| Description | In the 1920s, Friends in Sutton Coldfield and the surrounding area did not have their own meeting house and so meetings for worship, followed by committee meetings, were held at Friends' houses with meetings at the houses of Mrs Joel Cadbury, Mr and Mrs Viggars, Mr and Mrs Sheldon, and Mr and Mrs Robson.
From 1925, the meeting became known as the Sutton Coldfield and District Friends' Meeting and held meetings for worship in the Cooperative Hall in Sutton Coldfield, but committee meetings continued to be held at Friends' houses. A year later, Friends hired the Assembly Room, at the Parade Sutton Coldfield for meetings for worship and in 1928, Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting gave its approval for the meeting to become Sutton Coldfield Preparative Meeting. From 1929 the meeting moved to the House of Friendship in the grounds of Oakhurst in Anchorage Road, Sutton Coldfield until 1933 when the owner of Oakhurst wished to reclaim use of her premises, and Friends were forced to find another location for their meetings. After investigating several possibilities, they decided to accept the invitation of Richard Cottam, who was involved with the Kingstanding and Perry Common Occupational Hut Committee (see SF/2/1/1/4/13), to transfer the Sutton Coldfield and District Friends Meeting to Kingstanding Community Hall.
By 1937, Friends decided that a purpose-built meeting house should be constructed. A site in Kenelm Road, Sutton Coldfield was chosen and subscriptions from Friends were collected to fund the building of the new meeting house. Hubert Lidbetter designed the building which opened on 16th September 1939.
See SF/3 for a description of the functions of the local/Preparative Meeting. |