Rawdon Quaker Meeting House

The Rawdon Quaker Meeting House was built in 1697 and extended in 1729, with later alterations. It is constructed of coursed dressed gritstone with imitation stone roof coverings.

The meeting house is rectangular, single-storey, with a gabled queen post roof and a chimney stack to the west gable. It is oriented north-south.

The south front has four bays. From left to right, it has a pair of two-light mullioned sash windows, the entrance door, and two further pairs of two-light mullioned sash windows. The lintel above the chamfered doorway includes the date 1697. Ventilation grilles are positioned below the windows. The west elevation has a pair of two-light mullioned sash windows illuminating a small meeting room, while the north elevation contains only a rear entrance door in the western bay. The east elevation has two two-light sash windows, which light the main meeting room. Stone corbel brackets support the guttering to the front and rear. The roof is covered in imitation stone, with gable copings, and a low chimney stack to the west gable end.

The interior is divided into three main spaces. A small entrance lobby is accessed from the main south entrance and contains a fitted cupboard and safe, along with early 19th-century joinery including tongue and groove panelling, turned wooden hat pegs, and coat hooks. The lobby separates it from a small meeting room to the north-west, which also features a panelled dado and fixed seating to the north-west, along with a ventilating Tobin tube under the west window.

The principal space to the east is the main meeting room, separated 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 windows in the south and east walls; the south windows include Tobin tubes. The Elders’ stand against the east wall consists of two ranks of fixed benches with panelled backs, accessible by steps to the north and south ends. A former west-east panelled barrier now fronts the stand, and fixed benches are arranged to three sides of the room.