Former Ambleside Friends Meeting House - Cumbria, England
N 54° 26.012 W 002° 57.796
30U E 502382 N 6031759
Ambleside Friends met in the old Police station, hence the studded door.
Waymark Code: WM3AW3
Location: North West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 03/07/2008
Views: 10
When it was felt there were sufficient numbers a preparative meeting was started in Ambleside in 1950s. After meeting in Friends houses and renting in Bridge Street, a member, Joan Whitwoth, offered premises on Rydal Road, the upper floor of this building, in 1962. In 1973 the Friends bought the building for about £11,500. The ground floor had been an old police station and various surgeries, and in 1984 was added to the meeting house after a redesign. In 1997 a room to the rear was acquired as hostel accommodation.
Prior to that Friends went to the Colthouse meeting. (
visit link) Numbers have once again dropped and a meeting in Ambleside is felt to be an 'inappropriate use of resources'.
Mint dental practice took over the building in 2008, to operate a local dental service.
As you can see from the photographs, it is a solidly built three story building made from traditional Lakeland stone with a Lakeland slate roof. Probably rendered in Victorian times, and painted more recently. This Police station was vacated in 1882, and the one in Church Street occupied. The nearest Quaker burial ground is at Colthouse. (
visit link)
Sources
Rooksby, And Sometime on the Hills
Butler, Lakeland Quaker Houses
Grade 2 listed building (
visit link)