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Copyright of John Williams

Friends Meeting House,
Vicarage Street,
Painswick, Gloucestershire.

Cemeteries

This Church has (or had) a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in 1690, and we understand it is still open.

The Meeting House is set back from the road, partially obscured by Dover House, a large Georgian building, which according to the British Listed Buildings website would have been built at a later date.

The notice board outside the Meeting House reads:

This Meeting House dates from 1706, fifty years after the Quakers came to Painswick.

Quaker worship is based on silence. This is reflected in the simplicity of the building.

Extensive changes to the Meeting House were made in 1793, The size of the original entrance can be seen facing south with 1706 carved above it. The meeting room is furnished with simple deal benches. The tall sash windows are typical. An upper room has been used as a school room.

Like the other nonconformist sects which arose during the turbulent years of the Commonwealth, Quakers were barred from using consecrated ground for burials. Our original burial ground was on land attached to Dell Farm on the opposite side of the valley. There are only nine legerstones there, the other ninety or so graves are nameless, as was the custom with Quakers at the time.

When that burial ground was full, subsequent burials took place in the Meeting House 'court' where you are now. Again the graves are mostly nameless but some headstones can be seen.

Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses, Gloucestershire (1986) adds that it was built for an existing meeting which dated from 1658, and that the burial ground was the gift of Thomas Lovejoy. The Lovejoy family is also mentioned by the British Listed Building website in relation to Dover House, built c.1720, and its adjoining Dover Cottage, which - it suggests - was the original Loveday residence, built during the previous century.

The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (1976), pp.83-85 (Painswick - Protestant Nonconformity) provides the further information that the Lovedays were clothiers, and a meeting-house in Painswick was first licensed in 1690, followed in 1695 by a Quaker school, moved from Nailsworth.

Denomination

Now or formerly Quaker.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church is located at OS grid reference SO8698909735. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• Friends Meeting House, Painswick shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Painswick shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Painswick, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)
• The Victoria County History series: A History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 11: Bisley and Longtree Hundreds (null) (verified 2018-11-06)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.