Ross-on-Wye Quaker Meeting House

Ross-on-Wye Quaker Meeting House

This Quaker Meeting House was built in 1804 on the site of an earlier meeting house dating from around the 1670s. The kitchen and toilets were added in the twentieth century, and further facilities were installed in 1992.

The building is constructed of coursed red sandstone with a hipped roof covered in Welsh slate (the east roof section has concrete tiles), lead rolls, and cast-iron rainwater goods. It follows an L-plan, with an almost square large meeting room forming the west arm and a narrower small meeting room to the east. Between them lies an entrance lobby, water closet, and staircase.

The street frontage facing east is formed by a stone screen wall with flat copings and a pair of semi-circular arches. The arch to the right is blind, with recessed coursed stone, while the left arch serves as the entrance, fitted with timber and metal gates. Each arch has an ashlar surround with imposts and has been lime-washed or painted. These arches appear to date from the early nineteenth century but are set into an older wall, possibly the remains of the original 1670s meeting house. The north corner of the screen wall features prominent quoin stones.

The south elevation of the small meeting room has two 16-pane sash windows facing the side passage, with stone sills and flat heads. The north elevation is blind, showing evidence of rebuilding that may relate to the earlier meeting house. The entrance lobby is covered by a catslide roof and features a doorway with a flat timber canopy on console brackets, moulded timber architrave, and double boarded doors with iron furniture. To the left of the doorway is a fixed 12-pane stair window with stone sill and flat head (which resembles gauged brickwork but is actually stone).

The roof to the large meeting room has deep eaves. Below the south-east corner, the top quoin is inscribed with the date 1804. The south and north elevations each have one sash window, and the west elevation has two sashes; all are 12-pane with horns, probably replacements. Set low into the west wall are four stones inscribed A, B, C, and D relating to burial ground rows. The east wall is blind, with the ghost of a former smaller lean-to addition visible at the angle of the walls.

The interior is accessed through a lobby on the east side of the large meeting room. Double pine doors with fielded panels lead from the lobby into the large meeting room, while the staircase departs to the south and a small lobby to the north provides access to the small meeting room. In 2006, a stud wall was inserted to form a disabled water closet on the north side of the lobby. The dogleg staircase leading to the gallery has pine stick balusters, square newels, and elm treads.

The large meeting room features a gallery along the east side and an Elders' stand to the west. The gallery is supported on four timber columns with simple moulded caps and bases; one has been removed and replaced with a steel prop. The gallery front and the stand are finished with pine fielded panels, and the walls are lined to dado level with plain vertical pine boards, with the top rail swept up behind the stand. The raised platform of the stand continues along the other walls with fitted pine benches. The walls and ceiling are plain-plastered with a moulded cornice, and the floor is laid with plain pine boards (probably renewed). In the centre stands a stone base for a heating stove, which is now ex situ but retained in the room.

The small meeting room to the east is a narrow rectangular space with a projecting chimney breast on the north wall, containing a cast-iron fireplace in a plain stone surround. An alcove to the right has fitted cupboards with plain panelled doors in painted pine. The walls and ceiling are plain-plastered with a reeded cornice, and the floor is carpeted. A door in the east wall provides access to the 1992 extension, which houses two water closets and a small kitchen, also served by a hatch.