Mosedale Quaker Meeting House and adjoining stables

Mosedale Quaker Meeting House and adjoining stables

This is a Quaker meeting house with adjoining stables, built in the 18th century and altered in the 19th and 20th centuries. The building is constructed from limestone and slate rubble walling with sandstone dressings and is roofed in Cumbrian green slate.

The structure is single-storey and L-shaped in plan, comprising three units: a utility range running north-west to south-east with kitchen and cloakrooms; the main meeting room; and a former stable block oriented south-west to north-east. The meeting house stands on the south side of the road through Mosedale, at the foot of Carrock Fell.

The front elevation facing the road includes, from left to right, the former stable block (lit by a small single-light square-headed window and accessed by a full-height plain planked double-leaf door), the meeting house with its main entrance in the right-hand side (marked by a stone surround and chamfered lintel inscribed with the date 1702), and the utility range projecting forward as a blind gable end.

The south-west elevation has a small square-headed two-light window, a small window in a stone surround, and a plain planked door leading to a 1977 extension. The rear elevation comprises four bays of two-light stone mullion windows: one in the 1977 extension and three in the original 18th-century main meeting room, with the stable block continuing to the right. The north-east elevation presents the blind gable end of the stable block.

A gable roof common to the stable block, main meeting room and 1977 extension runs south-west to north-east. The roof of the northern section of the utility range runs perpendicular to this. The main meeting room is lit by two small roof lights, one to each side, and the roof extends in a short cat-slide over the front elevation.

The main meeting room is rectangular on plan and entered through the main door to the north-west. The floor is flagstone, and walls are plainly plastered except the south-west wall, which includes panelling and exposed stonework. Benches are arranged around the central space, including one original backless fixed bench, with a further fixed bench against the north-west wall. The Elders' Stand extends across the north-east wall, featuring fielded panelling in pine with a fixed bench fronted by a balustrade of splat balusters, handrails and a reading desk, accessed by three central steps. Above the Stand, rubbings of door lintels from former Quaker meeting houses in the locality are affixed to the wall. The full-height meeting room is supported by two tie-beam roof trusses resting, at their north-west ends, on sandstone Tuscan columns with plain piers. The room is ceiled at collar level. The three windows to the south-east wall retain chains for former external shutters and paraffin lamps. An internal doorway in the south-west corner connects the main meeting room to the utility range, which contains cloakroom and toilet facilities.