The first Quakers to preach in Salterforth were William Dewsbury and James Nayler around 1653 and a Meeting known as Broughton was settled soon afterwards. The Meeting covered Salterforth, Kellborough, Earby and Barnoldswick, as well as Broughton. It was recorded in 1665 as part of Skipton Monthly Meeting, and in 1669 as part of Settle Monthly Meeting. Some of its leading members were Robert Clough, Christopher Loftas and Richard Boothman. A Meeting House was acquired in Salterforth in 1678, replaced by a new building, possibly on the same site, in 1715. The Meeting was known as Salterforth from around 1678. Friends continued to hold meetings in their homes for several decades. The first meetings held in the neighbouring but remote dale of Lothersdale date from 1717. A Meeting House opened at Dale End in Lothersdale in 1723 and it was around this time that the Meeting became known as Salterforth and Lothersdale. A group of Lothersdale Friends suffered prosecution and imprisonment for non-payment of tithes in 1795; they were not released until 1797, when the demands of vicar of Carlton, George Markham, were dismissed as exorbitant. Those imprisoned were Henry and John Wormall, John Wilkinson, Henry King, John Stansfield (in place of his wife Mary), Joseph Brown, James Walton and William Hartley. Meetings appear to have ceased completely in Salterforth in 1798 and the Meeting became known simply as Lothersdale. The Meeting House at Dale End was completely rebuilt in 1799, and was used for worship for another century until 1897. In 1853, Lothersdale Friends were transferred to Brighouse Monthly Meeting and ceased to have an independent Preparative Meeting, being incorporated with Addingham into Skipton Preparative Meeting. Salterforth Meeting re-formed in 1890, lasting only a decade to 1900, within Brighouse Monthly Meeting. In 1918 it was opened once more as an Allowed Meeting and transferred to the newly-established Settle Monthly Meeting in 1924. A year later it became a full Preparative Meeting again, but was reduced to Allowed Meeting for the period 1945 to 1955, and finally closed in 1961.
From the guide to the Records of Lothersdale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends, 1794-1803, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)
