Quaker Quest: Ravenstonedale Meeting House Traditional Cache
Quaker Quest: Ravenstonedale Meeting House
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Near the old Quaker Meeting House for Ravenstonedale.
The early Quakers in the area met in houses, with some of my ancestors from Grisedale walking over via Uldale to meetings in Ravenstonedale. It was not until 1704 that the meeting house was built here, with stables being added in 1710, and the building heightened to include a loft in 1754. By 1793, there were fewer Quakers in the area, and they met at Narthwaite, so the meeting house here was closed, though it remained in good repair for many years. By 1899, when there were only two Quakers remaining in the area, and the building was becoming derelict, it was demolished with the stone being sold for £10. The stables were still here until 1924. This area is in the parish of Ravenstonedale, but is usually now regarded as being part of "Fell End". The village of Ravenstonedale is several miles away, but the authorities refused permission for the Quakers to build a meeting house near to Ravenstonedale Church because they feared disturbance of the church services! Anyone who knows the modern Quaker style of worship will think that this sounds strange, but some of the early Quakers were very outspoken in their opposition to the established church. When Ravenstonedale Parish Church was being rebuilt in the mid-1700s, there was a local land-tax imposed to pay for the work, but local Quakers Thomas Thornborough and Thomas Close objected on conscientious grounds to pay the assessment, so they were not allocated a pew in the new church. Instead, pew 95 was bought by the Rev. George Fothergill, and set apart for the poor and lame.
There is now little to show that a building was once here, but the trees round the graveyard mark the site. The cache is not on former Quaker ground because it is now in private ownership as farm land.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
haqre ebpx