Friends Meeting House Burial Ground

Benjamin Angell was an Elder and Clerk of the Longford Meeting. A successful chintz printer and dyer, he had inherited his father's large estate and the plot of land on what was then called Conduit Lane was purchased for £35. The Meeting House was built in 1785, a simple Georgian building with a main meeting room that is little changed today, although there have been modifications and extensions to the building over the years, and it was damaged in WWII bombing in 1940. While it was being restored the meetings were held in a temporary building in the grounds, known as The Barn, since demolished. The Brentford Friends were connected with Kew Gardens and a number of noted botanists, including Baker and Oliver, regularly attended the Meeting House and were buried here. The early burials were in the northern part and are not marked with gravestones, although its use for burial is recorded on a wall plaque. The burial ground to the south that was given by Sarah Angell in 1824 has simple rows of headstones set among the grass and a row of yew trees along one boundary, with other trees and shrubs. In the southern burial area the remains from the Friends Burial Ground in Long Acre, buried there between 1675 and 1757, were re-interred here in 1892. The uniformity and simplicity of gravestones in Quaker burial grounds reflects the Quaker philosophy of equality. The Meeting House grounds were once larger, but in 1978 part was leased to Shepherds Bush Housing Association to build Angell House, where one of the 9 units is used by the Warden of the Meeting House. It is a peaceful burial ground despite its close proximity to the traffic of Busch Corner.