Friends Meeting House

The Friends Meeting House was built in 1845 and includes some minor alterations from the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It is constructed of buff and red brick, with brick dressings, and a pitched roof covered in natural slate.

The building is rectangular and contains large and small meeting rooms, a first-floor gallery above the former, and ancillary rooms including a kitchen and toilet facilities located at the front. The meeting house fronts onto a narrow courtyard accessed from the High Street by a passage. It is a two-storey structure facing north-west, with a stone plinth at the front and a brick plinth to the side and rear. The front elevation features a central entrance with a pair of panelled doors sheltered by a pedimented timber canopy supported by decorative brackets, with a lamp over the doorway. Flanking the entrance are two segmental-headed openings with six-over-six pane timber sash windows, alongside smaller windows. At first-floor level, three matching segmental-headed sash windows are present, topped by a simple moulded stone cornice and a central oculus. The gable is pedimented. The side elevations are largely blank, while the north-east elevation has painted brickwork. The rear (south-east) elevation contains two timber, top-hung casement windows and a segmental-headed doorway, thought to have been added around 1900, is situated to the left. An oculus is located in the apex of the gable.

The large and small meeting rooms are adjacent to each other. The small meeting room has an L-shaped gallery above the entrance lobby. Three walls of the large meeting room feature a tall panelled timber dado with plain plaster above, while the fourth (north-west) side has a panelled screen incorporating pilasters and vertical sliding shutters that open onto the small meeting room. Opposite the screen is a ministers’ stand with a panelled front, and perimeter benches line the remaining walls. A gallery, also with a panelled front, extends above the screen and along the north side; it retains original unfixed benches and gas-light fittings. The room has a moulded plaster cornice, and the ceiling is adorned with a central ventilator roundel decorated with acanthus ornament. From the entrance vestibule, a timber-panelled archway leads to a small lobby housing the staircase to the gallery; this has a shaped, curving handrail and stick balusters. The small meeting room beyond the lobby contains a blocked fireplace and a dado rail, alongside some late-20th-century fitted cupboards. Other joinery includes six-panelled doors, some of which are modern replacements. A simple wooden ladder at gallery level provides access to the king-post roof.