Not far from our doorstep lies the birthplace of the Quaker movement (or Religious Society of Friends, as it is known) in Cumbria. In fact, you can see the limestone escarpment on which George Fox preached from our house. The outcrop is known as Pardshaw Crag, and it sits above the hamlet of Pardshaw Hall, four miles outside Cockermouth and about 1.5 miles from Mosser.
Pardshaw and Pardshaw Hall were strongholds of Quakerism from its early days. In 1650 or 1653, George Fox preached several sermons on Pardshaw Crag, which has an excellent acoustic, drawing huge crowds of 700 or more.
Who was George Fox?
George Fox (July 1624– 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and Civil War. He rebelled against the religious and political authorities by proposing an unusual, uncompromising approach to the Christian faith, and was often persecuted by the disapproving authorities.
Among his ideas were:
Rituals can be safely ignored, as long as one experiences a true spiritual conversion.
The qualification for ministry is given by the Holy Spirit, not by ecclesiastical study. This implies that anyone has the right to minister, assuming the Spirit guides them, including women and children.
God "dwelleth in the hearts of his obedient people": religious experience is not confined to a church building. Fox preached in market-places, fields, appointed meetings of various kinds or even sometimes in "steeple-houses" (churches) after the service.
Though Fox used the Bible to support his views, he reasoned that because God was within the faithful, believers could follow their own inner guide rather than rely on a strict reading of Scripture or the word of clerics. Fox also made no clear distinction between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
His powerful preaching began to attract a small following. Fox's preaching was grounded in scripture but was mainly effective because of the intense personal experience he was able to project. He was scathing about immorality, deceit and the exacting of tithes, and urged his listeners to lead lives without sin.
It is not clear at what point the Society of Friends was formed, but there was certainly a group of people who often travelled together. Fox seems initially to have had no desire to found a sect, but only to proclaim what he saw as the pure and genuine principles of Christianity in their original simplicity, though he afterward showed great prowess as a religious organiser in the structure he gave to the new society.
The history of the Meeting House
A meeting of Friends, the first to be settled in Cumberland, began in a private house in 1653 in Pardshaw. As this meeting grew in numbers, it could not be contained indoors and met for many years in the open air on Pardshaw Crag. In time, the meetings during the winter were divided amongst Friends’ houses in Lamplugh, Pardshaw, Whinfell and Eaglesfield. However, under the 1662 Quaker Act, people had to meet in secet for fear of imprisonment and persecution. After 27 years, the 1689 Act of Toleration heralded a new freedom of worship and Quaker meeting houses flourished. And so in 1672, a meeting house was built at Pardshaw and this was enlarged in 1705. For about a century this was the largest in the countryside in England. No traces of this building now remain.
In 1729 a new meeting house near Pardshaw Hall was built, including two large meeting rooms, one for the Women’s meeting and one for the Men’s, and a walled burial ground. Some of the materials from the original meeting house were used in the construction of the new buildings ,and a lintel bearing the date 1672 may still be seen above the doorway to stables built in 1731 - dating back to the time when most worshippers would have ridden to the meetings. Later additions included a porch, a schoolroom where the famous scientist John Dalton, among others, received his early education, and a carriage shed.
The regular meeting closed in 1923 but the Meeting House and burial ground remain, still in occasional use. In the 1930’s this was, briefly, one of the first YHA hostels in the country, and was subsequently used by many groups such as the Cumberland Friends’ Unemployment Committee during the depression and the Conservation Volunteers for basic overnight accommodation in the 1970s.
Meeting for Worship still takes place on the third Sunday of the month, and the Meeting House is also used for Quaker weddings and funerals and other Quaker meetings, with the burial ground still in current use.
There are plans by the Friends of Pardshaw Hall to use the premises more widely, for residential gatherings for both Quaker and non-Quaker groups, and as a resource for the local community.
Pardshaw Quaker Meeting House has recently been upgraded from a Grade 2 to a Grade 2* listing for its spiritual and historic significance and the completeness of its ensemble of 18th Century buildings.
A walk up to Pardshaw Crag
The walk is quite easy, and a small detour of our recommended Pardshaw Round (details in the cottage). When arriving at Pardshaw Hall, the school house and the burial ground wall can be seen on the left, and the old carriage house (garages) on the right.
There is a ramp, or a series of steps next to the old phone box, which lead to a gate, and then onto the Crag. Follow the footpath in the grass.
Once on top, the crag reveals itself not just as an outcrop, looking more like a castle from below, but as a shallow bowl with a natural 'stage' at one side - you can really imagine George Fox preaching here to his followers. With the Quaker movement among the first to recognise the 'equality of all men' (and this included people of any colour, and women), it feels great to stand on the same soil where such radical thoughts were first preached and discussed.
As a bonus, from the Crag you have a wonderful view back to Mosser and the lakeland fells, including Skiddaw, Fellbarrow, Grasmore and the Loweswater fells.
Why not take a wander up to Pardshaw Crag and think on the history of the area while drinking in the views?
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