The Old Meeting House

The Old Meeting House is a Unitarian chapel built in 1752, constructed of ashlar limestone with ashlar dressings and a clay tile roof. Attached walls of rubble stone flank the building to the front and rear.

The building is rectangular in plan, comprising a single main meeting space with an internal lobby inserted by the door and enclosed staircases rising to galleries on each side.

The three-bay façade features a central double-door with a rusticated surround and keystone. To either side is a single large round-arched window positioned at mid-door height, each with a stone architrave, keystone, and multi-paned timber sashes. The imposts of these arches meet a stone band that wraps around the building. A stone eaves cornice sits below a centrally-positioned date stone carved in relief with '1752'. Chamfered stone quoins dress the building's corners. The east flank has a small window above the stone band. The south elevation matches the façade fenestration with an additional stone band at cill height. Between the upper windows on this elevation is a stone sundial with an iron gnomon. The hipped roof is steeply pitched and covered in clay pantiles.

Attached to the west corner of the south elevation is a burial ground wall of rubble stone with stone coping, defining the rectangular burial ground. At the time of listing, this wall had a collapsed section at its south-west corner. The east wall is reduced in height and partly rendered, not attached to the south-east corner of the meeting house. Within the burial ground stands a 19th-century chest tomb, separately listed at Grade II. Attached to the east corner of the façade is a rubble stone boundary wall with stone coping and stone piers flanking a gateway. This wall was probably realigned during the building's conversion to a reading room in 1908. An attached outbuilding to the east may incorporate the remains of this wall section and adjoins a tall west boundary wall with stone coping; this outbuilding has a modern interior and iron roof and is not of special interest.

The interior entrance leads into an inserted timber lobby. The main hall beyond is lined with timber wainscoting. Full-width timber galleries occupy the east and west ends, supported by stairs in the north corners and also encased in timber panelling. Both the wainscots and gallery fronts are moulded. At the centre of the south wall, an interruption in the wainscoting reveals a stone slab set into the timber plank floor, the base of a former pulpit. Other stones set in the floor elsewhere are 20th-century supports for a snooker table. The east gallery contains a modern inserted kitchenette, with the hand-worked timber structure visible behind the gallery front. Each gallery displays three recessed arches in the outer wall, formed by square stone columns with square capitals under round arches. The left and central arches in the west wall contain window openings. The ceiling features a moulded cornice and a central gas light fixing with leaf mouldings.