Airton Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends.

This Meeting was settled at Scalehouse, near Skipton-in-Craven, in the early 1650s by the combined efforts of William Dewsbury, Richard Farnsworth, Thomas Stubbs, Miles Halhead and James Nayler. It was recorded in 1665 as a constituent of Skipton Monthly Meeting and again in 1669, when it became part of Settle Monthly Meeting. It drew in a community of Friends from Airton, Cracoe, Eshton, Flashby, Hetton and Rylstone, as well as Scalehouse itself, and two of its members, Richard Scostrop and John Hill, became widely travelled ministers. One of the mainstays of the Meeting was the Watkinson family of Scalehouse. In 1654 George Watkinson was fined and later imprisoned at York with his wife Anne for riding to meeting on a Sunday. The series of general meetings for the North of England which took place near Skipton from 1657 to 1660 and formed the precursor of the Yearly Meeting, were probably held at the Watkinsons' farm. In 1675, a few years after the death of George Watkinson, the Meeting became known as Rylstone. A Meeting House was built at Airton in 1700, financed by William Ellis and situated on his land. He gave the building and its burial ground to the Meeting in 1706. The Meeting flourished during this period and its name changed again to Airton. Another Meeting House was built in Rylstone in 1711, known as Fox House Barn. Both were in use throughout the 18th century, until the number of Friends declined and meetings ceased to be held in Rylstone in 1792. When Settle Monthly Meeting was dissolved in 1853, the Meeting was transferred to Brighouse Monthly Meeting. In 1910 it was reduced to an Allowed Meeting, before being discontinued in 1922. An Allowed Meeting existed for a short period between 1943 and 1948, as part of the re-formed Settle Monthly Meeting.

From the guide to the Records of Airton Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends, 1658-1969, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)