Horsham Friends Meeting House

The first Quaker presence in the ancient market town of Horsham was in 1655. In that year the founder of the Society of Friends George Fox first visited Sussex, and it is sometimes claimed that he stopped off in Horsham—although there is no evidence to suggest he founded the congregation in the town or even visited at that time. His diary records that "I passed into Sussex and lodged near Horsham where there was a great meeting, and many convinced" (i.e. converted). Whether from Fox's influence or not, in 1655 a group of Quakers preached in the market place and one was jailed for "causing a disturbance in church" (St Mary's, the Church of England parish church). Quakers were seen as "striking directly at the foundations of order and authority" The cause grew quickly, though: by 1668, Horsham was one of 13 locations in Sussex recorded as having permanent Quaker meetings. At that time none of these places had permanent meeting houses, members instead using "safe private houses and farm buildings", but this soon changed: one was built at Ifield, a short distance from Horsham, in 1676 (still in use, and one of the oldest continuously operating purpose-built Friends meeting houses) and another had opened in Lewes the previous year (superseded in 1784 by the present Lewes Friends Meeting House). The religious census of 1676 found about 100 Nonconformists in Horsham parish, out of a population of about 3,000; many of these would have been Quakers. The buildings were dilapidated by the late 18th century, so they were cleared in 1785–86 and a replacement meeting house was built further forward, closer to the road, in 1786. A cottage was built onto the northeast side at this time. The work cost £536 14s. 5½d. He became "the most influential architect of meeting houses [in the interwar] period" and afterwards (he died in 1966). Horsham Friends Meeting House is one of three surviving 18th-century Friends meeting houses in Sussex, along with Herstmonceux (1734) and Lewes (1784). It was designated a Grade II listed building on 26 July 1974, and is registered for worship in accordance with the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855; its number on the register is 4666. It is very close to Horsham Unitarian Church, another Grade II-listed place of worship built in 1721. The meeting house is one of eight in the West Weald area, covering northwestern West Sussex and southern Surrey. There are services each Sunday morning and Wednesday lunchtime. ==Architecture==

The Victoria County History of Sussex dates the meeting house to 1786 but states that in its present form it "seems later in style" than that date. as does the subsequent (2004) Sussex Extensive Urban Survey, but other sources agree that the meeting house does date from 1786. It represents an example of two trends in Quaker meeting house design in the 18th century, in which "the long-wall meeting house with asymmetrically placed entrance was slowly replaced as a model [by] more symmetrical designs", and there was a tendency to rebuild modest older meeting houses on a larger scale. Inside, the main meeting room is tall and nearly square (30 ft 6 in. x 27 ft 6 in.). There are some fixed benches on the walls; other benches have open backs and date from the late 18th century, i.e. contemporary with the meeting house. ==Burial ground==

The burial ground, at the front (east side) of the meeting house, is no longer in use and has been turned into a garden. The only surviving headstones, both of which have been laid down to form paving slabs, are of the local palaeontologist George Bax Holmes (d. 1887) and his wife, who predeceased him, and another for members of the Saunders family who also died in the late 19th century. ==See also==