Misplaced Pages

Old Town Hall, Stroud

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Municipal building in Stroud, Gloucestershire, England

Old Town Hall
Old Town Hall, Stroud
LocationThe Shambles, Stroud
Coordinates51°44′43″N 2°12′57″W / 51.7454°N 2.2157°W / 51.7454; -2.2157
Built1596
Architectural style(s)Gothic style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official nameTown Hall
Designated25 June 1974
Reference no.1267688
Old Town Hall, Stroud is located in GloucestershireOld Town Hall, StroudShown in Gloucestershire

The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in The Shambles, Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Stroud Urban District Council, is a Grade II* listed building.

History

The doorway to the offices

Following the granting of a charter to hold markets in 1594, the lord of the manor at Over Lypiatt, John Throckmorton, decided to commission a market hall; the new building was designed in the neoclassical style and completed in 1596. The original design involved a symmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto the Market Place; it was arcaded on the ground floor to allow markets to be held; an assembly room with a large oriel window was established on the first floor.

A village lock-up was created in the basement of the building in the 17th century and a school was established on the first floor of the building in the early 18th century: the physicist, John Canton, attended the school at that time. Part of the building was converted into a tailor's spinning house in the late 18th century.

The building was first used for municipal purposes as a meeting place for the local vestry in the early 19th century. It was extended to a design by Francis Niblett to accommodate the county court in 1851 and, after becoming the offices of the local board of health, it was remodelled in the gothic style with a large gable containing mullion windows erected above the two central bays in 1856. In order to improve the stability of the building, large buttresses, flanking the two central bays, were installed on the front of the building in 1890. After significant population growth, partly associated with the number of dye works in the town, the area became an urban district with the town hall as its headquarters in 1894.

Following an increase in the responsibilities of the council, civic leaders acquired the former offices of the Gloucester Banking Company in the High Street in 1930; the High Street building was converted for municipal use and was subsequently referred to as the "Council Chambers". Although most council officers and their departments moved to the new Council Chambers in the High Street, some departments, including the technical services department, remained in the old building. The old town hall remained in municipal use even after the enlarged Stroud District Council was formed in 1974. However, in 1986, the council acquired Ebley Mill, once the largest mills of its type in the south west of England, with a view to converting it for office use for council officers and their departments. Following the preparation of a feasibility study, a programme of improvement works was implemented at the town hall after the council moved out in 1988.

Wall hangings created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the granting of a charter to the town were completed in 1994 and subsequently hung in the building.

See also

References

  1. ^ Historic England. "Town Hall (1267688)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  2. ^ Baggs, A. P.; Jurica, A. R. J.; Sheils, W. J. (1976). "'Stroud: Growth of the town and outlying settlements', in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 11, Bisley and Longtree Hundreds, ed. N M Herbert and R B Pugh". London: British History Online. pp. 104–111. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  3. "Shambles Market Stroud". Gloucestershire.info. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  4. "Stroud Lock-up (Town Hall)". Prison History. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  5. "Key Landmarks - Stroud Town - Old Town Hall". Digital Stroud. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  6. "Stroud Local History Society: Barry Harrison asks - Who was John Canton?". Stroud News and Journal. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  7. Graham, Clare (2017). Ordering Law The Architectural and Social History of the English Law Court to 1914. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1351913577.
  8. "Stroud UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  9. "No. 44348". The London Gazette. 22 June 1967. p. 6939.
  10. Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
  11. Municipal Journal. Vol. 91. 1983. p. 1414.
  12. "Stroud District Council lets out office space at Ebley Mill to generate extra income". Stroud News and Journal. 15 January 2020. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  13. ""Putting the Roof Back on… ": An exhibition celebrating 30 years of the Stroud Preservation Trust" (PDF). Stroud Preservation Trust. 19 November 2012. p. 27. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  14. "Stroud District Council Offices open at Ebley Mill". Stroud Local History Society. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
  15. "Exhibitions". Stroud Local History Society. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
Categories: