Friends Meeting House
Friends Meeting House, Crawley: 1298879 Grade 1
LANGLEY LANE 1. 5403 Ifield Friends' Meeting House TQ 23 NE 3/49 21.6.48 I GV 2. Dated 1676 and built as the bequest of Robert Robinson the local blacksmith (No 5 Langley Lane g.v.). Built of Sussex stone, squared and tooled and thought to have been brought from Slaugham Place. Roof of Horsham stone slates. The main front facing the lane has 2 wide gables with half hips and a central doorway with rusticated quoins and lintel bearing the date 1676 on its keystone. Two large windows are on each side of the entrance, divided into 6 lights by 2 wood mullioned and transomed leaded panes. Two smaller windows above, are under each gable hip. On the right hand quoins of the entrance doorway the following dates and initials are cut: 16 NE 84, 16 AH 78, 16 HK 76, probably recording the admissions of new members. North front similar to south but doorway not central and only one large window. The interior has C18 benches and panelling of untreated pine. The building has associations with William Penn, who lived at nearby Warminghurst before he left for America; and with George Fox and Elizabeth Fry. Burial ground in enclosure to east. For early history of the Ifield Meeting see Sussex Archaeological Collection XVI pages 70-71. This is one of the earliest purpose-built meeting houses still existing.
