Building record 2290/1 - Friends Sunday School and Meeting House

<1> English Heritage, 2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, 57486 (Digital Archive). SCH4666.

Old Friends Meeting House, now Sunday School, altered. Brown brick in irregular English garden wall bond; grey slate roof. 2 storeys. 9-pane casements of C19 vernacular type inserted in face to road. Left gable-end has external stair with stone treads and quarter-landing, brick risers and stone-coped brick parapets. Stair forms porch to lower storey entrance. Replaced boarded doors. Vertical oval window to each side of upper door and horizontal leaded oval window in gable above door. Similar windows in opposite gable end, but with upper window blocked. Late C19 open slate-roofed brick outshut at rear. Cast iron plate inscribed 7 OAK TREES PLANTED 1897 IN THIS THE FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE YARD FRANDLEY, TO COMMEMORATE THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF QUEEN VICTORIA, SEVENOAKS BEING THE NAME OF THE TOWNSHIP. Attached stone-coped brick wall to yard rising, with quadrant step to each side, over repaired gateway. Interior: altered. Chamfered oak beam to upper floor. Roof structure boxed in, but with shaped supporting brackets to central truss visible.

<2> 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 No.7 and No.142 (Book). SCH4548.

The graveyard is detached and in a different parish [CHER 650/1]

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire, SJ6379 c.1898 (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

<4> Various, Various, Oral communication to the HER, Edwards, R 18/03/2015 (Oral Communication). SCH2330.

The present meeting house, to the north-east of the 1726 building, is first depicted on an Ordnance Survey map of 1898 (see 3), replacing an earlier strucuture. It is constructed of brick and slate and its exterior is a typical chapel design. It has recently lost its front porch.

<5> Architectural History Practice, 2015, Quaker Meeting House, Frandley (Client Report). SCH7964.

Subject of an architectural survey in 2015. The meeting house at Frandley is a fine example of a 19th century meeting house, replacing a 17th century building on the same site. It is an attractive late Victorian building retaining much of its original external and internal architectural detail, such as a panelled gallery and some seating. Its setting is rural and includes a school room and stable building dating from 1726. It is likely that there are below ground remains of the earlier meeting house on this rural site. The site has high historical value as a 17th century Quaker site, redeveloped in the 19th century.

Frandley has strong associations with early Quakerism. A yeoman from Frandley Farm, William Gandy, became interested in Quaker ideas and invited George Fox to Frandley in 1657. Fox preached to over 2000 people under an oak tree in Frandley and shortly after Friends began to meet in each other's houses. In 1676 Gandy donated land and a building (the original Quaker house) for local Quakers. The surrounding land was used as a burial ground. In 1726 a school room, stables and carriage shelter were built south of the meeting house. However, by the mid-nineteenth century the condition of the meeting house was poor, the building was demolished and a new meeting house built in 1881.

It has strong associations with George Fox, the founder of the Religious Society of Friends which adds to its historical significance.