Old Quaker Meeting House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Amendment recorded 13.01.2006. The external window and door openings are now blocked up with concrete blocks.

A tall single storey gabled and rendered building with a lower gabled block projecting from each gable. Main entrance faces south.

South elevation: main block is four-bay; pitched roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses but central section later covered with corrugated iron sheeting; two chimneys, one to each gable, of 20th century rustic brickwork, with two pots to each stack. Walling is of roughcast render, wet dash, with a smooth rendered plinth, but the removal of a gabled entrance porch has revealed the rubble stone core; cast iron oval plates to tie bars at the head of the wall at extremities and between openings with also a similar plate at door head height at each end. Brick eaves course. Three window openings, two to the left of the doorway and one to the right of it, all rectangular with smooth cement rendered reveals and projecting stone cills, but windows boarded up. Doorway has a flat arch head in brickwork with brickwork jambs but opening now blocked up with corrugated iron sheeting. In front of doorway is a rectangular shaped former porch floor area with one course of a brick plinth wall remaining on the left side, a stone doorstep remaining to the right side, and the remnants of quarry tiles to the floor.
Extending to the left of the main block, in the same wall plane, is a low single bay block of similar walling except no plinth or eaves course; lean-to corrugated iron roof. Rectangular window opening now boarded up; modern concrete lintel.

Behind the small lean-to block is a longer gabled block extending to the west: roof slated as previous, with additional corrugated iron sheeting; wall wet dashed as previous, with brick eaves course; one rectangular window, now boarded up; oval cast iron tie-bar plaque to left-hand end.
Extending to the right of the main block, in the same wall plane is a small low single-storey one-bay block with similar walling except also a brick eaves course; lean-to corrugated iron roof; one opening, a rectangular doorway with smooth rendered reveals, spalled at head to reveal wooden lintel; opening boarded up.
Behind the small single storey block is the roof and part of the walling of a taller gabled block projecting to the east: roof slated as previous but mostly unslated, with later corrugated iron sheeting attached.

West elevation: main block has a plain gable rendered with a wet dash; central projecting chimney breast; flush eaves; one oval cast iron tie bar plaque to each side. Lower projecting block has a similarly rendered gable, with a window to the apex, partly covered with creeper but looks like a modern timber top-hung vent.

Rear elevation: a four-bay tall single storey main block with a lower block to each end. Main block has roof slated as previous; walling wet dashed with similarly dashed eaves course, and smooth rendered plinth; oval cast iron tie bar plaques corresponding to front elevation; four tall window openings all boarded up.
Extending to the left-hand end in same wall plane the lower single bay addition has similar walling and roofing except most slates now removed; one window opening, now boarded up.
Extending to the right-hand end in same wall plane the long lower addition has a similar roofing and walling. Three-bay elevation with one window to each side of central small gabled projection; gabled projection has a damaged corrugated iron roof; a blocked up window in the gable and a blocked up doorway in the east side; damaged metal downpipe.

East elevation is a wet dashed gable with projecting chimney breast, and an oval cast iron tie bar plaque to left-hand side. Lower part of gable contains lower gabled projection which has a wet dash render, partly spalled to reveal old red brick walling. Slightly oversailing eaves with shaped timber barge boards in poor condition. Two rectangular window openings with smooth rendered reveals and projecting stone cills, now boarded up. To the right-hand side is a rectangular doorway with similar reveals, now boarded up. Roof to left-hand side is slated but most slates removed and partly clad in corrugated iron sheeting.

SETTING: The building stands in a rural area, 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 dash rendered screen wall containing a gateway with a small metal pedestrian gate and a pair of modern tubular iron vehicular gates. The curving screen wall at the east end abuts a long single-storey wet dash rendered building which is thought to have been the stable ; north slope of roof is of natural slate; south slope is of asbestos slates; one opening in each long elevation, but closed up.
To the south of the former meeting house is a small grassed area with a burial ground beyond in a glade of mature trees. It contains graves marked by headstones of plain character of 19th and 20th century date: none of any special architectural interest.

Historical information

Precise date of building is uncertain but a Quaker meeting house was originally built here in 1784 at which time it had a thatched dwelling for a caretaker at one end, but it was re-roofed in 1826 and probably altered and enlarged then, with a women’s cloakroom built onto the west end at that time. A stable stood in the grounds. Benches removed from the interior c 1942; building and adjoining burial ground sold in 1988 to Lisburn Borough Council, following which the building was unused but the burial ground remains in use for Friends and their non-Friend descendants.
The building may be described as one of late 18th century foundation which achieved its present form in the 19th and 20th centuries.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832-3, Co Antrim 67.
2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 67.

Secondary Sources
1. D.M. Butler, The Quaker Meeting Houses of Ireland, The Historical Committee of the Religious Society of Friends in Ireland, to be published in 2004 (final proof of ‘Ulster province’, pp 24-25).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This is a former Quaker Meeting House of late 18th century foundation, altered and enlarged in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is of significant historical interest due to the scarity of the building type.