The Nook, The Barn, and burial ground walls at Airton Quaker Meeting House

The Nook, The Barn, and burial ground walls at Airton Quaker Meeting House

The Nook is an early 18th-century cottage that served as the warden's cottage for the late 17th or early 18th-century Quaker Meeting House. It has undergone alterations in the 19th century and late 20th century. The Barn is a former stable and hayloft, also early 18th-century, with alterations dating from the second half of the 18th century, major changes in the mid 19th century, mid 20th century, and 2011, now converted to hostel accommodation. The burial ground is enclosed by walls dating from the 18th and 19th centuries, with a small shed of similar date.

All buildings are constructed from sandstone and limestone rubble with stone dressings and stone slate roofs. The rainwater goods are cast iron.

The Nook is a two-storey cottage attached to the south-west gable wall of the rectangular meeting house, which is aligned north-east to south-west. The Barn, a two-storey former stable and hayloft, is set at right-angles, aligned north-west to south-east, and abuts the south-east elevation of the cottage.

The cottage is built mainly of sandstone rubble with slobbered pointing and quoins to the outer corners. Above the gable wall of the meeting house sits an ashlar ridge stack with water tabling and an ogee moulded cornice. The north-west elevation shows a ragged joint separating the cottage from the meeting house. The ground floor has a two-light mullioned window on the left-hand side with a three-light mullioned window above. Immediately to the right of the ground-floor window is a projecting gabled porch of rubblestone with corner quoins and stone slate roof. The north-west gable elevation features a round-headed lancet window with moulded coping stones and ogee-moulded kneelers. The porch's north-east side elevation has a doorway with a stone frame and 19th-century lintel in 17th-century style, fitted with a plank and batten door with decorative strap hinges and an upright door handle. A later flat-roofed coal store with a rounded outer corner obscures the south-west side elevation of the porch and the right-hand end of the ground floor.

The south-west gable elevation has a large vertical rectangular window to the left of the ground floor with an ashlar frame and sash frame, matched by a similar window above at first-floor level. To the far right is a small casement window with a chamfered ashlar surround and projecting sill. At first-floor level is a horizontal rectangular window with an ashlar frame and sash frame. The coal store stands against the left-hand corner, and the Barn against the right-hand corner. The south-east elevation is not visible, being enclosed within the Barn.

The ground floor of the cottage interior comprises two bays. The larger main room, into which the inner door of the porch opens, has two chamfered and stopped longitudinal beams with exposed joists. A boarded-in staircase stands against the south-east wall. The centre of the north-east wall features a large fireplace with gritstone chamfered jambs and deep lintel; the back of the fireplace is hollowed out of the wall. A second smaller room has a chamfered and stopped beam with exposed trusses; the timbers bear incised markings, possibly made by a mid-20th-century resident with antiquarian interests. The area beneath the stairs is lit by the small ground-floor window. The first floor contains two bedrooms, now with a sub-divided bathroom.

The Barn is built mainly of sandstone rubble with limestone rubble used for the 19th-century raised walls. It has corner quoins and a stone slate roof. The majority of door and window openings date from the modern conversion, and the interior was completely rebuilt in 2011.

The burial ground is enclosed by rubblestone walls, which are mostly drystone with slobbered pointing in some areas. The coping consists of either flat stones or large boulders. The south-east side has stone gate piers positioned at the centre of a gateway, now infilled with stone. The north-east side has a small shed at its left-hand end, built of rubblestone with quoins and a mono-pitch stone slate roof. The shed has a plank and batten door in its north-west side wall and a horizontal three-light window in its outer north-east wall.