Building record 438/18/0 - Friends Meeting House, Buttermarket Street, Warrington

<1> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1994, An Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in the North of England, Lancashire Number 257 (Book). SCH4548.

Friends Meeting House originally built in 1725 with a rebuild in 1829-30. It stands on an enclosed site to the South of the street. The walls are of red brick and the roof is slated. The South East front has a semi-circular porch enclosing the gallery staircase. A detached meeting house 30 yards East, sometimes used for a Quaker Adult School, with adjoining cottage, is thought to have served a Southcottian congregation in the early 19th century.

<2> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1329729 (Web Site). SCH6528.

From the early eighteenth century, the Warrington Quakers held their own evening meetings and acquired the present site in 1725 when a meeting house was built. This in turn was replaced by the present building in 1830. The building was designed to accommodate the monthly meetings covering the Manchester area and quarterly meetings of the Lancashire area. The building stands within an enclosed L-plan burial ground.

It is unclear when alterations were made to the furnishings of the larger meeting room, or when the doorway (possibly for women) in the south-west elevation of the entrance bay was blocked. The original benches appear to have been adjusted, and free-standing benches introduced into the main body of the room. Alterations were carried out in the 1970s when a partition was introduced into the gallery, set back from the line of the gallery front, in order to make the main space more manageable for heating, and to create a storage area. A small extension was also made to the rear of the building in order to provide kitchen and toilet facilities.

A cottage and school adjacent to the site were acquired in 1821 for use as a Quaker school, with teachers’ accommodation. Initially for children, it later catered for adults. The building is thought to have originated as premises of another dissenting group, founded by Joanna Southcott, but the early history is obscure. The buildings are rented to tenants and the former school is in use as a workshop.

<3> Architectural History Practice, 2015, Friends Meeting House, Warrington (Client Report). SCH7960.

Warrington meeting house has high significance as an early 19th century meeting house (1830) of simple but refined design which retains a very good range of original interior features. The building is a good example of late Georgian design, of simple form but incorporating high quality detailing, particularly in the fine brickwork, the sash windows and some of the internal fittings. There has been a house on the site since 1725, it is of great significance in the history of dissent and the development of the Society of Friends in the Warrington area. It illustrates the expansion of Quaker influence from the 18th century. It has an attractive setting within the original burial ground which was probably opened in c.1725 coinciding with the construction of the first meeting house.

The current building was built in 1830. It was designed to accommodate the monthly meetings covering the Manchester area and quarterly meetings of the Lancashire area. It is constructed in red brick laid in Flemish bond on a rendered stone plinth. It has a slate roof gabled to the south-west elevation and hipped on the north-east side. The single-storey building is rectangular in plan with a galleried south-west end and projecting staircase and entrance bay to the south-east front. Alterations were carried out in the 1970s when a partition was introduced into the gallery in order to make the main space more economic to heat and to create a storage area. Alterations to the furnishings of the larger meeting room were undertaken at an unknown date. The original benches appear to have been removed and free-standing benches introduced into the main body of the room. A small extension was made to the rear of the building to accommodate a kitchen and toilets.

A cottage and school adjacent to the site were acquired in 1821 for use as a Quaker school with teachers' accommodation. Initially for children it later also catered for adults. The school buildings are now rented to tenants and in use as a workshop.