Patrick Comerford
The Barclay family, who owned High Leigh for half a century, from 1871 to 1921, were members of the Church of England, and they included many Anglican missionaries, and at least one daughter of the family was married to bishop in the Church of England.
Many members of the Barclay family at High Leigh were baptised or married in Saint Catherine’s Church in Hoddesdon or were buried from there. However, the Barclays had many strong Quaker connections over the generations and were part of a nexus of prominent Quaker families, including the Fry, Gurney and Buxton families.
Robert Barclay (1843-1921) of High Leigh was descended from Robert Barclay (1648-1690), the 17th century Quaker apologist and theologian; his wife Elizabeth Ellen Buxton (1848-1911), was related to Elizabeth Fry, the 19th century Quaker campaigner for prison reform.
Long before Robert Barclay bought High Leigh, there was a strong Quaker presence in Hoddesdon, dating from at least 1675. The early 19th century Regency meeting house is at the end of Lord Street, a short walk from High Leigh. Although the Quaker meeting in the town was ‘laid up’ or ceased to worship in 2011, it remains an important part of the architectural heritage and religious history of Hoddesdon. It is a Grade II listed building, one of only a handful in the Hoddesdon area.
This month marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of George Fox (1624-1691), the founding figure in the Religious Society of Friends, better known as Quakers. Friends have a long history in Hertfordshire. The first-ever purpose-built Friends meeting house was built in Hertford in 1670, and Quaker ideals later inspired the Garden City movement.
The Hoddesdon meeting dates back to at least 1675, when Quakers hired a hall belonging to the Black Lion Inn for meetings. They built their own meeting house in Hoddesdon at a site in Marsh Lane (now Essex Road) in 1697 in grounds that included a burial ground. The building continued in use until 1827, when the original building was sold and converted into two cottages. The cottages were demolished in 1956.
Meanwhile, a new meeting house in Hoddesdon was built in Lord’s Lane, now Lord Street, in 1828-1829, with a new burial ground at the rear.
The new meeting house on Lord Street was designed by the architect William Alderson (1804-1834), a Quaker who was based in Chelsea. In his short career, Alderson designed Hoddesdon meeting house and also the Quaker meeting houses in Wigton (1830, Grade II) and Stoke Newington (1827-1828, now demolished).
He also designed lodges that were never built for Woodfold Park, Blackburn, and the main building at Brookfield Quaker School, Wigton (now demolished). He is best-known as the architect of Saint Bernard’s Hospital (1829, Grade II), built as the Middlesex County Lunatic Asylum and now known as Ealing Hospital.
The Quaker site on Lord Street as a whole is of high heritage significance, and the building has high aesthetic value. Its simple classical exterior is attractive and the original character of the interior has been altered very little.
The extensive listing describes its historic interest and says it is a modest, purpose-built, meeting house that is ‘expressive of the development of the Quaker movement’. The listing points out that its ‘plain classical design typifies the modest nature of Quaker meeting houses, and the building retains its essential historic form and character from the time of its construction’.
The main meeting room has been little altered and still preserves its original character interior fittings, including the Elders’ bench, a dado, and shuttered partition to the two former retiring rooms, typical of internal arrangements in earlier Quaker meeting houses.
The building is in a simple classical style with a rectangular plan, with two small flat-roofed wings flanking the main front at the north end. The walls are of grey and yellow brick laid in Flemish bond. The pitched roof over the main building is covered in Welsh slate.
The principal, north front is capped by a moulded stone pediment and is three bays wide with a central entrance up steps, with ornamental cast-iron doorscrapers. The entrance is set under a stone hood on carved brackets. There are large, stuccoed mouldings, and a pair of flanking straight-headed sash windows.
The small side wings, now obscured by vegetation, have blind panels in their north sides. The side and rear walls of the main building are severely plain.
Inside, the meeting house has survived with relatively little alteration. The features include plain plastered walls, a panelled timber dado, a plain moulded cornice, the panelled elders bench across the full width of the south end, and a number of wooden benches which are probably the original furniture.
The rectangular burial ground to the rear of the meeting house dates from 1828, replacing the earlier burial ground in Marsh Lane. The brick boundary walls probably also date from the 1820s. There are a number of stone burial markers, and the earliest is to Catherine Manser, dated 1829.
A smaller hall was built on an adjacent plot in 1929, and the two buildings were connected in 1978.
The Hoddesdon Quaker Meeting House is part of the Hertford and Hitchin Quaker Area Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Regular Meetings for Worship at Hoddesdon ceased after 2011, and the meeting was ‘laid down’. Since then, Quakers in Hertfordshire have actively pursued new and imaginative ways for community groups to use the building as Friends Peace Cottage.
The Peace Cottage Community Hub is a project being developed collaboratively between Quakers and Churches Together in Hoddesdon, Broxbourne and Wormley. The steering group includes representatives from the local council, housing associations, local charities and arts groups. Dr Zoë Hudson, a social historian and cultural heritage consultant, is the project co-ordinator.
The Covid lockdown delayed the Peace Cottage Project and the launch of the Peace Cottage Community. A small group of volunteers helped to decorate the rooms, install new heating, cleaning regularly, installing new signage, and organising gardening sessions with a team of volunteer gardeners.
A memory café project working with people with dementia and their carers, the local Citizens Advice Bureaux, a small theatre project and a mental health first aid trainer were among the groups interested in using the building. The local Churches Together group also had talks about using the building to support Ukrainian refugees.
Although the Meeting House has not been used for some time and probably needs some repair, it remains a familiar element in the streetscape of Hoddesdon and its historical and architectural heritage.
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