Mike Kinch, a Friend from Lancaster County PA, phoned me this evening. He just returned from a travel among Friends in England. He had planned to stay at the Jordans Meeting House one night, but the day before he arrived there, the meeting house burned. The fire started in the addition, east of the 1688 section. The warden was badly burned in the process of attempting to extinguish the flames and was still in the hospital when Mike left England. The fire consumed the ancient Friends library at Jordans, which had been moved into the addition. The fire proceeded into the 1688 section, burning the roof before being extinguished. The roof timbers were badly charred but did not collapse. Mike reports that the door and windows on the historic 'front' of the meeting house are intact. Jordans is one of the key 17th century Friends meeting houses. The meeting house itself is one of the two-cell meeting house type which was common in England from 1688 until the early 1800s. Although this was the most common type of Friends meeting house in England, there are no known examples of the type in North America. William Penn and Isaac Penington are buried in front of the meeting house at Jordans. Since Jordans had already been identified as one of the landmark religious buildings of the 17th century in England, moneys are available for its complete rebuilding, as near to the original as possible.