A testament of time for 300 year-old Friends

They had their first gathering in the city in 1655 and, this year, have been celebrating the 300th anniversary of the building of the Friends Meeting House at Sansome Place - an elegant building which is still their place of worship and local base.

I've been learning about the Religious Society of Friends in Worcester down the centuries from local historian Annette Leech, who is warden of the Friends Meeting House.

Together with illustrator Clare Norton, she has produced a Worcester Quaker Walk - an historical guide taking citizens and visitors on a stroll round places of significance to the Quaker story in the city since 1655. It is to be published soon.

Over time, Quakers were to become eminent in British commerce, industry and medicine and were also much-respected locally, but this was certainly not the case in their early days. Quakerism was born in troubled 17th Century times.

George Fox, founder of the Quaker movement, joined with other groups in the north-west of England, already gathering in silent meetings, seeking a way to live more simply and truly lead the Christian life. The early Quakers, like other dissenters, had to suffer the breaking-up of their worship, ruinous fines and, sometimes, terms in jail.

It was against this background that Worcester was to earn a dubious place in Quaker history. Fox was brought to the city in 1673 and imprisoned in the fortress gaol close to Castle Hill - a large riverside mound which stood in the shadow of Worcester Cathedral. It was pulled down in the mid-19th Century and its site is now part of The King's School grounds.

Fox had been arrested at Armscot, Warwickshire, for allegedly attending a large meeting of Friends and was to be in gaol at Worcester for a year and two months. He wrote many letters and books in that time. It is also thought he dictated a large part of his journal at Worcester.

During his life, George Fox was to spend several years in gaols around the country for openly professing his beliefs. Many Worcester Quakers too, were imprisoned during the early days of their movement.

It was a Yorkshire Friend, Richard Farnsworth, who brought together a number of local people in 1655, for the first gathering of Quakers at Worcester. They met to worship at the house of widow Sarah Drew, who lived in Darke Alley which was among the old monastic ruins in the west garden of the Cathedral.

A city physician, Edward Bourne was the driving force behind the formation of a Quaker community in Worcester. He was very active in challenging the established church and was imprisoned in 1657 for interrupting a service in Worcester Cathedral to urge the congregation to fear God and repent. In 1670, he also fixed a paper to the door of the Cathedral denouncing the clergy.

Edward Bourne lived in Foregate Street and, initially, local Quakers held their worship and business meetings at his house, later renting a room in Cucken Street (now Copenhagen Street) for their worship.

Quakers never hid themselves away to avoid trouble when they worshipped. If locked out of rented rooms, they simply met in the street outside. And when the Quaker men were arrested for meeting publicly, the women kept the worshipping group together until they too were imprisoned.

Such was the religious intolerance of the time that Worcester Corporation even paid two soldiers 1s.6d for "watching the Quakers".

The first Friends Meeting House at Worcester, was built in 1671 and was to the rear of the No.27 Friar Street - today, the bridal shop Perfections.

Despite all the hardships, the Quakers continued to expand in Worcester, and their numbers grew so much that their Friar Street base became far too small for them by the end of the 1600s.

Thus it was that they bought land at Sansome Fields, just outside the city walls, and built a new Friends Meeting House which opened in 1701, with surrounding space for burials.

The external appearance of the Meeting House has changed little over the three centuries since. Originally, however, there was a side extension financed by Quaker Josiah Holdship, one of the first partners in the Worcester Porcelain Manufactory.

During the 1700s too, a row of cottages was built alongside the Friends Meeting House to provide homes for poor and needy Quakers.

Immediately opposite the pedestrian gateway to the Friends Meeting House still stands No.7 Sansome Place, the site of James Fell's Quaker academy which was said to have been famous in its day. His school took not only Quaker pupils but also Anglicans.

A number of prominent Quakers had their homes in Foregate Street in the 18th Century including:

n Bracey Clarke, who was apprenticed to a Quaker surgeon and later became a pioneer of modern veterinary medicine in London. He is said to have founded the first cricket club in Worcester.

n Timothy Bevington, a master glover who lived at No.15 Foregate Street. He was glowingly praised by Berrow's Worcester Journal after he crossed the swollen Severn in a boat to take food and money to those hit by the terrible floods of 1770.

In the 1780s, a Quaker boarding school for boys was opened by Friends George Young and Thomas Bradley in what had been the first 18th Century Worcester Infirmary building off Silver Street. The mediaeval half-timbered property still survives in precarious dereliction today, shored up by scaffolding. It's not clear how long this boarding school existed.

As Annette Leech explains, Quakers, like other dissenters, were barred for decades from English universities, and many occupations were also closed to them.

"Much of their energy therefore went instead into science and into trade. There were many Quaker doctors, botanists and physicists.

"In industry, Friends were inventive and enterprising, and Quaker shopkeepers were known for their straight dealing. Their businesses prospered, and banks too were founded by Friends, such as Lloyds and Barclays. The names of two Quaker families were also to become renowned world-wide for their chocolate confections - the Cadburys and the Rowntrees."

In Worcester, Quaker John Burlingham (1753-1828) was a prominent citizen and innovative master glover. He helped invent a slitting mill which could cut out 10 pairs of gloves in a single operation, and he made hand-wear for George III and his family.

Edward Leader Williams, an eminent Worcester personality of the Victorian era, married a Quaker, Sarah Whiting. He was engineer-in-chief for large- scale improvements to the Severn and lived at Diglis House - now the Diglis Hotel . He and his wife Sarah had two sons, both of whom became peers of the realm.

Sir Benjamin Williams Leader - he transposed his middle and last names - became a nationally acclaimed landscape artist while Sir Edward Leader Williams was chief engineer for the construction of the Manchester Ship Canal.

Their father never became a Quaker but, interestingly, Benjamin's birth was entered in the Friends' registers.

Quaker William Spriggs was also well-known in 19th Century Worcester as a leading shopkeeper with his drapery business in the distinctive property at the corner of The Cross and Broad Street - today, H Samuel, the jewellers.

Two nieces of William Spriggs became leading benefactors as Quakers, particularly in helping the local poor and needy of all creeds. They were the Misses Margaret and Gulielma Binyon, who lived for many years at Henwick Grove - now the site of University College, Worcester.

Richard Cadbury, a member of the famous chocolate producing family, was also a Worcester Quaker for a long time. In 1912, he opened the Tudor Coffee House in Friar Street - now the home of the Worcester Museum of Local Life.

Richard lived at Rose Hill, Worcester, for 20 years and started a small sweet factory in the stables there, to provide employment for people with disabilities. Disillusioned eventually with the Quakers, he joined the Methodist church in 1919 and later founded the Welcome Mission in Friar Street and the undenominational mission halls in Bromwich Road and at Ronkswood.

In the early 1980s, the whole site of the Friends Meeting House at Sansome Place was transformed and redeveloped. A two-storey building side extension was demolished and the Meeting House altered internally to provide more rooms and facilities. The row of 18th Century cottages were converted into six bed-sits while three new housing units were built on the other side of the Meeting House. All this housing accommodation is now overseen by the Quaker Gloucester Greyfriars Housing Association.

The Quaker community in Worcester now numbers about 70 and they continue to worship every Sunday at the Sansome Place Meeting House. Music has never been part of Quaker worship but Annette Leech says many Friends love music and have raised money for a piano at the Meeting Room. The instrument will remain silent in worship but will be played at other events.

It will be heard for the first time at a concert in November, to be given by young Friends from around the country, who have formed themselves into a singing and drama group.

The concert is just one of a series of events the Quakers have been holding throughout this year to mark the 300th anniversary of the building of the Friends Meeting House at Sansome Place.

For instance, an exhibition about the history of the Meeting House was held at the City Library and, in June, there was a big re-union of past members of the Worcester Meeting, who came from all over the country for the get-together and worship in the west garden of the Cathedral - close to the spot where Quakers held their first ever meeting in the city in 1655.

"It was absolutely wonderful," says Annette Leech.

I highly recommend her Worcester Quaker Walk guide for an enlightening stroll around the city and a fascinating insight into the Friends' impact on local history.