Quaker
Cottage, Black Horse Lane
Continuing the series of past Worship Churches &
Chapels By Stephen J Bull
In the mid-1800's the residents of Swavesey were spoilt for places to worship (as was the custom at that time for the inhabitants to worship at one or other church on a Sunday). Besides St. Andrew's Parish Church and the St. Peter's Mission Church in Boxworth End two Baptist Churches, a Unitarian Chapel (later Primitive Methodist) and a Quaker Meeting House catered for the worshippers of Swavesey.
Of the history of the Baptists and Methodist more another time, suffice to say that the so called 'dissenters' were first mentioned in Swavesey as early as 1676. Tradition has it that the 'non-conformists', as the term suggests, refused to conform to the established/Anglican Church and so did not attend the Parish Church but worshipped separately. Initially they worshipped in the open in a field known as "Gospel Hill" in Mow Fen, close to the railway track, before acquiring land in the village (from sympathetic land owners) and building their own chapels.
The "Quakers", members of the "Society of Friends" - a Christian sect founded by George Fox about 1650, were first mentioned in the area as early as 1667; one George Nash of Over. When the Quaker community first appeared and acquired property in Swavesey is not known. (However, Fen Boy mentioned a Quaker gathering in Swavesey very early on with one Quaker imprisoned for his faith in 1655 and a further 23 Quakers in 1660 but the writer has no proof of this. It would suggest however that a number of Quakers were amongst the early Swavesey dissenters.) Some six acres of land was acquired in "Black Horse Lane" the estate being "purchased by the Society of Friends of Robert Hanscombe of Swavesey ..... in trust for ever hereafter to permit and suffer the People called Quakers to assemble and keep a Meetinghouse (sic) according to their usage and customs". ("Fen and Upland" page 49.)
The Quaker Meeting House, sandwiched between "Rose Cottage" and the red-brick (Barwell's) "Old House" was of wooden construction, possibly with a thatched roof. It was burnt down in 1719 and replaced with a "(Swavesey) red-brick" building more or less as it stands today. A new wing and possibly the entrance porch were added in the late-1800's and re-roofed in slate in the 1890's.
Besides being a place of worship the Meeting House was used by an adult school and for charitable and political meetings. Mention is made of the "Friends Adult School AGM" in 1897; also a "Christian Endeavour Meeting" when a Miss Girragosian, an Armenian lady, spoke of Christian Endeavour work, and of the persecution she had witnessed in Armenia.
Quaker evangelistic meetings were held until the mid-1930's. A Miss Fanny Gaunt was one of the last persons to occupy the Meeting House and a photograph exists of her entering the cottage at one end. She held regular meetings in Market Street, outside the "White Horse" where she preached about the evils of drink! Sunday School classes were held on Sunday afternoons for children of all denominations with choruses and an evangelistic Bible story told by her. As the children left for home they would be heard singing:-
"If
you're burdened down with sin,
Go to Fanny Gaunt and she will let you in."
"Fanny Gaunt" (as she was always affectionately known) is buried in the Dissenter's Burial Ground round the Hale.
After her two young Quaker women, Miss Gwern and Miss Clarke, occupied the cottage for a short while.
The Meeting House was sold to "Barwells" in 1937 as part of the Rubber Works and the chapel was used for various purposes including office, storage and packing case manufacture until the late-1970's. The cottage was lived in by Mr Douglas Barwell and then a Mr & Mrs Hales. When it was sold off with the "Old House" next door to Mr Richard Hewlings the Meeting House was converted into the two present-day dwellings.
As far as the writer is aware there are few, if any, Quakers living in Swavesey today (if so they probably travel into Cambridge to worship) but numbers "3A" appropriately named "Quaker Cottage" and Number "3, Black Horse Lane" are permanent reminders of Swavesey's connections with the early Quaker movement.