Friends Meeting House

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 15 June 2022 to update the address and to reformat the text to current standards

SW 5130 4/32

MARAZION BEACON ROAD Friends Meeting House

(Formerly listed as Friends Meeting House, ROSEHILL, MARAZION)

GV II* Quaker meeting house. Circa 1688 remodelled 1742 and circa 1880. Granite rubble walls with some cob at the rear. Wooden lintels. Scantle slate roof, gabled to the north west, hipped to the south east.

PLAN: rectangular aisle-less plan with rostrum/pulpit at the east end and doorway originally to middle of south wall (now window), but in the C19 a doorway was cut in the middle of the west gable end. Probably originally there was a gallery at the west end. C20 extension front.

EXTERIOR: single storey. Symmetrical three-window south front with probably 1742 paired twelve-pane hornless sashes with wide internally ovolo moulded glazing bars and some crown glass; in the former central doorway is C19 copy with thin glazing bars. C19 shutters with chamfered stiles and rails. Left-hand gable end has central doorway with C19 four-panel door in bowtell-moulded (possibly C18) frame and hood over carried on shaped brackets; above the doorway a C19 twelve-pane two-light casement.

INTERIOR: original rostrum with simple balustrade with splat column balusters with ovolo moulded cornice to the handrail and to the square-on-plan newel posts with ball finials; original settle with shaped ends behind and flanked by probably later settles at lower level on either side. 1880 roof structure. Cobbled path at the west end.

The plan of this meeting house is like the one at Come-to-Good (q.v.), Kea, and there were probably many other similarities before the C19 alterations. The C18 sashes are particularly notable and rare features.

SOURCE: An Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels, by Christopher Stell RCHM

Listing NGR: SW5184930701