Airton Quaker Meeting House, attached archway and stone bench

Airton Quaker Meeting House, Attached Archway and Stone Bench

This is a Grade II* listed Quaker meeting house of late 17th or early 18th-century date, funded by William and Alice Ellis, with possible origins as an earlier cruck barn that was altered in the 17th century. It is accompanied by an attached stone archway and stone bench.

The meeting house is constructed of limestone and sandstone rubble with stone dressings and a stone slate roof with cast-iron rainwater goods. It is aligned north-east to south-west, with the entrance doorway in the south-east elevation facing into the burial ground and the north-west elevation facing the road. Internally, the building is divided into a larger main meeting room and a smaller meeting room, separated by a timber screen with shutters, with a gallery above.

The exterior is built mainly of limestone rubble with some sandstone rubble in slobbered pointing, set on a plinth of boulders with limestone quoins at the outer corners. The south-east front elevation shows evidence of heightening, marked by a rough line in the stonework at first-floor window sill level, and a ragged joint at the left-hand end where an abutting cottage appears to have caused partial rebuilding. The doorway is positioned right of centre and features chamfered jambs and a basket-arched lintel with a relief-carved panel reading "W E A 1700". Above the doorway is a flat stone canopy on shaped stone brackets, with a small wall niche to the left. Two windows flank the doorway to the left, with one to the right, and a single first-floor window above lighting the gallery. The windows are of two lights with recessed, straight-chamfered mullions; those on the ground floor have been enlarged by lowering the sills.

The north-east gable wall is blind, with an ashlar chimney stack at the apex featuring water tabling and an ogee-moulded cornice. The north-west elevation shows a ragged joint separating the meeting house from the adjoining cottage to the right, and appears to show several phases of wall heightening. It contains a large 19th-century window with an ashlar surround, a nine-pane window with top hopper lighting the main meeting room, and a small chamfered window lighting the elders' stand.

The interior entrance door has L-hinges. The main meeting room is high-ceilinged and single-storey. The elders' stand occupies the south-west gable wall and is fitted with oak panelling to the rear dado, end steps, a fixed pine bench to the front, and pine tongue-and-grooved dado to the side walls, ramped to the stand. The smaller meeting room to the north-east is separated by a horizontally boarded oak screen with top-hung hinged shutters with butterfly hinges and iron hooks fixed to the ceiling beams to hold them open. The screen includes a four-panelled door into the room and a six-panelled door at the left-hand end opening onto the gallery stairs. The gallery has a floor supported on a pair of chamfered posts and two chamfered and stopped beams with exposed joists. The gallery front features plain panelling with a square timber rail above. The smaller meeting room and gallery both have matching stone fireplaces with narrow jambs, chamfered arrises and deep lintels with chamfered cornices; the ground-floor fireplace has an early 20th-century fire grate inserted, whilst the gallery fireplace is now blocked.

The roof structure in the loft space contains three oak roof trusses. The tie-beam trusses have raking struts. One features curved principals re-using timber from cruck blades, with raking and curved struts; it has been repaired with bolted metal plates.

A high rubblestone archway incorporating a square-headed doorway with chamfered jambs and lintel (fitted with a modern timber gate) abuts the north-east gable wall of the meeting house. A long stone bench faces the front elevation, comprising an ashlar stone seat set on a rubblestone plinth with a high ashlar stone back with chamfered top. At the north-east end is an opening into the burial ground, flanked by stone gate piers with chamfered tops. To the left of the left gate pier the bench continues a short distance to abut the inner side of the stone archway. The stone back is similarly formed, though the bench seat is less well made, with flat stones forming the seating surface.