The Quakers held the earliest religious services in Cheltenham at Richard Wall’s house, on Church Road, beginning in 1683. Services there continued until the Abington Friends; Meeting House was erected in 1702. In 1697, John Barnes, a wealthy English tailor, gave 120 acres for the new Meeting House and a school. Located behind the meetinghouse is a cemetery that contains the graves of many persons and families who were prominent in the early history of the area.

Ref,: The Corridor, newsletter of the Old York Road Historical Society www.oyrhs.org