Quaker Meeting House, King Street, Melksham

Records of Quakers in Melksham date from 1669 when a group of 80 Friends met at the home of Robert and Hester Marshman at Shaw Hill, about 2 miles from the town. Meetings continued here and in 1690 the Marshman home was registered as a place of worship in the name of Hester. She was to live to be 102, dying in 1702. The Quakers were very strong in Melksham from 1690 to 1730 and around 1698 they acquired land and a new meeting house in the town, in King Street. This had a burial ground to the rear of building. The meeting house was extended in 1705 and completely rebuilt on the same site c.1776/7. It is a single storey stone building. Many of the Melksham Quakers were prosperous and influential and included well known local families such as the Beavens, Ruttys and Fowlers. Some refused to pay tithes to the Anglical church and were sent to prison. The meeting house remained in use for over 250 years but meetings ceased in 1950 when the house was rented to the Plymouth Brethren. The meeting house was sold in 1958 and is now home to the National Spiritualist Church.