From biscuits friends group was formed

MANY people associate the word “quaker” with porridge. Actually, the religious group of friends known as Quakers have no connection with Quaker oats at all but the Henley meeting does have a link with biscuits.

Why would a manufacturer choose the name “Quaker” for his product? It was because the word was associated with being honest, plain and straightforward. Their trademark image of a man dressed in Quaker garb reinforced the idea of good quality and honest value. Someone you can trust.

In fact, Quakers were originally known as the Religious Society of Friends of the Truth. Eventually shortened to the Religious Society of Friends or just Friends but we are most commonly known as Quakers.

Originally the term “quaker” was an insult made to early friends after our founder admonished his followers to “tremble at the Word of the Lord”.

A judge in the mid-17th century complained about “troublesome Quakers” appearing before him in his court for some misdemeanour and the name stuck.

Early friends were dissenters from the established church and were often arrested for their practices.

These could be not paying tithes to the church, holding illegal meetings for worship, travelling by horse on a Sunday or not showing the customary hat honour by removing their hats in the company of their “betters”.

This was a common catch and many early friends were sent to jail for not doffing their hats. (This relates to friends’ belief that all people are equal in the eyes of God and they would not show deference to another human by doffing their hat but to God alone.)

The first Quaker to arrive in Henley was Ambrose Rigg in 1658, who went to the market in New Street and started preaching.

Not put off by the rough treatment of butcher’s boys, soon afterwards a “Friends Meeting” was established in Henley. They met at first in someone’s home but then moved into a cottage in Northfield End, more or less where our Meeting House stands today.

In the 1890s it became clear the old meeting room was not suitable anymore and a new house was planned to accommodate adult school classes, for men and women, as well as First Day (Sunday) Worship.

The adult school movement was started by the Rowntrees of York (a well-known Quaker family) to teach uneducated adults. At that time one in five men and one in three women could not read or write.

So, in 1894, the new Friends Meeting House was built in Northfield End — and that’s where biscuits come into the story.

The cost of the building had to be raised by local friends’ donations. This was greatly supported by generous Reading Friends — Joseph Huntley and George and Alfred Palmer, business men involved in the successful biscuit factory.

If you would like to learn more and find out if your family had a connection with Henley Quakers, come to our exhibition the Quaker Architectural Heritage — Beyond the Bricks at the Meeting House on Saturday, September 13 as part of National Heritage Week.