An earlier time in old building's life

The Quaker Chapel - also referred to as The Friends' Meeting House.          Picture: Nantwich Museum

THIS building and its surrounding land has undergone many changes since the time the photograph was taken. The trees on the right (one in the far distance) have been felled. The gravestones have been removed and the land levelled. And the building has been extended with a single-storey construction surrounding it, together with other updates..

   It is, of course, now the Nantwich Players' Theatre which stands at the Pillory Street end of the Waterlode car park, opposite Nantwich Museum.

   It was in the Museum that Andrew Lamberton, a volunteer there, found the photograph in the archives. Unfortunately, details of who the quartette are was not written on the print.      

   They could be Quakers visiting the building where their ancestors worshipped, or staff members of Nantwich Rural District Council Rates Office who opened the building as a service to local farmers visiting the town.

   They are not members of Nantwich Players who converted the building into their theatre which opened in 1983. The amateur drama group didn't move in until the late 1970s. The land surrounding the building was levelled and became the car park it is today in 1972.

THE building opened in 1724 as a chapel for 13 local families of Quakers. Two of those families were the Stretches and the Harlocks who ran the Stretch and

Harlock's business on The Square. The commercial

premises still stand, but are now divided into a number of businesses. 

TWO features of the building when it was a Quaker Chapel (also referred to as a Friends' Meeting House) were a slightly raised area with rails at the front for the elders, at the right-hand side of the building as seen in the picture (marked Elders' Bench on the sketch, right) and a balcony at the other end of the main room for worshippers. The main area for worshippers was the ground floor.

    In the days of the building's use as a rates office, a room was created under the balcony with the erection of a wall dividing it from the main room. The balcony and the flight of stairs leading up to it were retained, and were, in fact, still present when Nantwich Players took over the building to store their scenery for productions they staged at the Civic Hall.

   [The sketch is believed to have come from a booklet on the local Quakers, held by Nantwich Public Library.] 

   Website owner John Brough, an Honorary Member of Nantwich Players, says the door in the "office" area led to a small backyard at the far end of which was an outside toilet - presumably installed for the Rural Council staff.

   He adds that the artist's impression of the building doesn't show two large windows on the right-hand wall, over the "elders' bench". With no windows on the far wall of the building, the main hall would have been very dark. 

Gravestones at Nantwich Burial Ground

AS well as finding the picture in the Museum, Andrew found a list of the inscriptions on the gravestones, which he believed was compiled by a local historian, the late Evan Lane, around the time when the car park was created.   

    Andrew also said: "On consulting Hall’s History of Nantwich (printed 1883), I found he refers to Quaker families resident in the town '100 years ago' - that would be around 1780. He mentions Adkins, Bellis,

   "Thomas Worsdell's wife, Elizabeth, was five years older than him and I think her gravestone should give her age as 79 and not 49 as recorded (see below)*.

   "There was no other Elizabeth Worsdell living in the town at that time."

Some of the details on the gravestones were indistinct, which is why there are gaps in the list