There have been Quakers in Shrewsbury since the 17th Century. They first held meetings in a pair of houses on St John’s Hill and used the gardens as a burial ground. They built a Meeting House in the garden in 1670 and built two subsequent ones on the same site. The last, built in 1807, still exists and is now the parish hall of the neighbouring St Chad’s Church.
The Meeting dwindled during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the Meeting House was sold in 1924. In about 1936, George and Helen Landsdowne, Quakers from the south of England, moved to Shrewsbury and started a Meeting for Worship in their own home in Kemps Eye.
Since then it has grown out of several properties until the present building in Coton Hill was bought in 1985. There is at present a membership of about fifty and many regular attenders. Until recently there has been a children’s class but this only occurs when requested these days.
Since June 2021, we have been holding blended meetings on the first and third Sundays of each month, with some Friends online with Zoom conecting to the main meeting in the Meeting House.