The Friends Meeting House is a
meeting house of the
Society of Friends (Quakers), in the hamlet of
Come-to-Good on the southern border of the parish of
Kea
The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wing ...
, near
Truro
Truro (; kw, Truru) is a cathedral city and civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its population was 18,766 in the 2011 census. People of Truro ...
in
Cornwall
Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
. It was also known as Kea Meeting House and Feock Meeting House. It is a simple thatched structure built of cobstone and whitewashed outside and in. It was completed in 1710 and is still in use today.
History
George Fox, the founder of the
Religious Society of Friends
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
, commonly known as the Quakers, came to Cornwall in 1656. He was arrested several times for
blasphemy because his ideas were at odds with mainstream Christianity at the time. However people wanted to hear what he had to say and a group met regularly from 1680. They wanted a simple place in which to meet, and built a cob-and-thatch meeting house.
The meeting house
The meeting house is a Grade I
Listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
. From 30 May 1967 until 14 April 1999, it was Grade II*. The building is in
cob, on a stone rubble base and was completed in 1710.
The exterior and interior walls are whitewashed and the simple pews around the walls face onto a central table. There is a gallery or stand at one end from which the meeting could be addressed. The meeting room is unadorned but has wooden panelling and wooden pillars to support the gallery. The roof structure can be seen above and the underside of the thatch. The glass in the windows is thought to be older than the building, having been recycled from another building.
[
A single-storey extension for an entrance lobby, kitchen and lavatories was built in 1967. Both the main building and the lobby are thatched. There was a major restoration and re-thatching in 2010. The building is still in regular use, with a Quaker worship meeting every Sunday morning.
There is a burial ground but only five headstones, all belonging to members of the Magor family, who died in the 19th century. It is the burial place of Catherine Payton Phillips.]
References
Further reading
*Patricia Griffith (1995) ''Early Quakers in Come to Good'' – pamphlet.
External links
*{{Official, http://swquakers.org.uk/meetings/cornwall/come-good
1710 establishments in England
18th-century Quaker meeting houses
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1710
Religious buildings and structures in Cornwall
Grade I listed buildings in Cornwall
Grade I listed religious buildings and structures
Quaker meeting houses in England