Blue Idol Quaker Meeting House and Guest House

Blue Idol Quaker Meeting House and Guest House

This is a Quaker meeting house of late 16th-century origin, adapted in the 1690s, with significant alterations and extensions from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An extension was built in 1934-1935 to the design of Hubert Lidbetter. The building underwent restoration in 2013-2015 under the instruction of Simon Dyson, HMDW Architects.

The structure is timber-framed with brick and plaster infilling and weatherboard cladding. Roofs are covered with Horsham slab and clay tiles.

The building has an irregular composition. The earlier meeting house forms an L-shape, consisting of a main meeting room range with attics running east-west and a two-storey domestic range running north-south (extended in 1893). A 20th-century two-storey former guest-house range is positioned to the north and east of the domestic range.

The meeting house stands in the former Quaker burial ground in a secluded location to the east side of Oldhouse Lane. The older ranges to the south are box-framed with brick and plaster-filled nogging panels. The 19th and 20th-century extensions to the north are constructed in red brick laid to stretcher bond at ground-floor level, with white-painted weatherboard cladding the upper storey. Windows are a mixture of diamond-paned and square-paned casements. The older ranges have gable roofs with Horsham slab coverings, while the extensions have gable and half-hipped roofs with clay tile coverings. There is a large external chimney stack to the east end of the main meeting room's south wall, a ridge stack at the junction of the domestic range and modern extension, and two further stacks serving the former guest-house.

The west elevation comprises, from right to left, the end frame of the main meeting room lit by a centrally-placed large four-light window above a smaller single-light window. This is followed by a two-bay domestic range lit by small casement windows to each storey, including two ground-floor windows in the third bay. A doorway with a tiled pentice is set in the angle of the projecting gable end of the first modern bay. That gable is lit by a large eight-light transom window to the ground floor and a four-light window above, while the ground floor of the last bay is lit by one window. A small window appears in the west-facing gablet of the main meeting room.

The south elevation comprises the side wall of the main meeting room, clad in white-painted weatherboard and interrupted by the almost centrally-placed main entrance with a square single-light window above. A gable dormer lights the attic space over the main meeting room, while the large external brick chimney stack occupies the eastern end.

The irregular east elevation includes, from left to right, the weatherboarded end frame of the main meeting room lit by casement windows to each storey including the attic. Next comes the two-bay domestic range, which is single-storey here, comprising one window and a door under a catslide roof. The modern extension in two bays includes a ground-floor canted window. The three-bay north elevation includes a small ground-floor window and doorway, with two three-light casement windows lighting the upper storey. To the right, the return of the projecting gable includes one ground-floor window.

The planked double-leaf door in the south elevation leads into the main meeting room. The box-framing of this three-bay space is exposed with plainly plastered and painted panels. North-south oriented tie-beams are arch-braced, and the room is ceiled over the tie-beams with east-west oriented joists exposed.

The raised Elders' Stand occupies the north-west corner of the western bay. It is accessed by a short quarter-turn stair to the west and a straight stair to the east, and is fronted by a balustrade with stick balusters. A fixed bench continues around the west and south walls of this bay. A doorway in the north wall leads into the domestic range. The eastern bay contains a large brick fireplace to the south wall and a doorway to the north wall, and is dominated by the gallery. The gallery has a panelled front and is accessed via a staircase in the north-east corner. That stair continues into the attics over the main meeting room.

The attics over the main meeting room and its domestic range provide warden's accommodation. The ground floor of the domestic range combined with the modern extension is let as a private dwelling. The ground floor of the domestic range comprises four rooms. The room to the north-west has a large brick fireplace in its north wall with a timber bressumer featuring a tongue-stopped chamfer. A staircase inserted in the north-eastern room in the 1930s leads to the first floor, while a staircase in the south-western room provides access to the attics. The domestic range is reported to include a number of historic doors, some with wooden latches. The modern extension includes ground- and first-floor rooms, with brick fireplaces and wash-hand basins in some first-floor rooms reflecting its former status as a guest-house.