A meeting of Friends, the first to be settled in Cumberland, began in a private house in 1653. As this meeting grew in numbers, it could not be contained indoors and met for many years in the
open air on Pardshaw Crag. In time the meetings during the winter were divided amongst Friends' houses in Lamplugh, Pardshaw, Whinfell and Eaglesfield.
Eventually, in 1672, a meeting house was built at Pardshaw and this was enlarged in 1705. No traces of this building now remain. In 1728 a decision was taken to build a new meeting house in the
Guards near Pardshaw Hall, including a women's meeting house and a walled burial ground. Some of the materials from the original meeting house were used in the construction of the new building
and a lintel bearing the date 1672 may still be seen above the doorway to stables built in 1731. Later additions included a porch, schoolroom and carriage shed.
The meeting closed in 1923 but the buildings continue to be used as a hostel.