13 July 2024

New life sought for
an old Quaker meeting
house in Hoddesdon
after its closure

The Quaker meeting house on Lord Street in Hoddesdon was built in 1828-1829 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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 simplicity of Hoddesdon Meeting House is ‘expressive of the development of the Quaker movement’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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.

A smaller hall was built in 1929 and the two buildings were connected in 1978 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

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.

Friends Peace Cottage has sought new uses for the buildings since the meeting was ‘laid down’ in 2011 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2024:
65, Saturday 13 July 2024

The Samaritan Woman … originally part of a 17th century supply of fresh, clean water in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and tomorrow is the Seventh Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VII).

Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection in connection with this week’s USPG conference;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Samaritan Woman once stood on the corner of the High Street and Conduit Lane in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Matthew 10: 24-33 (NRSVUE):

[Jesus said:] 24 “A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; 25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

32 “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, 33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.”

A plaque remembers where the Samaritan Woman once stood in the centre of Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

This morning’s reflection:

I spent much of this week at the High Leigh Conference Centre on the western fringes of Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 13 July 2024) invites us to pray as we reflect on these words in Saint Matthew’s Gospel: ‘For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25: 35).

I spent much of this week at the USPG annual conference in the High Leigh Conference Centre in Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. During one early morning walk into Hoddesdon this week, I saw the 17th century statue of the Samaritan Women in the grounds of Lowewood Museum in Hoddesdon but that originally once stood as a fountain in the centre of the town.

Sir Marmaduke Rawdon (1582-1646), a wealthy merchant, built Rawdon House in the centre of Hoddesdon in the early 17th century. He invested in the nearby New River and in 1631, when he provided a conduit from his estate at Rawdon House to Hoddesdon to supply clean, fresh water for the people of the town. Water poured from the pitcher in the Samaritan Woman’s arms into a small pond below.

Sir Marmaduke Rawdon also assisted in building a Market House in Hoddesdon. His son, also Marmaduke Rawdon, built the Grange. The Rawdon family were royalists during the Civil War and their fortunes suffered considerably.

Over the years the statue has been located in various places, until it was taken into storage and restored. It was relocated in 1986 to the gardens of Lowewood House and now stands in the museum grounds.

Lowewood House was built around 1750, and members of the Warner family lived there from 1835 until 1935. The house was bought by Douglas Taylor who gave it to the town in 1936 for use as a public library and museum. The library was relocated in 1977 and since 1982 Lowewood House has been the home of Broxbourne Museum. The museum has been managed by the Lowewood Museum Trust since 2021 and is open on Fridays and Saturdays.

The statue of the Samaritan Woman has been cleaned and restored recently and a blue plaque at the corner of the High Street and Conduit Lane marks the original location of the statue of the Samaritan Woman. The plaque celebrating the statue and the fountain was unveiled last month (24 June 2024) by the Mayor of Broxbourne, Councillor Sherrie McDaid, as part of the Love Hoddesdon Midsummer Festival.

There is a similar figure in the fountain on the lawn at High Leigh. It is one of outdoor features the gardens created by the Pulhams, a family of landscape gardeners in nearby Broxbourne. I wonder whether it was inspired by the Samaritan Woman in the centre of Hoddesdon and, indeed, whether it too was ever known as the Samaritan Woman?

The Samaritan Women now stands in the grounds of Lowewood Museum in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Prayers (Saturday 13 July 2024):

The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), has been ‘United Beyond Borders.’ This theme was introduced last Sunday with reflections on this week’s USPG conference by Rachael Anderson, Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Saturday 13 July 2024) invites us to pray reflecting on these words in Saint Matthew’s Gospel:

‘For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me’ (Matthew 25: 35).

The Collect:

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Post Communion Prayer:

God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water:
refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Additional Collect:

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Collect on the Eve of Trinity VII:

Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The fountain in the gardens in High Leigh has many similariities with statue of the Samaritan Woman in Hoddesdon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Yesterday’s reflection

Continued tomorrow

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition copyright © 2021, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny (Matthew 10: 29) ... watching a mother swallow feed her chicks in a nest in the ceiling of Aghias Anna Church, Maroulas, near Retymnon in Crete (Patrick Comerford)