Listed Building record MDR11865 - Former Cottage and Friends Meeting House, Chapel Street, Monyash

Former cottage and Friends Meeting House, Chapel Street, Monyash, built c1671. The 1st edition 25" OS map of c1880 shows a the property labelled as 'Friends' Meeting House and Burial Ground', but the 2nd edition 25" OS map of 1898 shows the building unlabelled but the 'BG' is still marked to the rear. The Society of Friends have had a meeting house and burial ground here [in Monyash] since 1711. (1) The building was assessed and visited in 2015: '...John Gratton (1642-1712) was a prominent Quaker preacher and writer who was born in Bonsall in Derbyshire and moved to Monyash in c1668 where he formed or joined a Baptist congregation. ...in 1671 he experienced what he identified as a Pauline conversion while riding to Sheldon, in which the Quakers were revealed to be his people. ...The exact circumstances of the foundation of the present meeting house in Monyash are obscure. Some sources identify it as Gratton’s own cottage left to the Friends on his death in 1712, other sources state that he sold the Monyash property before moving to Nottinghamshire. ...The Monyash monthly meeting was effectively independent from 1668-1735; thereafter it became part of the Chesterfield monthly meeting. Use as a meeting house discontinued in 1892, but the building remained in the ownership of the Society. It was turned to different uses during the twentieth century, acting variously as a shop, potato store and a more recently as a youth club. A phase of consolidation and restoration began in the early twenty-first century.' (2) It is not clear what the buildings current function is, although based on Google imagry (Streetview) dating to 2020, it might now be a part of its neighbouring structures. From the National Heritage List for England: 'SK 16 NW PARISH OF MONYASH CHAPEL STREET 5/144 (West Side)Quaker Chapel II Cottage, converted c1711 into Friends Meeting House, enlarged mid C19, now Sunday school. Coursed limestone. Limestone and gritstone dressings. Plain tile and stone slate roof. Brick gable end stack. Two storey with single storey additions. Plank door with large lintel to west. Recessed and chamfered 2-light mullion window to east with original iron bars. Leaded lights. Beyond, tall glazing bar sash in limestone surround, with original shutter hinges. Above mullioned window, a 2-light flush mullion window with C20 leaded lights. Single storey stone slate addition to east with no openings. To rear, stone slate addition open to south, supported by cast iron columns. Interior of building has gallery to west and south. Listing NGR: SK1499366703.' (3)