Building record 0556300000 - FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE, WHIELDEN STREET

Dimensions - Length 0018 m Width 0010
METHODIST CHAPEL (WESLEYAN) AND BURIAL GROUND AT NGR (B1).
1600 TIMBER-FRAMED 1 STOREY COTTAGE, ATTICS AND CENRAL CHIMNEYSTACK. OCCUPIED BY FRIENDS SINCE C.1660. LATE C19 OCCUPIED BY WESLEYANS. 1917 RE-OPENED FOR QUAKERS (MORE DETAIL) (B2).
Grade II+ [with adjacent Whielden Cottage]. Original house at south end c.1600 extended to 1689 to form a Meeting Room for Friends, who has used the building from about 1660. Extended further north late C18, when the Meeting House was refronted in red brick. Cottage refronted early C19. Old tile roof, hipped at north end, C17 brick stack to cottage, gable on left with 2-light casement door with bracketted hood, 2-light casement on left with segmental arch. Meeting House has 2-fold 6 flush panel doors with delicate astragal mouldings, wooden architrave and flat gauged arch. Two sash windows each side, all with wood cills, segmental arches and panelled shutters with ornamental iron fasteners. Rear elevation has four gabled wings, three weatherboarded, the southern one brick. Interior: Cottage has exposed beams of c.1600. Meeting House is divided into two rooms by a screen with ounterweighted shutters. Main room has plain dado panelling, wall benches and a stand, open backed benches with shaped ends. Setting: a large open burial ground on the north and west. Important associations with Quaker history (B3).
The farmhouse was not registered as a Meeting House until 1689, when one of the rooms was extended by one bay to serve as the main meeting room, with later extension, brick refacing and furnishings renewed in 1780 or 1785. In 1850 the meeting house was closed, and subsequently went through various uses including a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, before reopening for Quaker workship in 1917. In 1957 a classroom, kitchen and WCs were added at the back and various alterations made to the meeting house and cottage by Hubert Lidbetter. In 2014 a further single-storey extension by Malcolm Barnett was added at the back to provide an accessible entrance and WCs and a new kitchen. (See report for detailed description and photos) (B4).