Cotherstone Friends Meeting House

Friends Meeting House, built in 1797, with a porch added in 1837. Later alterations.

MATERIALS: low stone plinth, squared and coursed rubble stone walls with quoins and dressings, stone roof coverings with stone kneelers and coped gables.

PLAN: a single-storey single unit, rectangular on plan, with gabled roof and short chimney ridge stack to the west gable. The south porch is rectangular on plan. A small lean-to stands to the east end.

EXTERIOR: the main (south) front of four bays comprises, from left to right, a tall round-headed window-opening with a modern fourteen-over-six-light timber sash window, the porch, and two further round-headed window openings with precisely similar sash windows. The gabled porch has a panelled double-leaf door with glazed radial fanlight. The west gable end includes lettering fixed to the wall, reading SOCIETY OF FRIENDS/ MEETING HOUSE. The rear (north) elevation has a pair of four-light mullioned windows at ground floor level in the western bay, whilst the east elevation includes a lean-to to the south end, entered though a timber plank door to the south.

INTERIOR: the porch houses two doorways in the meeting house south wall, that to the left leading into the former women’s meeting room whilst that to the right leads into the main meeting room. The two spaces are divided by a full-height timber screen ornamented with reed and roundel decoration; the screen includes rising sash shutters. The former women’s meeting room has been converted into a small kitchen and toilet. The main meeting room includes the panelled Elders’ stand across the full width of the east wall, entered through central gates up three steps. The stand includes fixed benches. Two chandeliers, said to be original to the building, hang from the flat ceiling.