Nostalgia: Former Bare Quaker house

Though it looks like a standard five-bedroom house on the outside, there are periodic features all over the property that radiate history.

Cliff Tower mansion house was completed in 1857 in Rawtenstall taking seven years to complete and cost £38,000. The property later fell derelict after a fire and it was auctioned off in the early 1920s.

Two decorators from Morecambe, Ben Moyes and Son, bought a job lot and built a detached house on two plots on Seaborn Road.

Using the yellow sandstone, original window sills and carved heads which are carved reproductions of biblical characters including the Virgin Mary at windows and doors, it gives the house an appearance of a greater antiquity than it actually can claim.

The materials were brought by train and wagons totalling 15,000 tonnes and no less than 30,000 bricks were used for the outer walls which were of the original solid flag rock.

It became the Quaker house of Morecambe from the 1970s to 2008.

According to the Lancaster Quakers, the religious society of friends had its roots in the religious and political turmoil of 17th century England, when small groups of ‘Seekers’ in towns and villages around the country coalesced around the informal leadership of George Fox. These Seekers, or ‘Friends’, became popularly known as ‘Quakers’. Early Quakers were Christians who rejected the structures and offices of the established church. They turned their backs on the churches and instead met in each other’s homes, and later in purpose-built ‘meeting houses,’ like the former one in Bare.

The Quakers across Lancaster and Morecambe meet at Meeting House Lane, in Lancaster, a building which is 300 years old. To be a Friend or Quaker at that time was to show great courage as they were often persecuted. Quakers believe there is something of God in everyone.

Many thanks to Susie Rendell for supplying the information and pictures.