Friends Meeting House

This is a Quaker meeting house, built in 1688, with alterations made in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is a building of group value, recognised for its strong historical and architectural significance. The exterior is of roughcast with sandstone ashlar dressings and slate hanging, topped by a slate roof. The front features a single-storey gabled porch to the left, followed by three windows that were inserted in 1829. These windows now contain 20th-century casements with glazing bars, replacing the original sash windows. To the right of the porch are two mullioned windows at both ground-floor and gallery level, lighting what was formerly the women’s meeting house; the ground-floor windows have cyma-moulded surrounds while those on the first floor are chamfered and have hoods. The porch has a sandstone plinth and a moulded doorway with a lintel bearing a re-cut inscription, "EX DONO G.F. [George Fox] 1688”. The inner doorway has a moulded stone surround and studded plank doors. The left-hand gable wall is finished with slatehanging, while a chimney stack projects from the right-hand gable. Adjacent to the right is a former stable block, now used as a meeting room. This block has a lower roof that projects forward over a doorway, and a wide doorway, now filled with a glazed screen. The interior of the main meeting room has a high ceiling with exposed hardwood tie beams. A timber screen at the east end, dating from 1814, has top-hung shutters, and similar shutters separate the passageway from the east room. Both the room and passageway have stone-flagged floors; the room also features two axial main ceiling beams and a fireplace with remains of moulded jambs. The meeting house's history includes being acquired by George Fox in 1687, who instructed the Friends on its construction, and it was registered as a place of worship in 1689. The former stable block is separately listed.