Colthouse Quaker Meeting House

Colthouse Quaker Meeting House

This is a Quaker Meeting House built in 1688, with a small single-storey extension added in 1977.

The building is constructed of local stone finished in roughcast render, with slate-hanging applied to the south gable-end. The roof is graduated Cumbria slate with stone ridges and cast-iron rainwater goods. The 1977 addition is also of local stone with roughcast render to the front elevation and a slate roof.

The building forms a rectangular plan aligned north to south, with an open entrance porch facing east and a small northern extension. The east elevation features an off-centre two-storey gabled porch with an open segmental-arched doorway and a 2-light window to the upper floor. The large meeting room to the south has two 24-pane sash windows inserted in 1790. North of the porch, the small meeting room has a 20-pane fixed window, and the gallery above has a plate-glass sash window. The north elevation is blind, with a gable-end rendered ridge stack and the 1977 single-storey addition. The west elevation is blind except for a 3-light mullioned window serving the small meeting room. The south elevation displays two 2-light stone cross windows to the ground floor, below a continuous drip mould with slate-cladding and roughcast render above. The roof has exposed purlin and rafter ends, probably dating to the 19th century.

Interior

The large meeting room has a modern pine floor and walls incised to resemble ashlar above dado level. The plain plastered ceiling is divided into four bays by chamfered beams forming the lower cords of tie-beam trusses. The east wall and part of the west wall retain some 18th-century oak panelling. The oak dado behind the stand is 19th-century, and there is a modern pine plinth to the east wall. The north screen is constructed from a double layer of unpainted pine in raised and fielded panels with vertically-sliding shutters on the south side and top-hinged shutters to the north. The gallery above has a balustrade of turned oak. The elders' stand at the south end comprises a raised platform with fitted pine benches and steps at either end. A fitted 18th-century oak bench is positioned against the west end of the north screen.

The small meeting room has 18th-century oak panelling and fitted oak benches to the north and west walls. A 19th-century stone fireplace is located on the north wall. The flat ceiling has plastered beams carrying the first-floor gallery, and wrought-iron hooks are fitted for when the screen opens. A winding oak stair to the gallery is enclosed by a plank-and-muntin elm partition on the south side. The gallery and landing have wide floorboards in elm or oak, and the north wall retains some historic lime plaster. A fitted oak bench stands on the landing.

The porch interior has a slate floor with fitted timber benches and a hat peg rail on the south wall. A pair of inner cross-boarded doorways lead to the meeting rooms, both fitted with strap hinges and wooden lock boxes. A boarded door on the right of the north porch wall gives access to the stairs, with a cupboard to the left, also having a boarded door and containing a hat peg rail.

The 1977 single-storey addition houses a kitchen and toilets. It has a plank door and a six-light window on the front elevation, and a narrow window opening on the north elevation.