Friends Meeting House, Dolobran
Friends Meeting House, Dolobran
Dolobran Friends Meeting House is a Grade II* Quaker meeting house near Pontrobert, Meifod, Powys, set in a fold of the hill north of Forge Farm. Cadw regards it as probably the earliest purpose-built meeting house in Wales.
- Location
- Dolobran, Powys
- Country
- Wales
- County
- Powys
- City / town
- Dolobran
- Address
- Dolobran, Powys, SY22 6HU
- Postcode
- SY22 6HU
- Built
- c.1700–1702; first meeting 20 April 1701
- Architect
- Charles Lloyd III of Dolobran
- Denomination
- Quaker (Religious Society of Friends)
- Grade
- II*
- Style
- Early Quaker meeting house
- Materials
- Colourwashed brick in irregular bond with slate roof
- Grid reference
- SJ 123 124
- Opening hours
- Sorry, there are no regular opening times for this church.
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets nearby
- Website
- http://dolobran.llanhub.uk/
Overview
Cadw records a meeting house erected about 1700–1702 by Charles Lloyd III of the Quaker Lloyd family, who had purchased Dolobran in 1640. Charles Lloyd II had been imprisoned for his faith and was involved with William Penn; George Fox held meetings on the estate in 1667–68. The house, with an attached dwelling and burial ground, was completed in 1701 and the first meeting was held on 20 April. The building is a single-cell colourwashed brick structure with a slate roof, divided into a west entrance lobby with loft and a meeting room. The meeting room has a small east gallery formerly reached by an external stair. Furnishings were later removed to Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
Meetings continued until 1829; the last burial was in 1801. By 1878 the building was a storehouse. It returned to Quaker use from the 1970s. John Lloyd later gave the meeting house, cottage and land back to Friends. Cadw lists it at Grade II* for its importance in the religious history of Wales.