Great Ayton Quaker Meeting House

The Great Ayton Quaker Meeting House was built by 1722 and extended in 1967 to a design by Charles Spence. Later alterations and remodelling took place in 2001, designed by Edwin Trotter.

The building is constructed of coursed dressed sandstone, red brick, and weatherboarding, with a graduated Lakeland slate roof. It has a rectangular footprint arranged as a single-story structure with a hipped roof, including a ridge chimney stack to the west and two ventilator hoods.

The meeting house is situated next to the Quaker burial ground at the south-east corner of High Green, and faces east. The north front, which appears as a coach house to the former Richardson mansion, features an elliptical stone arch, providing the main entrance, accessed by two stone steps. To the right of the arch are two eight-over-eight sash windows set in plain window openings with flat arches and projecting sills; the window to the left dates to 1967. The wall has a low plinth and is painted. A small eight-light window sits above the arch, illuminating a former passageway. Part of the north front is obscured by the adjacent Grade II listed Ivy Cottage, while the eastern section, faced in red brick and including a modern sash window, largely dates to the 1967 extension.

The south elevation is an irregular composition. It features a small eight-light window under the eaves, followed by two further windows lighting the passageway. A shallow, projecting glazed extension with a shed roof, including French doors opening onto the burial ground, adjoins a four-bay section of the meeting house with pairs of large modern sash windows. The east elevation, facing the burial ground, is a weatherboarded extension with a large six-light window and glazed doors in the north and south returns.

The meeting house has a hipped roof covered with Lakeland slate, featuring two ventilator hoods and a stone ridge chimney stack to the west.

The interior was completely reworked in 1967, with further alterations in 2001. A glazed timber double-leaf entrance door, set within the front arch, leads to a lobby area on the building’s older western side, which contains toilets, a kitchen, and a children’s room on the ground floor, and an inserted first-floor room above. Original ceiling and ventilation recess details are visible. The main meeting room is now located within the 1967 extension. Most interior partitions are glazed, with the exception of the kitchen.