THE MEETING 1800 — 1890
Most of the founding members of the Meeting were buried in the grounds of the Meeting House, as were several other local Quakers. The most prominent of these was Mary Darby, wife of Abraham Darby 1 of Coalbrookdale, the first man to smelt iron with coke. With the passing of the first generations of Quakers, however, the Meeting grew smaller and smaller. Indeed, the Meeting would probably not have survived at all were it not due to the Mucklow connection. In the early part of the century, the ownership of Areley Flail, Areley Kings, passed to Daniel Zachary, a descendant of William Mucklow's sister. Daniel Zachary had been a miller at Cirencester, but be moved to Areley Hall and lived there for 30 years with his invalid son, Francis. Every First Day they drove to Bewdley Meeting House, "... to sit in silence, often by themselves." By 1861, Bewdley Meeting House was described as "seldom used or only in diminished numbers" and was being supported by Friends from other meetings who had pledged to worship occasionally at Bewdley. When Daniel Zachary died in 1867 and his son in 1870, it looked as if the Meeting were doomed to extinction. Areley Hall was inherited by another Quaker relative, Zachary Lloyd, but he later left Friends and joined the Wesleyans. Like many other meeting houses, however, it was saved by the sudden arrival of new Friends who brought life back into the old building. In this instance, the new life came from Sturge and Tangye families, both of whom played a vital part in the survival of Bewdley Meeting. Joseph Sturge was a Bewdley corn merchant and maltster, as was his brother Charles. Charles Sturge, however, has another claim to fame since he was a passenger of the first train to run from Stockton to Darlington in 1825. He travelled in one of the open wagons and he and the other young men on hoard had to protect the ladies with them from the stones thrown at the train by irate farmers. These were protesting at the lass of their pack horse trade to the new railway. The Sturges moved, in time, to Birmingham, where they became wealthy philanthropists, but Charles Sturge had bought a property, high above Wribbenhall, called the Summer House. This had been built by Benjamin Cotterell, but the Cotterell family had, by now, moved to Bristol. The Sturges used the Summer House at weekends and this led to an influx of visitors to Bewdley Meeting. These included the famous radical M.P. and Quaker, John Bright, who worshipped at Bewdley Meeting House on three occasions. Charles Sturge has been described as "the mainstay of the Meeting" even though he did not minister. This title was given to him by Alice Tangye, the daughter of Joseph Tangye, a Cornish engineer and Inventor, who had made a considerable fortune out of his engineering works in Birmingham.
Joseph Tangye had bought Tickenhill Manor in 1873 and once he had moved to Bewdley, he became a prominent figure in Bewdley local affairs. He was the mainstay of a campaign to bring fresh water to Bewdley, spurred on by the sight of the poor women in Lax Lane who had to fetch their water in buckets every day from the park pool and two stagnant wells on Wyre Hill. On washing day this meant 18 journeys before the washing could be done. It is Alice Tangye, however, who was now to be the mainstay of the Meeting from the 1890s to her death at the age of 87 in 1960. Not only did she keep the Meeting going in its darkest post-way days, but she also assembled and recorded much of its history. She has also left us a fascinating picture of the Meeting in the 1890s by recording the lay-out of the Meeting and providing cameo sketches of each of the members and attenders. Apart from the Sturges and the Tangyes, these included Friends of more humble origin as well as Friends who were rich. There was, for example, William Helliwell, a Kidderminster carpet weaver, whose, "natural history allusions appealed to children" and a Mr and Mrs Lowe, nonconformists, who later joined the Salvation Army, because they did not think Friends lived up to their principles. There was also Tom Pitt, an old besom maker, "who held forth at great length in meeting and frequently had to be eldered." Another attender was William Joyce, an old infirm merchant sailor who had once been shipwrecked and found frozen to a buoy. The majority of the meeting, however, were prosperous Victorians and these included George Barker, an ex-mayor of Birmingham. George Barker built his gothic-style country house at Beaucastle, on the outskirts of Bewdley and, as a Victorian Quaker, did not believe that his married and bachelor friends should mingle. He had the house so designed that some bedrooms could only be reached by outside stairs, thus preventing his two, types of friends from meeting. Despite the fact that another friend, Weston Binns, was given a house and income to live in Bewdley and help the Meeting, most of the young people associated with Bewdley Meeting left the district. The only one to remain was Alice Tangye, who, in time, married Frederick Parker. She eventually inherited Tickenhill Manor and lived there until her death.
Most of the founding members of the Meeting were buried in the grounds of the Meeting House, as were several other local Quakers. The most prominent of these was Mary Darby, wife of Abraham Darby 1 of Coalbrookdale, the first man to smelt iron with coke. With the passing of the first generations of Quakers, however, the Meeting grew smaller and smaller. Indeed, the Meeting would probably not have survived at all were it not due to the Mucklow connection. In the early part of the century, the ownership of Areley Flail, Areley Kings, passed to Daniel Zachary, a descendant of William Mucklow's sister. Daniel Zachary had been a miller at Cirencester, but be moved to Areley Hall and lived there for 30 years with his invalid son, Francis. Every First Day they drove to Bewdley Meeting House, "... to sit in silence, often by themselves." By 1861, Bewdley Meeting House was described as "seldom used or only in diminished numbers" and was being supported by Friends from other meetings who had pledged to worship occasionally at Bewdley. When Daniel Zachary died in 1867 and his son in 1870, it looked as if the Meeting were doomed to extinction. Areley Hall was inherited by another Quaker relative, Zachary Lloyd, but he later left Friends and joined the Wesleyans. Like many other meeting houses, however, it was saved by the sudden arrival of new Friends who brought life back into the old building. In this instance, the new life came from Sturge and Tangye families, both of whom played a vital part in the survival of Bewdley Meeting. Joseph Sturge was a Bewdley corn merchant and maltster, as was his brother Charles. Charles Sturge, however, has another claim to fame since he was a passenger of the first train to run from Stockton to Darlington in 1825. He travelled in one of the open wagons and he and the other young men on hoard had to protect the ladies with them from the stones thrown at the train by irate farmers. These were protesting at the lass of their pack horse trade to the new railway. The Sturges moved, in time, to Birmingham, where they became wealthy philanthropists, but Charles Sturge had bought a property, high above Wribbenhall, called the Summer House. This had been built by Benjamin Cotterell, but the Cotterell family had, by now, moved to Bristol. The Sturges used the Summer House at weekends and this led to an influx of visitors to Bewdley Meeting. These included the famous radical M.P. and Quaker, John Bright, who worshipped at Bewdley Meeting House on three occasions. Charles Sturge has been described as "the mainstay of the Meeting" even though he did not minister. This title was given to him by Alice Tangye, the daughter of Joseph Tangye, a Cornish engineer and Inventor, who had made a considerable fortune out of his engineering works in Birmingham.
Joseph Tangye had bought Tickenhill Manor in 1873 and once he had moved to Bewdley, he became a prominent figure in Bewdley local affairs. He was the mainstay of a campaign to bring fresh water to Bewdley, spurred on by the sight of the poor women in Lax Lane who had to fetch their water in buckets every day from the park pool and two stagnant wells on Wyre Hill. On washing day this meant 18 journeys before the washing could be done. It is Alice Tangye, however, who was now to be the mainstay of the Meeting from the 1890s to her death at the age of 87 in 1960. Not only did she keep the Meeting going in its darkest post-way days, but she also assembled and recorded much of its history. She has also left us a fascinating picture of the Meeting in the 1890s by recording the lay-out of the Meeting and providing cameo sketches of each of the members and attenders. Apart from the Sturges and the Tangyes, these included Friends of more humble origin as well as Friends who were rich. There was, for example, William Helliwell, a Kidderminster carpet weaver, whose, "natural history allusions appealed to children" and a Mr and Mrs Lowe, nonconformists, who later joined the Salvation Army, because they did not think Friends lived up to their principles. There was also Tom Pitt, an old besom maker, "who held forth at great length in meeting and frequently had to be eldered." Another attender was William Joyce, an old infirm merchant sailor who had once been shipwrecked and found frozen to a buoy. The majority of the meeting, however, were prosperous Victorians and these included George Barker, an ex-mayor of Birmingham. George Barker built his gothic-style country house at Beaucastle, on the outskirts of Bewdley and, as a Victorian Quaker, did not believe that his married and bachelor friends should mingle. He had the house so designed that some bedrooms could only be reached by outside stairs, thus preventing his two, types of friends from meeting. Despite the fact that another friend, Weston Binns, was given a house and income to live in Bewdley and help the Meeting, most of the young people associated with Bewdley Meeting left the district. The only one to remain was Alice Tangye, who, in time, married Frederick Parker. She eventually inherited Tickenhill Manor and lived there until her death.
THE MEETING from 1900
Despite the influx of weekend visitors, Bewdley Meeting was actually quite small and membership was restricted to a few key families. In 1899 the Clerk recorded that they were "too few to attempt much independent work" and their main help to other causes was financial rather than practical. Martha Tangye. however. did hold an adult school for women and meetings were held to support temperance. There was also a class for girls held every First Day before Meeting for Worship. By 1908 the Meeting is recorded as having "only four families number" being a dozen members" and attendance was often smaller than this due to ill health and infirmity. By the early 1950s, children‘s classes had been discontinued and the Meeting was very aware of the competition for hearts and souls from the Baptists and Wesleyans, both organisations having active churches just around the corner in High Street. Sectarianism appears to have been a factor in Bewdley religious life during this period. When Alice Parker‘s husband wanted to join a local Church of England choir. the vicar refused on the grounds that “we cannot have a man there whose wife and children are unbaptised heathens". Despite the fact that the Meeting remained small throughout the l95Os. there was an Adult School Guest House (The Manor House) in High Street. Bewdley. owned by the Cadbury family and run as a holiday outlet for the Adult Schools Movement. The guest house was an important means by which Friends came to Meeting during this period. By 1940 Britain was at war and there were few Friends left in Bewdley. although attendance at meeting was still quite good during the summer months. 1940. however, was recorded as the quietest year for some time since. “The Clerk has been alone in Meeting for the greatest part of the year.“ Despite this. the few Friends who attended Meeting were able to record that in a war-torn world they found. “the weekly quiet in the meeting house a rest bodily and mentally“. Sadly. there is now a gap in the Minutes of the Meeting and one is conscious that it was on the brink of extinction. Other documents suggest that Alice Parker struggled on valiantly. In a letter to a friend written in 1947 she records it as the quietest year l remember in the meeting house — Certainly not more than a dozen Sundays has there been anyone "to meet" and for several months I was not well enough to go and sit in a cold house." She had. in the same year, made an effort to start a Sunday School for children, based on sewing. talks and temperance. This, alas, had to be abandoned. since at the age of 74. Alice Parker could not keep pace with the children. who spent most of the time. climbing up to the gallery via for forms and windows and racing down the stairs." By 1935. Bewdley was reduced to the status of an Allowed Meeting with Alice Parker as Correspondent. The Meeting House was now so cold and damp in winter that by 19% meetings were only held in the summer months (from March — November). In 1959, however. the fortunes of the Meeting House began to revive from two directions: firstly through the support of new Friends and attenders from Kidderminster and elsewhere and secondly, through the arrival in Worcestershire of Leslie and Helen Richardson. Leslie Richardson, with his long record of dedicated service in public life, and to the Society of Friends, was encouraged by Friends at Worcester Meeting, to now dedicate his experience to reviving Bewdley Meeting. Despite the fact that he was newly retired, Leslie Richardson made a strong link with Bewdley Meeting and his vision and faithfulness helped the Meeting become a close, lively fellowship again. At about the same time, Gerald Parker, the son of Alice Parker, came to live at Eastham, near Bewdley, with his family. As well as being a very gentle man, he had good business sense and was very practical. It was he who got the gas leak at the Meeting House repaired and instigated other improvements. It is through the loving efforts of the Friends in the early 1960s that the Meeting House and its grounds became transformed. The arrival of new members and attenders led, once again, to Bewdley Friends playing an active role in the spiritual life of the town as well as following their own concerns. Alice Parker was now extremely frail, but her long struggle to keep the meeting alive was over. She passed peacefully away at her home, Tickenhill Manor, on Monday, 5th December 1960. Since then, some of the Friends responsible for the revival have also died, but their legacy to us is a beautiful three hundred year old meeting house and the living testimony of their individual witness. Nowadays, Friends no longer travel to Meeting on foot or horseback. We have moved a long way from times of religious ferment and persecution to a time when Friends probably seem an anachronism to many and very peculiar people to the rest. And yet we are linked to the past by a building which feeds the imagination as well as the soul. One wonders what Jacob Cotterell thought as he saw the building take shape or what thoughts were in the mind of William Sankey, the farmer, when he brought his wife and children to that very first meeting in 1691. If this history has concentrated on people at the expense of religious or historical information, the writer makes no apologies. It was said of Alice Parker that she was "a living part of the Meeting". This could be said of all Bewdley Friends at any time during the 300 year history of the Meeting House. Our hope is that the Meeting House will continue to thrive for another three hundred years and that many more Friends will find in its beauty and its silence that of God in themselves and in others. The rest to be found here — in the fullest sense of the word — is silence.
Extracted from a booklet produced by John Maynard
Despite the influx of weekend visitors, Bewdley Meeting was actually quite small and membership was restricted to a few key families. In 1899 the Clerk recorded that they were "too few to attempt much independent work" and their main help to other causes was financial rather than practical. Martha Tangye. however. did hold an adult school for women and meetings were held to support temperance. There was also a class for girls held every First Day before Meeting for Worship. By 1908 the Meeting is recorded as having "only four families number" being a dozen members" and attendance was often smaller than this due to ill health and infirmity. By the early 1950s, children‘s classes had been discontinued and the Meeting was very aware of the competition for hearts and souls from the Baptists and Wesleyans, both organisations having active churches just around the corner in High Street. Sectarianism appears to have been a factor in Bewdley religious life during this period. When Alice Parker‘s husband wanted to join a local Church of England choir. the vicar refused on the grounds that “we cannot have a man there whose wife and children are unbaptised heathens". Despite the fact that the Meeting remained small throughout the l95Os. there was an Adult School Guest House (The Manor House) in High Street. Bewdley. owned by the Cadbury family and run as a holiday outlet for the Adult Schools Movement. The guest house was an important means by which Friends came to Meeting during this period. By 1940 Britain was at war and there were few Friends left in Bewdley. although attendance at meeting was still quite good during the summer months. 1940. however, was recorded as the quietest year for some time since. “The Clerk has been alone in Meeting for the greatest part of the year.“ Despite this. the few Friends who attended Meeting were able to record that in a war-torn world they found. “the weekly quiet in the meeting house a rest bodily and mentally“. Sadly. there is now a gap in the Minutes of the Meeting and one is conscious that it was on the brink of extinction. Other documents suggest that Alice Parker struggled on valiantly. In a letter to a friend written in 1947 she records it as the quietest year l remember in the meeting house — Certainly not more than a dozen Sundays has there been anyone "to meet" and for several months I was not well enough to go and sit in a cold house." She had. in the same year, made an effort to start a Sunday School for children, based on sewing. talks and temperance. This, alas, had to be abandoned. since at the age of 74. Alice Parker could not keep pace with the children. who spent most of the time. climbing up to the gallery via for forms and windows and racing down the stairs." By 1935. Bewdley was reduced to the status of an Allowed Meeting with Alice Parker as Correspondent. The Meeting House was now so cold and damp in winter that by 19% meetings were only held in the summer months (from March — November). In 1959, however. the fortunes of the Meeting House began to revive from two directions: firstly through the support of new Friends and attenders from Kidderminster and elsewhere and secondly, through the arrival in Worcestershire of Leslie and Helen Richardson. Leslie Richardson, with his long record of dedicated service in public life, and to the Society of Friends, was encouraged by Friends at Worcester Meeting, to now dedicate his experience to reviving Bewdley Meeting. Despite the fact that he was newly retired, Leslie Richardson made a strong link with Bewdley Meeting and his vision and faithfulness helped the Meeting become a close, lively fellowship again. At about the same time, Gerald Parker, the son of Alice Parker, came to live at Eastham, near Bewdley, with his family. As well as being a very gentle man, he had good business sense and was very practical. It was he who got the gas leak at the Meeting House repaired and instigated other improvements. It is through the loving efforts of the Friends in the early 1960s that the Meeting House and its grounds became transformed. The arrival of new members and attenders led, once again, to Bewdley Friends playing an active role in the spiritual life of the town as well as following their own concerns. Alice Parker was now extremely frail, but her long struggle to keep the meeting alive was over. She passed peacefully away at her home, Tickenhill Manor, on Monday, 5th December 1960. Since then, some of the Friends responsible for the revival have also died, but their legacy to us is a beautiful three hundred year old meeting house and the living testimony of their individual witness. Nowadays, Friends no longer travel to Meeting on foot or horseback. We have moved a long way from times of religious ferment and persecution to a time when Friends probably seem an anachronism to many and very peculiar people to the rest. And yet we are linked to the past by a building which feeds the imagination as well as the soul. One wonders what Jacob Cotterell thought as he saw the building take shape or what thoughts were in the mind of William Sankey, the farmer, when he brought his wife and children to that very first meeting in 1691. If this history has concentrated on people at the expense of religious or historical information, the writer makes no apologies. It was said of Alice Parker that she was "a living part of the Meeting". This could be said of all Bewdley Friends at any time during the 300 year history of the Meeting House. Our hope is that the Meeting House will continue to thrive for another three hundred years and that many more Friends will find in its beauty and its silence that of God in themselves and in others. The rest to be found here — in the fullest sense of the word — is silence.
Extracted from a booklet produced by John Maynard
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