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February 15, 2006
More history in the stones and timbers ...
As mentioned in a previous post, the Old Friends Meeting House in Tewkesbury, has quite a chequered history. The lovely house it is now has seen the "riot" which arose when the then Church Warden's had Mr George Fox and his supporters arrested for their dissenting views and "unlawful" preaching. It became a Public House when the "Friend's" moved on in the early 18th Century, and remained so until the mid-19th when it lost it's license because of unruly behaviour among it's licencee and his clientelle. Then, it became two small cottages, and now it is once more, one single dwelling.
The Old Friends Meeting House in Tewkesbury with the entrance to the Friends Burial Ground visible at the side.
When originally built, the ground floor was occupied as a "normal" home, with the entire upper storey being used as the "Meeting" room. It was here that such luminaries of the "Quaker" or "Societies of Friends" movement as Mr George Fox met and preached - in clear breach of the law which, at that time, made it illegal to practice any form of worship, or to preach any teaching, not set out in the parliamentary approved "Book of Common Prayer" and in conformance with the "Act of Conformity of Worship". It was the attempt to enforce the provisions of this Act which caused the "riot" in which Mr Fox was arrested.
On another occassion twelve men were arrested in the front room of the house for illegal assembly - in other words refusing to attend the Abbey! The real disgrace was that the men were deliberately targetted because this removed them and their tools from competion with "conformist" tradesmen - and left their families to starve.
As a modern Church Warden of the Abbey, I would be appalled if anyone tried to get me to act in this way. Perhaps this is a measure of just how far we have managed to move since those far off days of strife in which our faith was abused for the financial and business advantage of a few.
Thankfully we have begun to learn how to behave as Christians.
Posted by The Gray Monk at February 15, 2006 04:47 PM
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