Ashtonfields Community Hall And Chapel, Cotswolds Community

Ashtonfields Community Hall and Chapel is a barn that was built in 1779 and later converted around 1936 by the Bruderhof (Hutterian) Community. The building is made of limestone rubble with ashlar quoins and features five bays, with a two-bay midstrey to the west and a lean-to porch to the east, which now serves as a stairway. There is an inserted leaded timber cross window and a stone arch at the junction of the midstrey and the barn, which has numbered voussoirs and the date inscribed. Above the porch, there is a timber lintel inscribed by the community, which was founded in 1533 by Jacob Huter in Moravia, based on the principles of the early church in Jerusalem. The Bruderhof community constructed many buildings in the grounds of the farm between 1936 and 1942, designed in a central European style.