History of The Religious Society of Friends in Lurgan

CHAPTER NINE

REBUILDING THE STRUCTURES

JAMES GREEN

Another event in the 1850s had a profound effect on Lurgan meeting. James Green, a recorded minister who lived on a small farm near Brookfield School, felt a concern to leave his well attended local meeting to lend support to the few Friends who gathered in Lurgan. He came to live at Drumgask and for over forty years he worked tirelessly to rebuild the group and establish again a strong Quaker presence in the district. He is recalled with affection by James N. Richardson in his 'Reminiscences of Friends in Ulster':

'He dressed in the regular Quaker garb and, for one whose profession was farming, was extremely tidy and even natty in his attire..... His grammar was not always correct and his doctrine he could never explain, but it was not hard to know that he was a true follower of his Lord and Saviour and in no way tried to imitate Him more than in being His true shepherd. Up and down, here and there, visiting, cheering, warning and encouraging, went James for a generation and a half

STANLEY PUMPHREY

The growing strength of the meeting was evident to a visiting English Friend, Stanley Pumphrey, in 1874. In his biography by Henry John Newman we read:

'Lurgan Meeting at one time had seventy families belonging to it, but the meeting house premises were sadly neglected and in a ruinous condition. The congregation was so scattered that one old man often sat down there alone. Friends were talking of selling part of the premises to pay off the heavy debt that lay upon them, but this one old Friend entreated them not to do it, saying, "don't ye do it, Friends, the Meeting will yet revive." It has revived and when Stanley visited it there were sixty-four persons present.' Families whose names appear in records of this time include Hallidays, Sheppards, Pedlows, Bells and j Turtles.

SOCIAL CHANGES

Monthly Meeting minutes of these years indicate a new outward looking attitude. A more tolerant approach was shown towards those who had "married out" and there were far fewer disownments. Many who had lost their membership were reinstated and adherents and attenders were encouraged to become full members. The children of former members who were educated at Brookfield School retained contact with Friends and it was from their numbers that much growth came.

The town of Lurgan was undergoing great social change as the factory system became established and the linen boom rose to a new peak. Terraces and streets of houses were quickly erect and the population rose between 1851 and 1871 from 4,205 to 10,632. The small farms were no longer economic units if there was no income from handloom weaving. Many who had lived in the country moved into the new houses going up in the town. Action was taken by the meeting to make some repairs to the old 1696 meeting house, a caretaker's house was built and the row of fine blackstone houses with yellow brick facings was erected on the High St. frontage.

Many changes were taking place elsewhere. The neighbouring town of Portadown was growing in a similar way and the Quaker Model Village of Bessbrook provided attractive employment for those who were prepared to relocate. A Friends Meeting was established there about 1860 and attached to the Lurgan Monthly Meeting. Lurgan Friends remained however, a relatively poor and weak community, as can be judged from the proportion in the £ of the National Charge imposed by the Monthly Meeting in 1870:

ANCIENT AND MODERN WAYS

Within the Society of Friends in Ulster in these years there was constant tension between those who favoured adherence to the old traditions and those who sought to adapt Quaker principles to a rapidly changing world. James N. Richardson has given us an amusing but incisive picture of this controversy in 'The Quakri at Lurgan', an account in mock-heroic verse of a Quarterly Meeting in 1877 when the issue of music in the schools at Lisburn and Brookfield was under discussion. Most of the protagonists were from meetings other than Lurgan, but James Green is noted among the conservatives as "Shamus Verdans."

"Sammio Bellum, our Lurgan magistrate" (Samuel Alexander Bell, the linen manufacturer), his wife and beautiful daughter Sara also receive a mention. The author of The Quakri was, in fact, to marry Sara A. Bell at a later date.

THE NEW MEETING HOUSE

A decision was taken in the 1880s to remove the old meeting house which had stood for almost two hundred years and replace it on the same site by a modern building. The growing population of the town and the new vigour evident in the group encouraged Friends to undertake this project, although their resources were slender. A minute of Monthly Meeting dated the 14th of llth month 1888 states:

'Report has been read from the Committee on Lurgan Meeting house, from which it is quite clear that the whole house is in an unsafe state. We now appoint James Green, Wm. John Green and Edmund Greer to collect subscriptions for the building of a new house for which probably £1200 to £1500 shall be required.'

The architect, F. N. Lockwood, drew up plans for a large meeting room capable of accommodating several hundred worshippers. It had double aisles, a large upstairs gallery and a high ceiling. The ministers' gallery and wainscotting along the walls were of pine. The total effect was light and airy and portrayed the confidence of the late Victorian era. The entrance hall was spacious and gave access to cloakrooms and a small meeting room. As is generally the case with building, the cost exceeded the budget, but money was advanced from Monthly Meeting funds. The contract was awarded to Collen Brothers of Portadown and the work was completed in 1889 at a total cost of £1855.15.0.

Unlike the situation in 1696 when Lurgan Friends financed the building on their own, appeals were sent out to the Quarterly Meeting and beyond, and generous contributions were received from many Friends. Forster Green, who was a great benefactor of many Quaker and other projects of the time, gave £400 and substantial sums were also received from members of the Richardson family and other Friends prominent in commerce and industry throughout Ulster. In fact Lurgan Friends had only to contribute about a quarter of the total cost.

HOME MISSION OUTREACH

In 1884 a special conference was arranged by Dublin Yearly Meeting to promote Home Mission work in Ireland. Along with other Meetings Lurgan proceeded to engage in this gospel outreach to the general community. Bible classes were held for the scriptural instruction of members, an Adult Sunday School was commenced and informal Sunday afternoon cottage meetings were conducted in rural areas such as Drumgask, Tiersogue, Clare and Corcreaney.

DRUMGASK

In 1902 Robert G. Bass, a Belfast Friend, had a tent mission a couple of miles from the centre of Lurgan in Drumgask and it brought much spiritual blessing to the area. A plot of land was contributed by a local resident and Forster Green, when giving a generous gift to the Ulster Friends Home Mission Committee, suggested that they should built a permanent Mission Hall. Drumgask was a centre of evangelical outreach for many years and provided a focus for many Friends in their Christian witness. A 9.00 a.m. Sunday School was held during summer months with some ten to twelve classes. The main meeting took place on Sunday afternoons and a Christian Endeavour meeting on Monday evenings. In addition, special missions were held from time to time and seasonal events such as Harvest Thanksgivings and Sunday School social gatherings brought large attendances. Although the work was under the care of the Home Mission Committee, the actual day to day responsibility fell upon the Friends of Lurgan meeting. Hamilton Livingston, who had commenced the cottage meeting, was always closely identified with the work at Drumgask, as were his sons, Hamilton jnr. and Thomas, and his son-in-law, John Metcalfe, Samuel A. and Kathleen Bell, and members of the Hewitt, Hanlon, Kirk, Pedlow and Uprichard families. Sunday was a busy day for these Friends, as, in addition to the meetings at Drumgask, they had Morning worship and an "arranged" or "programmed" evening meeting also in Lurgan.

LOUGH NEAGH TRAGEDY

The whole town of Lurgan and especially the Quaker community were plunged into sorrow at the boating accident which occurred on an August afternoon in 1904. John and Herbert Green from Belfast were visiting their cousins who lived at Kinnego on the shores of Lough Neagh. With them on holiday were two school friends, Hugh and Edward Catchpool from Guernsey. They decided to go out on the Lough with Dora, Frank and Winifred Green who knew these waters well and were experienced sailors. As can happen on Lough Neagh, the weather changed abruptly and their boat was capsized in a sudden squall. Each one struggled to reach land, but only Winifred Green of Kinnego managed to swim to the shore after seeing each one, including her cousins, brother and finally her sister succumb to the waters. It was particularly poignant in that the young people who were drowned ranged in ages from sixteen to twenty-one. All six were buried in the Friends Burial Ground at Lurgan.

Winifred Green who escaped the tragedy was in her final year of university studies. She was one of the first women to graduate from the University of London in science with psychology and went on to teach in several Friends Schools. In later years she returned to Lurgan on her marriage to Frank Squire and gave many years of devoted service to Friends in Lurgan and in Ulster Quarterly Meeting. Her daughter, Marian Morrow, is the present Clerk of Lurgan Preparative Meeting.

EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

As the new century progressed, so Lurgan Meeting prospered and became once more the largest in the Monthly Meeting. Some members in the Portadown area transferred to the new meeting which was established there in 1905, but their departure was soon made good by additional members and attenders. The central position of Lurgan meeting made it an appropriate venue for Quarterly Meeting gatherings and visitation by concerned Friends. Alice Mary Hodgkin, of Reigate, visiting Lurgan and Drumgask in 1929, commented on the large numbers of young people present. Inter-church co-operation was a feature of those years through such organisations as Christian Endeavour and the United Christian Convention and many members gave warm support to the Missions in the town held by W. P. Nicholson. World War One and Two and the trauma of the Partition of Ireland passed the group of Lurgan Friends largely by, but they were concerned to uphold the Peace Testimony and shared in the sorrow which the entire town felt in the loss of life at the Somme, Galipoli, the evacuation from Dunkirk and the campaigns in North Africa, the Far East and Europe.

Frank and Winifred Squire	Thomas H. Livingston and Grandaughter

POSTSCRIPT

POST-WAR CHANGES

For an economy so closely tied to one industry Lurgan had a precarious existence. After the Second World War the linen trade suffered a further slump and the repercussions were grave upon the life of the town. Imported fabrics and new textiles made with synthetic materials displaced linen in many of the traditional markets. Factories became idle and closed, so that at the end of the twentieth century there remain few of the dozens of businesses which existed a hundred years previously. Strenuous efforts were made to attract new industries (which were in large measure successful) and to diversify employment in new fields, but something of the character and cohesiveness of the town was lost. This effect was evident too in the Quaker community. Opportunities were limited in the Lurgan area and a number of families moved from the district in search of better prospects.

Group of Lurgan Friends in 1993

THE NEW CITY OF CRAIGAVON

This trend was accentuated in the late 1960s and ' 70s with the establishment of the City of Craigavon, an ambitious plan, designed to incorporate both Lurgan and Portadown into one vast new conurbation. A tract of some 6,200 acres between the two towns was vested by a public authority. As a result a large number of residents were displaced and new housing estates and industrial centres created. Many Lurgan Friends lived outside the town and were directly affected by these changes . The work in the Mission Hall at Drumgask was abandoned, as the local population moved away, and in fact the building was burned in 1974 during the community strife associated with the IRA terrorist campaign.

LURGAN FRIENDS AT THE END OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Membership of Friends in the area was considerably reduced during this period, and attendance at Sunday Morning meeting much less than in the earlier years of the century. Families that were faithful in support of the meeting were Harland and Kirk (both descendants of original founder members), Gilchrist, Livingston, McKerr, Morrow, Sinton and Uprichard. The large meeting house was proving to be a burden to maintain and was inappropriate to their needs. A decision was therefore made to sell the large 1889 Meeting House and to build on a previously undeveloped plot beyond the burial ground and with good access from a public car park. The premises were sold in 1995 and are being adapted for office accommodation.

1996 MEETING HOUSE

The new Meeting House was thus built three hundred years after the site was acquired and the original building erected. In design and materials it differs greatly from the first place of worship, but preserves the Quaker principles of simplicity, order and beauty. It is constructed of red brick with a Redland tiled roof and blends sympathetically with the landscape. Natural materials are used as far as possible and the redwood sheeting used on the ceilings is a particularly pleasant feature. The meeting room has accommodation for some fifty or sixty worshippers on both benches from the former building and new individual chairs. For larger meetings a partition can be opened to double the accommodation. A spacious entrance hall gives access to a kitchen and rooms which serve for Sunday School, committees and teas. Private car parking is available and an area of lawn envisaged.

The architect who gave much care and thought to a building which would cater for Friends' present needs was Alwyn Sinton, a member of Lurgan Meeting, and the building contractor Robert Heak & Sons of Tandragee. The cost of this Meeting House reflects the changing value of sterling since Robert Hoope first sought contributions for the original building. It is estimated to be in the region of £160,000.

As Lurgan Friends commence another century of public worship in the town, they do so conscious of the continuing presence and guidance of God through all the vicissitudes of past years and confident that the Light of Christ can bring purpose and peace to each new situation.