| Description | Northfield Preparative Meeting has its origins in the adult school movement. A Men's Early Morning Class was started in 1890, meeting in a disused malt-house near the Bell Inn on Bunbury Road. Severn Street Christian Society soon established a Northfield branch with an Evening Meeting for worship, consisting of hymns and an address by a speaker, while a Monthly Fellowship Meeting was established to deal with the administrative aspects of the Evening Meetings. By 1892, there was a congregation of 192. While not initially a branch school of Class XIV Severn Street, Northfield Adult School was supported by those working with Class XIV.
In the same year, Northfield Friends' Institute, located off Bunbury Lane, was opened. This building was commissioned by George Cadbury (1839-1922) to house the Men's Early Morning School and by 1899, as well as the main hall, it comprised a post office, a temperance coffee-house, a social club and school rooms. A number of activities took place at the Institute, including a Men's First Day Early Morning Class, taught by George Cadbury Junior (1878 - 1954), a Young Men's Class, a Children's Meeting, a Children's School, a Teachers' Preparation Class, a Band of Hope, a Young Women's Bible Class, a Women's Class run by Elizabeth Cadbury (1858 - 1951) with help from Edith Morland and Gladys Naish, and a Missionary Helper's Union. In the winter there were lantern lectures, and the Institute operated a lending library and a book club. Provident sick societies and savings funds were also available to members.
The first Morning Meeting for worship, attended by William White (1820-1900), took place in an old skittle alley which was adapted for the purpose in around 1896 and followed the same format as the Evening Meeting. The Morning Meeting, becoming popular, soon outgrew its accommodation and in 1898 it moved to the hall at Northfield Friends' Institute. Around this time, another non-conformist church began to worship in Northfield and members of the Morning Meeting decided that since the majority of members were either connected to or already members of the Society of Friends, the time had come to make an application to Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting to become an allowed meeting. In 1899, the Monthly Meeting gave its approval for this and the meeting became Northfield Allowed Meeting and later a Preparative Meeting.
Until 1901, the Sunday Morning and Evening Meetings were each managed separately by the Preparative Meeting and the Northfield Christian Society. With agreement of Severn Street Christian Society and Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting, it was decided that members of Northfield Christian Society should be offered associate membership of the Religious Society of Friends. This removed the need for individuals to have membership of two organisations undertaking similar work and meant members and associates had equal rights at business meetings of Northfield Preparative Meeting.
The Preparative Meeting continued to meet at Northfield Institute until a purpose built meeting house on Church Road, seating a congregation of 150, was opened in 1931. In the second half of the 20th century, the Institute was passed to Birmingham City Council's Education Department and the Adult School moved to the meeting house. By 2000, due to the small size of the group of Friends meeting in Northfield, it became harder for the group to fulfil the functions of a Preparative Meeting, so the meeting became a Recognised Meeting, authorised by Warwickshire Monthly Meeting and holding meetings for worship, but responsible only for correspondence, finance and maintenance of the meeting house. With numbers of the Recognised Meeting continuing to fall, it subsequently became a Notified Meeting with fewer responsibilities, and it finally closed in 2001.
Among others, Louis Barrow, John W. Hoyland, George Cadbury Junior, Edith Cadbury, Alice E. Impey (1887-1962) were members of this meeting. William Davis was first President of Northfield Adult School, and other Presidents included Louis Barrow, Bernard Shewell, Wilfred Shewell and John Herbet. Vice-Presidents were Hotham Cadbury and John A. Tuckey, and the Secretary for many years was W. Townsend. George Cadbury Junior was appointed Secretary of the Northfield branch of the Christian Society in 1900.
See SF/3 for a description of the functions of the Local/Preparative Meeting. |