Rawdon Quaker Meeting House

Quaker Meeting House, built in 1697 and extended in 1729, with later alterations.

MATERIALS: coursed dressed gritstone walls, imitation stone roof coverings.

PLAN: rectangular on plan, single-storey with gabled queen post roof and chimney stack to the west gable end. The meeting house is oriented north-west to south-east (which is simplified in the following description to north-south).

EXTERIOR: the meeting house main (south) front comprises four bays with, from left to right, a pair of two-light mullioned sash windows, the entrance door, and two further pairs of two-light mullioned sash windows. The lintel of the chamfered doorway includes the date 1697. There are ventilation grilles below the windows. The west elevation includes a pair of two-light mullioned sash windows which light a small meeting room, whilst the north elevation includes only a rear entrance door the western bay. The east elevation contains two two-light sash windows, lighting the main meeting room. Guttering to front and rear is carried on stone corbel brackets. The meeting house has an imitation-stone covered gable roof, gable copings, and a low chimney stack to the west gable end.

INTERIOR: the meeting house is divided into three principal spaces. To the south-west, the small entrance lobby is entered from the main entrance to the south. The lobby includes a fitted cupboard and safe, and early-C19 joinery including tongue and groove panelling, turned wooden hat pegs and coat hooks. The lobby is divided from a small meeting room to the north-west by the lobby’s fitted furniture and additional panelling. That meeting room also has a panelled dado, with fixed seating to the north-west, and retains a ventilating Tobin tube under the west window.

The principal space to the east comprises the main meeting room, divided from the western facilities by a panel of sash shutters with doors at either end. It has a flat ceiling supported on two timber beams, and a panelled dado. It is lit by the windows in the south and east walls; those to the south include Tobin tubes. The Elders’ stand against the east wall consists of two ranks of fixed benches with panelled backs accessed by steps to the north and south ends. The former west-east panelled barrier now fronts the stand. There are fixed benches to three sides of the room.