Over a period of 40 years the Friends of wealth and importance in the town and in the Society had died, leaving Lewes Meeting only a shadow of its former self. In spite of the many good qualities of its members it had failed to rear a generation of successors. Perhaps it was the glowing memories of the older Friends which led them to despair of the future. In 1918 a meeting was held at Bedford Lodge to decide whether it should be closed. Numerically it was little smaller than in the time of its former greatness, but it briefly ceased to exist as a preparative meeting - one which had its own clerk and held its own business meeting. Fortunately they decided to continue the Meeting and it eventually flourished again.

During the Great War many Quakers, because of their religion, were accepted as conscientious objectors, but some were not accepted and others refused to register. Friends spent much time assisting objectors both in prison and in work camps. One of these was Edward Glaisyer who had moved to Lewes at the age of 69 at the request of local Friends. For a while he was 'Quaker Chaplain' at the prison, and he also befriended the young men at the Home office work centre at Denton, to which many conscientious objectors were drafted, and where at least one died because of harsh conditions and inadequate medical attention. Towards the end of the war, Friends published leaflets in defiance of the censorship regulations, and as a result, during part of the 1918 Yearly Meeting the Clerk was not at the table, but at the Old Bailey. Thus Mary Jane Godlee, a descendent of John Godlee, became the first woman to preside over Yearly Meeting.

Since then the meeting has grown, and in recent years the number of members has been over 70, and there have been many attenders. Several changes in the building have been necessary to provide better facilities, but great care has been taken to ensure that the new is harmoniously integrated with the old. In Victorian times the interior panelling, the furniture and the exterior mathematical tiling had been painted. The first real restoration began during the last war. The fire-watchers stationed at the Meeting House spent many nights scraping away brown paint to reveal the wood beneath. After the war the paint was removed from the mathematical tiling, and the porch, once black, was repainted in white.

The burial ground, which was difficult to maintain, was reshaped. Most of the space in front of the Meeting House has been used for burials, but the earlier graves were never marked by headstones, since Friends, for many years, had a testimony against their use. A carefully measured plan was kept, showing the location of each grave. When stones were eventually permitted the regulations specified that the design should be uniform in each burial ground, and that the inscriptions should be limited to name, age, and date of death. Nevertheless, one of the stones, in memory of Jessie Cowey who died in 1929, also bears the inscription Resurgam, a daring innovation which must have provoked some controversy at the time. In 1956 the scattered stones were removed from the centre of the lawn, and placed neatly in rows in front of the wall. As the remains beneath were not disturbed no Home office license was needed for this work, but permission was sought from all surviving relatives.

The Meeting House

The Coach House was a more difficult problem. For many years after the last horse had been stabled there it was used, as the only sizeable alternative to the meeting room, for Sunday School classes and other purposes. For many years there was discussion about an internal conversion which would preserve the outward appearance, and about the provision of badly needed car parking spaces. Cost was originally the reason for delay, but eventually the idea had to be abandoned when structural weaknesses were found. The building was demolished, but two unusual window frames were preserved, in the hope that eventually they may be incorporated in another building. This allowed the sale of land to the Council for an access road to the ground at the back of the Meeting House, and for the provision of car parking spaces.

The Coach House

The end wall of the Warden's cottage was removed, and the building was lengthened. At the front of the meeting room a door was made through to the new extension. For the first time there was an adequate kitchen, a library/committee room, and a large hall provided primarily for the Sunday School, but also used by many others. On the first floor, instead of the small rooms of the original cottage, there is now a spacious flat for the Wardens.

For more than a century the Meeting House has been let to other organisations. Many of these have no connection with Friends, but others are very close to Quaker concerns. Whenever Friends have been aware of social needs which are not being met they have offered the premises at concessionary rates or without charge. In the past many Quaker groups were founded to deal with social problems, but this approach is no longer favoured: Friends prefer to join existing groups, or to found groups which are far less exclusive.

The Meeting Room

Friends have been known for their peace testimonies since the seventeenth century, but in recent years many new peace groups have been founded in Lewes. There are few which are without Quakers, and few in which Quakers have not taken important initiatives, but there are none locally which are exclusive to Friends.

How much remains of the vision of the first Quakers? The distinctive dress and speech are gone, as is the abrasive anti-clericalism. Art and music are now encouraged rather than forbidden. The old exclusiveness has been replaced by a warmer universalism, with respect to doctrine as well as to society in general. Nevertheless, most Friends would argue that the essentials have been preserved, and that the changes have been made only to allow better expression of the fundamentals.

Meeting for Worship is held in much the same way as before. Meetings are silent, except when a person feels spontaneously moved to rise and speak. Quaking is not a phenomenon of the seventeenth century alone. Business meetings still follow the same organisation, and the methods which were used to seek out agreement rather than confrontation still work, although no method is a sure guarantee against human frailty. The Clerk and Assistant Clerk at the table

The Clerk and Assistant Clerk