Former Quaker Meeting House

This former Quaker meeting house, now a community centre, was built between 1795 and 1796, likely by Michael Searles. It was extended and altered in the early 19th century, with further alterations in the mid-20th century and late-20th century.

The building is constructed of brick, which is mostly painted, and has a hipped roof covered in corrugated sheeting. It was previously roofed with plain tiles and stone slate verges. The meeting house is oriented roughly north to south, with the original entrance front facing south onto Prosperous Street. It has a rectangular plan of three bays, with late-20th-century extensions to the east and south. These extensions are excluded from the listing. A former burial ground occupied the site of the east extension, and the west burial ground is now a sports court/car park.

Externally, the building is a tall, single-story structure with a moulded eaves cornice (covered in places). Quoin stones are visible on the north-east and south-east corners. The west side has been strengthened with two brick buttresses (with a tie bar internally at the northeast corner), and appears to have undergone some rebuilding, as details visible in a historical photograph, including quoins and an impost band, no longer survive. This elevation has three round-arched openings with moulded architraves, each fitted with a late-20th-century timber window with reinforced glazing and modern metal security grilles. The window in the left-end bay has been cut short by modern emergency exit doors. A vertical line in the brickwork between the central and southern bays indicates the extent of the original late-18th-century building. The south and east elevations are largely obscured by later 20th-century extensions, although original window openings are visible within the building, having been blocked and a doorway inserted beneath the central window.

Internally, access is via a late-20th-century extension to the east. It is believed to retain an early-19th-century plaster-vaulted ceiling, though this is concealed by a modern suspended ceiling. There are no other historic fittings.

It is declared that the mid-20th-century extensions to the east and south are not of special architectural or historic interest.