Sibford Quaker Meeting House

Quaker meeting house. Built in 1864 by Thomas Manning, replacing an earlier C17 building. Minor external additions and interior alterations in 1891. Modernisation of the kitchen and WCs by Paul Richardson in 2008.

MATERIALS: rough-cast Horton limestone walling with ashlar stone dressings of a darker colour and Welsh slate roofs.

PLAN: single-storey T-plan with a broadly north-south block containing the meeting room and lobby with lower east-west ranges containing a children’s room to the west and kitchen to the east, each with outshuts to the rear.

EXTERIOR: built within a vernacular Georgian tradition, the symmetrical front (south) elevation has a central slightly projecting gabled entrance with a date stone above the doorway, flanked by two 12-pane timber sash windows. The lower ranges either side of the central gable each have a doorway. The ashlar dressings to all openings include quoins and dropped keystones to the lintels. The west and east elevations to the meeting room each have three 16-pane timber sash windows with a doorway to the west. The rear outshuts each have a sixteen-pane timber sash window and a cat slide roof. There is a memorial plaque to commemorate those whose ashes are in the burial ground under the west window of the west wing. The northern gabled wall to the meeting room has a 16-pane timber sash window with stone head with keystone and stone sill (no quoins as with the rest of the fenestration).

INTERIOR: an entrance lobby at the south of the building gives access to the meeting room, children’s room and kitchen. The full-height lobby has plain plastered walls and is lit by the two sash windows to the south, set in deep chamfered openings. There are two internal six-pane timber sash windows, set high on the north wall either side of the entrance to the meeting room. The lobby has original four-panel doors, architraves and skirting. The floor is laid with red and black quarry tiles and there are original coat hooks on the east wall.

The meeting room is a large rectangular space which has been little altered since the late-C19. The plain plastered walls have pine dado panelling with a raised elders' stand and seating at the north end with an additional row of fixed panelled seating in front. Windows are in deeply recessed chamfered openings. The flooring is of exposed timber boards aligned north to south. To the south end of the room are fitted wall benches which presumably formed part of the women’s meeting room before the space was opened up.

The school room has the same deep chamfered window and door openings as the meeting room and leads into a WC in the rear outshut which has modern fittings and tiling. The kitchen has an internal four-pane window, looking through to the rear outshut, and retains its original door architraves.