Building survey by Architectural History Practice at Friends Meeting House, High Street, Saffron Walden, 2014 - EEX61521

NRHE data transfer: The meeting house has medium heritage significance as a Victorian building which was remodelled and reordered in the late 1960s, but retains some original fittings. The adjacent earlier historic burial ground has high significance. Evidential value: The building largely dates to 1879 and 1969 but, is reputed to contain earlier fabric from the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century meeting houses on the site. The attached burial ground has been in Quaker use since 1676. The building has medium evidential value and site has high evidential value. Aesthetic value: The aesthetic value of the meeting house resides chiefly in the street facade of 1879 by an unknown architect, and some of the interior with fitted joinery. The front elevation has high aesthetic value, while other parts of the building are of low aesthetic value. Historical value: The meeting house and the burial ground are associated with several local families, most notably the Gibsons. George Stacey Gibson brought the Friends' School to Saffron Walden and paid for the rebuilding of the meeting house in 1879. The meeting house and burial ground have high historical value. Communal value: The building was originally built for Quaker use and the meeting house is a popular venue for local community groups. Its association with the Gibsons also links it to a group of other buildings paid for by the family, which collectively form part of the local identity. The meeting house has high communal value.