Corn Exchange, Haverhill

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Corn Exchange, Haverhill
Former Corn Exchange, Haverhill - geograph.org.uk - 3406903.jpg
Corn Exchange, Haverhill
LocationWithersfield Road, Haverhill
Coordinates 52°05′06″N0°26′09″E / 52.0849°N 0.4357°E / 52.0849; 0.4357
Built1889
ArchitectFrank Whitmore
Architectural style(s) Renaissance Revival style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameCorn Exchange
Designated9 May 1973
Reference no.1375531
Suffolk UK location map.svg
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Shown in Suffolk

The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in Withersfield Road in Haverhill, Suffolk, England. The structure, which is currently vacant and deteriorating, is a Grade II listed building. [1]

Contents

History

The first corn exchange in the town was erected in the High Street just to the south of St Mary's Parish Church in 1857. [2] [3] However, in the mid-1880s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, to be known as the "Haverhill Corn Exchange Company Limited", to finance and commission a new and more substantial corn exchange for the town. [4] The site they selected was the forecourt of the old livestock market. [5] [6]

The new building was designed by Frank Whitmore in the Renaissance Revival style, built in red brick and completed in 1889. [7] [8] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Withersfield Road. The central bay featured a short flight of steps leading up to a round-headed opening with voussoirs and a keystone flanked by Doric order columns supporting an entablature, inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange", and a balustrade. The other bays were fenestrated by a bi-partite round headed windows on the ground floor. The first floor was well set back in relation to the ground floor and was fenestrated by a tri-partite segmentally headed window with an architrave and a keystone. There was a gable above which was surmounted a double ogee-shaped pediment. [1] The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, was unimpressed with the design which he described as being "of little merit". [9]

The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. [10] Instead, it was used as a community events centre, [1] before being acquired by St Felix Catholic Church for use as their social club. St Felix Catholic Church then sold the building to a developer to fund a new church in Princess Way in 2006. [11] However, the new owner failed to maintain the building and, after it remained vacant and deteriorating for over a decade, St Edmundsbury Borough Council served a notice on the owners, in May 2017, demanding that repairs be carried out. [12] Haverhill Town Council subsequently considered acquiring the dilapidated building but, in October 2017, abandoned its plans to do so after the owner's lenders decided to block any proposed sale. [13]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Historic England. "Corn Exchange (1375531)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  2. ↑ "Timeline: Haverhill". Visitor UK. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  3. ↑ Historic England. "2 and 4, High Street (1375516)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  4. ↑ Kelly's Directory of Suffolk. Vol. 11. 1896. p. 152.
  5. ↑ "Haverhill" (PDF). Suffolk County Council. p. 8. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  6. ↑ "Haverhill From the Iron Age to 1899". St Edmundsbury. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  7. ↑ Brown, Cynthia; Haward, Birkin; Kindred, Robert (1991). Dictionary of Architects of Suffolk Buildings, 1800-1914. Ipswich. p. 196. ISBN   978-0951770306.
  8. ↑ "Queen Street Haverhill Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan" (PDF). West Suffolk Council. 1 September 2008. p. 7. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  9. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus; Radcliffe, Enid (1974). Suffolk (Buildings of England Series). Yale University Press. p. 253. ISBN   978-0300096484.
  10. ↑ Fletcher, T. W. (1973). 'The Great Depression of English Agriculture 1873-1896' in British Agriculture 1875-1914. London: Methuen. p. 31. ISBN   978-1136581182.
  11. ↑ "Haverhill – St Felix". Taking Stock: Catholic Churches of England and Wales. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  12. ↑ "You've been served - crumbling Haverhill Corn Exchange to be saved by St Edmundsbury Borough Council". Cambridge News. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Frustrated Haverhill Town Council drops plans to buy Corn Exchange". Suffolk News. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
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