Friends Meeting House

"The small old white meeting house is surrounded by a yet older small green burial ground where long grasses and flowers innumerable cover the gentle slopes. The soft mounds cluster around the walls, as if those who were laid there had wished their bodies might rest as near as possible to the house of peace where their spirits had rested while on earth." – Lucy Violet Hodgkin, Quaker writer (1869-1954).

After more than 300 years it seems like the Meeting House has barely changed. Come to Good is a tiny village, a few houses and a farm, which huddle away in a protective valley.

In the late 1600's Cornwall’s Quakers were facing repression and imprisonment. The Friends were hounded out of their meeting houses and many Cornish Quakers were persecuted and incarcerated.

George Fox, founder of the Quakers, came to Cornwall in 1656. He had been arrested several times for blasphemy, but he continued to speak out. After the Toleration Act of 1689 the local group group felt safe to start work on a simple cob and thatch house. 

Come to Good Friends Meeting House was completed in 1710 and is one of the oldest Quaker Meeting Houses in England.

The building has remained in use almost continuously since it was built just over 300 years ago. It finally got electricity and running water in 1967. Inside simple pews surround the central table and a gentle light floods in from the old diamond leaded windows, creating a wonderfully peaceful atmosphere.

In 2024, the building was added to Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register, due to the deterioration of the thatched roof. The thatch is forcing the timbers apart – posing a risk that it could collapse. It’s also letting in a significant amount of water, which is starting to rot the roof timbers and if not fixed soon, will damage the heritage inside the building. Similarly, the windows are also losing their structural integrity.

Thankfully, help is on hand to protect this much-loved Grade I Listed building. A £35,000 National Churches Trust Grant will help to pay for urgent repairs to thatched roof.

It really is a magical place and well worth a visit.