged by one bay as the meeting room and a wing was built out at the back of the dwelling a little later. The building was wholly refurbished in about 1780 when a brick extension was added for the women’s meeting, connected to the old by shutters in the traditional way. The older building was re-faced in brick, and the fittings in the old meeting room were renewed.

The premises were not used by the Quakers from 1850 to 1916 and an attempt is being made to discover what use the Meeting House had been put to during those years, though it remained in Quaker ownership throughout. There are rumours of it being used as an art studio and for teaching purposes. Latterly, presumably whilst the Old Town Methodist Church in the High Street was under construction, the local Wesleyan Methodists held services on the premises. Certainly one of the prime movers in achieving the re-opening of the Meeting House in 1917 was George Bolam, who used part of the premises as his woodworking workshop before moving to 16 Church Street. (His work can be sampled in several local churches: St Peter & St Paul, Great Missenden, and Stoke Poges for instance. He was Warden/Caretaker at the Meeting House until 1972.)

In 1926 the wider, overseeing Quaker meeting (known in those times as a Monthly Meeting) was constituted as a separate entity from the Leighton & Luton Monthly Meeting of which it had formerly been a part, the ‘split’ being made roughly along the course of the Euston railway line. It became Jordans Monthly Meeting. This was the body which, in 1927, confirmed Amersham’s local Quaker meeting as a full newly- constituted local meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, this being termed at that time a ‘Preparative Meeting’.

In 1957 a classroom and kitchen were added at the back and other improvements were made to the meeting house and cottage, but since these in no way met the 21st-century needs either of the local Quaker community or of other bodies within the locality which use the premises today, in 2014 these additions were removed and a new, larger, extension added.  Extensive repairs to the original roof, re-using as far as possible the original tiles, were carried out in 2016.

History of Quakers in Amersham

The Society of Friends, often known as the Quakers, has been an established part of religious life in the Chilterns since the 1600s.  It was rooted in the teachings of Jesus as set out in the Sermon on the Mount.  Quakers refused to swear oaths and believed in direct awareness of God without a human intermediary.  Hence they were suspected as dissenters by ecclesiastic and civil authorities.

The Society of Friends grew to prominence first in the North of England.  In the early years of the Civil War, George Fox found kindred spirits among the ‘Seekers’ of Westmorland.  He spoke at a big gathering on Pendle Hill in Lancashire.  He, and a band of Quakers known as the ‘Valiant Six’, dispersed across the country to spread their views.  The organization was set up in 1667 with a series of monthly meetings.

The Chilterns were a fertile country for dissenters.  Small communities were tucked away in the woods and valleys of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire and were able to gather clandestinely.  There were vivid local instances of persecution.

In Amersham, Quakers are thought to have gathered since 1655, at first in private houses.  One of the notable figures was Thomas Ellwood.  He was taken in 1659 as a youth to visit Isaac and Mary Penington who lived at the Grange in Chalfont St Peter.  Thomas was converted to Quakerism.  The Grange was confiscated at the Restoration and Isaac Pennington was sent to jail.  Mary moved to Botrells Farm in Chalfont St. Giles and then to Bury Farm in Amersham before buying Woodside Farm on Amersham Common.  Thomas Ellwood found a cottage in Chalfont St Giles for John Milton who sought escape from the Plague.  Then came the Restoration and the Act of Toleration in 1689.  The Quakers registered their meeting house for worship in Whielden Street.

Photos and Article credit: Amersham Museum and Sir John Johnson for the Amersham Society/Amersham Museum newsletter