Heritage Open Days - Cotherstone Quaker Meeting House

About

A chance to visit an eighteenth-century meeting house in open country. Its history dates back to 1654, when George Fox reached Teesdale on foot, inspiring generations of local Quakers. Adults and children can expect a friendly welcome.

In tune with this year’s Heritage Open Days theme of routes, networks and connections, we celebrate in 2024 the 400th birthday of George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, who travelled on foot throughout England after the Civil Wars. Fox taught that the way to peace and truth is within, not in the rituals of established religion, encouraging his followers to “walk cheerfully over the world” and to cherish equality and simplicity. At Cotherstone, he inspired the farmer John Bowron to take these ideas to the Caribbean and South America, marking the start of a world-wide Quaker movement. After two centuries of persecution, this meeting house was built on the Bowron family’s land in 1797, its burial ground providing a nature-rich resting place outside the parish boundary. Cotherstone still welcomes Friends to Meetings for Worship on Sundays from 10.30 to 11.30 a.m. All are equally welcome on our Open Days for stories, displays, calm reflection, picnics and country walks.