Building record 1563/11/0 - Friends Meeting House

Friends Meeting House, situated in a small court just behind Mill Street (east side). Town Mission attached to premises. 1705, enlarged and alt C20th. Old part single storey, stone (rubble) with restored slate roof. Interior: gallery and old oak trusses. Obscured by other buildings (1). Second oldest Nonconformist place of Worship in town. Meetings held on Sundays and workdays. By 1715 said to have been 80 Quakers in Macclesfield. With general decline of society in C19th, meetings discontinued in 1877. Building fell into disrepair, but leased to Manchester City Mission. In 1938 reserved limited use of building for their own use. Original building unadorned, rectangular, plain windows. Minsters Gallery (long benches on plain dais) one end, gallery the other. Extensive repairs 1895. Plans for extension passed 1916, but delayed by war. Long south wall removed and new "wing" added, as large as original building, on old Friends burial ground. Little remains of original, except 1705 roof trusses(2).
Built in 1705 and greatly enlarged c1916. The East wall is of coursed sandstone rubble, the South wall has been removed and the others are obscured by the surrounding buildings. The roof is slated and gabled to the East and West. No original windows remain (3).

<1> Department of the Environment, 1971-2005, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest, /2/17 (Report). SCH1934.

<2> Davies C S (ed), 1968, A History of Macclesfield, 324-327 1961 (Book). SCH73.

<3> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME), 1994, An Inventory of Non-Conformist Chapels and Meeting Houses in the North of England, Cheshire Number 77 (Book). SCH4548.