Charlbury Quaker Meeting House

Charlbury Quaker Meeting House

A Quaker meeting house built in 1779. A lean-to extension was added around 1860, later replaced by a larger extension in 1990–1 designed by Robert Franklin of Oxford.

The building is constructed of coursed stone rubble with red brick dressings and a slate roof, which replaced the original stone tile covering (visible in an undated but probably late 19th-century photograph). The main meeting house is single-storey and rectangular in plan with a hipped roof, oriented north-west to south-east along Market Street.

The front (south-west) elevation of the original building displays three equally-spaced round-arched windows with red brick dressings, chamfered stone sills, and timber sash windows with glazing bars. Between the first and second windows, the outline of an entrance added around 1860 and blocked in 1990–1 remains visible. Above this sits a date stone inscribed 'AD 1779', and below is an inset cast-iron boot scraper.

The rear (north-east) elevation is largely blind and obscured by an adjoining property, though a single window at the eastern end—probably inserted during 1861 alterations—features a large square-headed opening with a timber multi-pane window, stone lintel and sill.

At the south-east end, a stone-built boiler room with a lower hipped roof (probably added around 1861) is covered by pitched roofing to the front and sloping roofing to the rear, indicating separate phases of construction. The south-east elevation is blind, whilst the return to the south-west elevation has a pair of timber batten doors.

Access is via the 1990–1 extension at the north-west end, which projects forward from the original building line. This extension is also of coursed stone rubble with a hipped slate roof and contains a kitchen, WCs, small meeting room, and entrance lobby. The projecting south-west elevation has a pair of windows with top-hung casements and timber sills, similar in character to the original windows. Between them is a date stone inscribed '1991'. The main entrance comprises timber double-doors with a red brick lintel in soldier course, reached via a red tile-covered concrete ramp with stone facing. A side entrance on the north-west return features a six-light glazed panel door in a square-headed red brick surround, with a six-pane top-hung timber casement in matching surround.

Internally, the main meeting room has a steeply coved plaster ceiling with a central decorative cast-iron ventilator; the original king-post roof is understood to survive above. The room has lost its original elders' stand at the south-east end, replaced by a doorway with an exposed rubble stone segmental arch inserted in 1990–1. Pine match-board dado panelling around the room's perimeter (raised at the south-east end) and boarded floors are modern additions.

The main meeting room is divided from a smaller former women's business meeting room (now a library) by a partition with a removable, unpainted pine-panelled screen, probably of 1860s date but possibly 18th century. The smaller room has a lower conventional plaster ceiling. An arched opening from the boiler room to the main meeting room was introduced in 1990–1.