Frenchay Quaker Meeting House

Frenchay Quaker Meeting House

This Quaker Meeting House was built in 1809 and forms part of a complex that includes an associated early 19th-century former coach house with a women's business meeting room above, a former stable, and a former travelling ministers' house to the rear, which is probably 17th century. The buildings have undergone 20th and 21st-century alterations.

The structures are built of local pennant rubble stone that has been limewashed, with hipped roofs covered in double Roman tiles and pantiles, and brick stacks. Windows are of painted timber, mostly small-paned sashes.

The layout comprises a double-height meeting room orientated roughly north to south, with the main meeting room at the north end and the lobby and former galleried loft at the south end. To the roadside east elevation is the coach house with the former women's business meeting room above, and to the right, the two-storey warden's house. A passageway at the south end leads to the burial ground. Attached to the north-west corner of the meeting room is the former travelling ministers' house, a one-up, one-down building, with a mid-to late 19th-century single-storey outbuilding adjoining its corner.

The roadside east elevation comprises a two-storey, two-bay range and a two-storey, one-bay range, linked by a three-centred arch of pennant stone voussoirs and keystone, supported on coursed stone piers with moulded stone imposts and a parapet wall above. The left-hand range has a further pennant stone archway and a pair of plank doors to the ground floor, with two round-arched, multi-pane windows with louvred shutters above. The right-hand range forms the warden's house and features an inserted mid-to late 20th-century eight-light window at ground floor and an altered first-floor window replacing an eight-over-eight sash window. The eaves cornice is a mid-to late 20th-century addition.

The former coach house and stable face each other across the courtyard, defined by central segmental-headed doorways and flanking windows, now altered. The hinged plank and batten door to the coach house has 18th-century ironmongery and historic graffiti. The plank door to the former stable is 20th-century and blocked internally.

The rear west elevation of the meeting house faces the burial ground and has two large round-arched windows with glazing bars. A segmental-headed sash window is positioned above the entrance to a ground-floor passageway, denoted by a gabled timber porch. A covered walkway with a flagstone floor and lean-to roof supported on cast iron columns and covered in pantiles leads from the porch to a 19th-century plank door accessing the former travelling ministers' house, with a sash window to each floor. The corner stack does not relate to an internal fireplace. The north elevation of the meeting house has a central round-arched window; the south elevation is blind.

Inside, the meeting room is simple with plain plastered walls, a concave ceiling with plaster cornice, and a pine-boarded floor. Across the full width of the north end is the original raised stand with ramped dado panelling and fixed seating continuing to the sides. At the south end is a full-height partition of fielded panelling with vertically sliding shutters at ground and first-floor level, with a pair of three-panel doors with wooden latch at its centre. The ground-floor lobby has fixed hat hooks, a fitted high-level cupboard, and a simple staircase with closed string, stick balusters, turned newel post, and moulded handrail. The first-floor gallery originally had raked seating but has been levelled to accommodate an inserted kitchen. The fireplace to the south wall has been removed. The eastern doorway replaces a segmental-headed window and gives access to the first-floor former women's business meeting room, which is plain with fixed bench perimeter seating (with an inserted section replacing the former fireplace) and ceiling hooks for oil lamps. A six-panel door with wooden latch remains leads to the staircase between the main meeting room and former coach house. The window at the top of this staircase has been altered to form an additional doorway to the warden's house. The warden's house is plain with some 19th-century joinery.

The former travelling ministers' house is plainly detailed with the remains of a small cupboard to the ground floor, a re-used four-panel door to the staircase, and a window seat at first floor.

The meeting room internal fixtures and fittings are of Russian pine.