Brackley Town Hall

Brackley Town Hall
Brackley Town Hall
Location	Market Place, Brackley
Coordinates	52°01′36″N1°08′59″W / 52.0266°N 1.1498°W / 52.0266; -1.1498
Built	1706
Architectural style(s)	Georgian style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name	Town Hall
Designated	22 April 1950
Reference no.	1190100
Shown in Northamptonshire

Brackley Town Hall is a municipal structure in the Market Place, Brackley, Northamptonshire, England. The structure, which serves as the meeting place of Brackley Town Council, is a Grade II* listed building. ^[1]

History

The building was commissioned by lord of the manor, Scroop Egerton, 4th Earl of Bridgewater, as a market hall for the people of the town. ^{[2] [3]} It was designed in the Georgian style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £2,000 and was completed in 1706. ^[4] It was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with an assembly room on the first floor. The design of the building, which was located in the middle of the High Street, involved symmetrical main frontages with five bays facing onto the east and west sides of the High Street. At roof level there were dormer windows on all sides and a central clock tower with a cupola. ^[1] Internally, the principal room was the assembly room on the first floor. ^[5]

The theologian, John Wesley, preached outside the town hall in 1784, although he expressed concerns that the crowd showed "understanding [of] me no more than if I had been talking Greek". ^[6] Brackley had a very small electorate and two dominant patrons (the 8th Earl of Bridgewater and the 2nd Marquess of Stafford), which meant it was recognised by the UK Parliament as a rotten borough: the right of the borough to elect members of parliament was removed by the Reform Act 1832. ^[7] In June 1840, the member of parliament for South Northamptonshire and chairman of the board of guardians, Colonel William Cartright, was presented with a large tureen in the town hall in recognition of his work to promote poor law reforms in the town including the creation of a new workhouse. ^{[8] [9]}

In 1883, the south front was significantly enhanced; the centre bay, which now projected forward, featured a doorway with a stone canopy, a mullioned window on the first floor and a pediment above. ^[10] The borough council, which continued to meet in the town hall, was reformed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883. ^{[11] [12]} The town hall continued to serve as the meeting place of the borough council for much of the 20th century as well, ^[13] but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged South Northamptonshire District Council was formed in 1974. ^[14] It subsequently became the meeting place of Brackley Town Council. ^[15]

In 2016, the building closed for an extensive programme of refurbishment works which involved the installation of a new staircase and lift, the renovation of the clock by Smith of Derby and the procurement of a replacement bell cast by John Taylor & Co for the clock tower. ^{[16] [17]} The works also involved the creation of an attic flat for hire by holiday makers, ^[18] and 26 stained glass roundels, designed by Rachel Aldridge, were inserted into the windows. ^[19] The works, which were undertaken to a design by Haverstock, were carried out by Borras Construction at a cost £3.2 million and were substantially funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund; the building was officially re-opened by the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, David Eric Laing, on 11 September 2018. ^[20] The restoration work was highly commended in the regional Civic Trust awards ^[21] and was also recognised with a regional award by the Royal Institute of British Architects. ^[22]

Works of art in the town hall include four paintings by Dean Wolstenholme the younger, all depicting hunting scenes. ^[23]

See also

• Grade II* listed buildings in South Northamptonshire

References

1. Historic England. "Town Hall (1190100)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 6 September 2021.
2. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (1973). Northamptonshire. The Buildings of England. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 117.
3. "£2.2 million grant for Brackley Town Hall refurbishment". Buckingham Today. 7 August 2015. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
4. Lewis, Samuel (1848). "'Boxworth - Brackley', in A Topographical Dictionary of England". London: British History Online. pp. 323–326. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
5. "New lease of life to the town hall". Focus Brackley. 1 January 2018. p. 13. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
6. Davies, Trevor (2014). Brackley Through Time. Amberley Publishing. ISBN   978-1445618937.
7. "The History of Politics: The Rotten Boroughs of England". Julia Herdman Books. 21 April 2017. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
8. "Brackley, Northamptonshire". Workhouses. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
9. Clarke, John (2018). Victorian Brackley. Phillimore and Co. ISBN   978-0750987585.
10. "Brackley Town Hall". Brackley Town Council. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
11. Municipal Corporations Act 1883 (46 & 46 Vict. Ch. 18) (PDF). 1883. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
12. "Brackley MB". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
13. "No. 45894". The London Gazette . 1 February 1973. p. 1486.
14. Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN   0-10-547072-4.
15. "Council Meeting" (PDF). Brackley Town Council. 6 September 2021. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
16. "The town hall re-opening". Brackley Town Council. 6 September 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
17. "Brackley Town Hall". Architecture Today. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
18. "The loft at Brackley Town Hall". Mulberry Cottages. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
19. "Brackley Town Hall wins again!". Brackley Town Council. 5 July 2019. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
20. "Brackley Town Hall reopened this morning by David Eric Laing who is the HM Lord Lieutenant for Northamptonshire, he was standing in for His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester who was unable to attend, the Town hall was reopened after being closed for 2 year for a Heritage Lottery Funded restoration costing £3.2 million". Brackley, Northamptonshire: Alamy. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
21. "Brackley Town Hall". Civic Trust Awards. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
22. "Regional awards 2019: Brackley Town Hall". RIBA Journal. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
23. "Brackley Town Hall". Art UK. Retrieved 6 September 2021.