Building record 179/25/0 - Friends Meeting House, Pillory Street

The earliest maps that the Friends Meeting House is shown upon are the OS First Editions 1851 (1:528) (2) and 1876 (1:2500) (1). The Society of Friends (Quakers) were represented in Nantwich as early as 1660 (3), and in 1670 several Quakers were convicted as 'rescusants' for not attending their parish church (3). In 1721 there were thirteen Quaker families resident in the town, and in 1725 a Meeting House and burial ground were established in Pillory Street. The Meeting House underwent repairs in 1850, at a cost of 206 pounds (3).
The meeting house, built 1725 on land acquired the previous year, was repaired and altered C.1850. Meetings ceased in 1922; the building was converted to a theatre in 1983. There are 19th century headstones reset against the North wall of the car park (4).

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, Sheet LVI 13 1876 (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

<2> Ordnance Survey, 1851, Nantwich Board of Health Map, p397-8 1851 (Maps and Plans). SCH2431.

<3> Hall J, 1883, A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich or Wich-Malbank in the County Palatine of Chester (Book). SCH80.

<4> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1994, An Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in the North of England, Cheshire Number 103 (Book). SCH4548.