Building record 0556800000 - FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE

Dimensions - Length 11 m, Width 7m.
Plan Form - Subrectangular.
Place of meeting in C18 unknown, but burial ground on site by 1796 (see 01:000) when agreed to build new place adjacent, completed by 1800. Porch rebuilt and minor rooms added to south, 1964. Meeting house has brick walls and hipped tiled roof (further details and ground plan) (B1).
At NGR (B2).
Grade II. C18. Red brick, hipped old tiled roof. 1 storey, 2 sash windows with glazing bars under flat arches (B3).
The meeting-house has brick walls and a hipped tiled roof, segmental arched windows with hung sashes and a brick dentil eaves cornice (more detail & floor plan) (B4).
The meeting house was built in 1798, and a porch added later, possibly in 1806. The porch was removed in 1962-4 when a single-storey lobby, kitchen and WCs were added, designed by N H Pymer and re-using dated bricks probably from the earlier porch. See report for detailed description and photos (B5).
Grade II. Quaker Meeting House. Built by 1798, with an extension of 1962-1964 to the design of NH Pymer, architect. Reasons for Designation: Architectural interest - a late-C18 meeting house in a vernacular style, typifying the Quaker ethos of understated architecture and retaining its essential historic form and character; - the simple plan form, and fittings including the Elders’ stand and sliding sash partition preserved in the interior, provide evidence for the division of space and internal arrangements typical for earlier Quaker meeting houses. Historic interest - a purpose-built Quaker meeting house, standing in its attached burial ground that had been established in 1682 before the Act of Toleration (1689)(B6).