Ian, they're an offshoot of Plymouth Brethren, and were at one time under the rule of a man (of course) with weird ideas. My Dad had clients who were Plymouth, and the son became Exclusive, and had to eat in a separate room.

There was a scandal involving the leader and women (what a surprise) which split the Exclusives, but he is now dead, and the rules seem to be relaxing a bit. The women still have the headscarves, but the rest of the dress is wmuch freer. And the meeting houses have had windows put in them.

I used to worry about the girls in school. "We don't believe in educating our women," a colleague was told. They did try to run their own school for a while, having worried about the exposure to computers (apparently the organisation now uses them to keep tabs on membership, but they are not allowed to let us unbelievers know this as we would not understand that they are OK used for holy purposes) and increasingly girls doing PE and swimming. But they had some special needs children they could not cope with, who came back to us. They were nice people, who believed what they had been taught, and were prepared to swallow any change unquestioning.

Penny