Coanwood Meeting House, Northumberland

Coanwood Friends Meeting House, built in 1760, stands in a beautiful upland valley, south of Hadrian’s Wall. Several 18th-century meeting houses survive in Cumbria but only Coanwood has been spared major alteration or conversion.

The stone-flagged interior is a rare survival of historic Quaker layout. The space is divided in two by a panelled wooden screen with top hinged shutters. The larger room is the main meeting room with seven rows of benches and two raised Elders’ benches on a narrow dais facing them.

In the burial ground are typically simple headstones with round tops and only the initials of the interred and the date of their death in the Julian calendar. Many Quakers and Non-Conformists adhered to this calendar when England adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

Previously in care of the Historic Chapels Trust, Coanwood Meeting House was transferred into the ownership of the Friends of Friendless Churches in spring 2025.