Old Quaker Meeting House, 27C Maghaberry Road, Moira, Craigavon, Co Down, BT67 0JF

Old Quaker Meeting House, Maghaberry Road, Moira

This is a former Quaker Meeting House of late 18th-century foundation, built in 1784, which was significantly altered and enlarged in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is of considerable historical importance as an example of a rare building type. The meeting house was originally constructed with a thatched dwelling for a caretaker at one end. It was re-roofed in 1826 and probably underwent substantial alterations and enlargement at that time, when a women's cloakroom was added to the west end. A stable formerly stood in the grounds. The interior benches were removed around 1942. The building and adjoining burial ground were sold to Lisburn Borough Council in 1988, after which the building fell into disuse, though the burial ground remains in active use for members of the Religious Society of Friends and their non-Friend descendants.

The building is a tall single-storey structure with a gabled form and rendered finish. Roofing originally comprised Bangor blue slates in regular courses, though much has been replaced with corrugated iron sheeting in the central sections. Two chimneys of 20th-century rustic brickwork, each with two pots, sit at the gable ends. The external walls are finished in roughcast render with wet dash, with a smooth rendered plinth, though removal of a former gabled entrance porch has revealed the rubble stone core beneath. Cast iron oval tie-bar plates are positioned at the head of the walls at the extremities and between openings, with similar plates at door head height at each end. A brick eaves course runs below the roof line.

The main elevation, facing south, consists of four bays. Three window openings—two to the left of the doorway and one to the right—are rectangular with smooth cement rendered reveals and projecting stone cills, all now boarded up. The entrance doorway has a flat arch head in brickwork with brick jambs, now blocked with corrugated iron sheeting. In front of the doorway remains a rectangular porch floor area with one course of a brick plinth wall on the left side, a stone doorstep on the right, and remnants of quarry tiles to the floor.

The building comprises a main block with lower gabled projections extending from each gable end. To the left of the main block, in the same wall plane, is a low single-bay lean-to addition with similar wet-dashed walling but without plinth or eaves course, roofed in corrugated iron. A rectangular window opening, now boarded up, has a modern concrete lintel. Behind this lean-to is a longer gabled block extending westward, with slated roof (partially covered with corrugated iron), wet-dashed walls, brick eaves course, and one rectangular boarded-up window. An oval cast iron tie-bar plaque appears at the left-hand end.

To the right of the main block is a small low single-storey one-bay block with similar walling including a brick eaves course and a lean-to corrugated iron roof. A single rectangular doorway with smooth rendered reveals, spalled at the head to expose a wooden lintel, is now boarded up. Behind this stands the roof and partial walling of a taller gabled block projecting eastward, with slated roof (mostly unslated and covered with corrugated iron).

The west elevation presents a plain gable rendered in wet dash, with a central projecting chimney breast and flush eaves. One oval cast iron tie-bar plaque appears to each side. The lower projecting block has a similarly rendered gable with a window to the apex, partly obscured by creeper but appearing to be a modern timber top-hung vent.

The rear elevation displays a four-bay tall single-storey main block with lower blocks extending from each end. The main block is roofed with slate (as previously described), has wet-dashed walling with dashed eaves course and smooth rendered plinth, and oval cast iron tie-bar plaques corresponding to the front elevation. Four tall window openings are all boarded up. The left-hand lower addition has similar walling and roofing, with most slates now removed and one boarded-up window. The right-hand long lower addition is three-bay, with windows flanking a central small gabled projection. This gabled projection has a damaged corrugated iron roof, a blocked-up window in the gable, and a blocked-up doorway in its east side, with a damaged metal downpipe.

The east elevation is a wet-dashed gable with a projecting chimney breast and an oval cast iron tie-bar plaque to the left-hand side. The lower gabled projection has wet-dashed render, partly spalled to reveal old red brick. Slightly oversailing eaves feature shaped timber barge boards in poor condition. Two rectangular window openings with smooth rendered reveals and projecting stone cills are now boarded up. A rectangular doorway with similar reveals is also boarded up. The roof to the left-hand side is partially slated but mostly removed and clad in corrugated iron sheeting.

The building stands in a rural setting, set back slightly from the road behind a small grassed area bounded by a fence and trees. To the east is a grassed area bounded by a wet-dashed rendered screen wall containing a gateway with a small metal pedestrian gate and a pair of modern tubular iron vehicular gates. A long single-storey wet-dashed rendered building, thought to have served as the stable, abuts the curved east end of the screen wall. Its north roof slope is of natural slate whilst the south slope is clad in asbestos slates; one opening appears in each long elevation, now closed up. South of the former meeting house is a small grassed area with a burial ground beyond set within a glade of mature trees. The burial ground contains headstones of plain character dating from the 19th and 20th centuries, with none of particular architectural interest.

The building has been subject to amendment recorded 13 January 2006, when all external window and door openings were blocked up with concrete blocks.