The Pales (Quaker Meeting House)

Cadw's description

Location

Elevated position on a western spur of the Radnor Forest, about 1.6km (1 mile) N of Llandegley village.

History

Mid C18 meeting house [now with adjoining late C19 schoolmaster's dwelling]. Meetings were held in an earlier building on the site from at least 1673 when an adjacent plot of land was set aside for Quaker burials; the meeting was licensed in 1716 and the present structure probably built c1745. It is one of the earliest Quaker meeting houses in Wales and played an important part in the early history of Quakerism in Radnorshire. A school serving all the local community was run in the meeting house from 1867 to 1889. The Pales was the centre of a remarkable religious revival led by a charismatic visiting American schoolmaster. Extensive renovations were carried out in 1979.

Exterior

Single-storey, rubble stone with dressed quoins. Central enclosed porch, thatched roofs. Double boarded door to porch under cambered arch. Four small-paned timber casements, modern windows in original openings.

Interior

From the porch seperate six-panel doors, one marked 1745, the other 1825, give access to the meeting-room and the former schoolroom. The latter was originally designated as a room for womens' business meetings. The partition wall between the two rooms has three large openings in it, closed by boarded and battened shutters hinged top and bottom with strap hinges. The meeting room has a modern boarded floor, raised dais with Elders and Overseers benches, the front one with balustrated back, the rear one against the east wall with a modern panelled back. The schoolroom has part flagstone, part tile floor and C19 open fireplace with timber surround.

Reason for designation

Included at grade II* an account of its exceptional historic interest for the Quaker Movement in Wales.