Corn Exchange, Sudbury

Corn Exchange, Sudbury
Corn Exchange, Sudbury
Location	Market Hill, Sudbury
Coordinates	52°02′17″N0°43′48″E / 52.0381°N 0.7301°E / 52.0381; 0.7301
Built	1842
Architect	Henry Edward Kendall
Architectural style(s)	Baroque Revival style
Listed Building – Grade II*
Official name	Corn Exchange Public Library
Designated	26 October 1971
Reference no.	1037457
Shown in Suffolk

The Corn Exchange is a commercial building on Market Hill, Sudbury, Suffolk, England. The structure, which is used as a public library, is a Grade II* listed building. ^[1]

History

A view of the sculpture

In the late 1830s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "Sudbury Market House Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built corn exchange for the town. The site selected, at the bottom of Market Hill, had been occupied by several properties including a chemist and druggist. ^{[2] [3]}

The building was designed by Henry Edward Kendall in the Baroque Revival style, built by Stephen Webb of Long Melford in brick with a stucco finish at a cost of £1,620, and was completed in October 1842. ^[4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Market Hill. The central bay featured a tall round headed opening, containing a doorway, a six-part window and a fanlight, with an architrave and a keystone. The outer bays were fenestrated by tall round headed windows with architraves and keystones. The bays were flanked by full-height Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature and surmounted by carvings of wheat sheaves. At roof level, there was a central panel inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange", which was surmounted by a pedestal supporting a sculpture carved in coade stone depicting a group of agricultural labourers, with sickles and wheat sheaves. ^[5] There was a balustraded parapet above the outer bays. ^[6] The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, was impressed with the design, which he said "deserves a glance, if only to meditate on the early Victorian sense of security, superiority, and prosperity". ^[7]

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. ^[8] Instead, it was used for concerts and public meetings: a rendition of The Messiah by George Frideric Handel was performed in the main hall in February 1886. ^[9] The building acted as an air raid shelter during the Second World War. ^[10]

However, by the early 1960s, the building had become dilapidated, and the owners were initially minded to sell it to Tesco to facilitate the construction of a modern supermarket on the site. Following a successful campaign by the members of the specially formed Corn Exchange Preservation Association, led by a local solicitor, Andrew Phillips, to save the building from demolition, it was sold to West Suffolk County Council instead. ^[10] After the completion of an extensive programme of works, undertaken by George Grimwood & Sons to a design by the county architect, Jack Digby, it re-opened as a public library on 24 September 1968. ^{[11] [12]} The exterior of the building was restored in 1993, ^[13] and again in 2010. ^[10]

See also

• Corn exchanges in England
• Grade II* listed buildings in Babergh

References

1. Historic England. "Corn Exchange Public Library (1037457)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 19 June 2023.
2. "Deeds of the Corn Exchange Site". National Archives. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
3. "Sudbury Freemen surnames beginning with G (Gunton)". Sudbury Freemen. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
4. White, William (1844). History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk, and the Towns Near Its Borders. p. 573.
5. "Resting Reapers". public monuments and sculpture in Norfolk and Suffolk. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
6. Grimwood, Charles George; Kay, S. A. (1952). History of Sudbury. Sudbury. p. 87.
7. Pevsner, Nikolaus; Radcliffe, Enid (1974). Suffolk (Buildings of England Series). Yale University Press. p. 454. ISBN   978-0300096484.
8. Fletcher, T. W. (1973). 'The Great Depression of English Agriculture 1873-1896' in British Agriculture 1875-1914. London: Methuen. p. 31. ISBN   978-1136581182.
9. The Printers' International Specimen Exchange. Vol. 7. Officer of the Paper and Printing Trades Journal. 1886.
10. Grimshaw, Anne. "How Sudbury came close to losing one of its finest buildings". Sudbury Society. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
11. Cantacuzino, Sherban (1975). New Uses for Old Buildings. Architectural Press. p. 120. ISBN   978-0851394992.
12. "Corn Exchange, Now Sudbury Public Library". Royal Institute of British Architects. Retrieved 19 June 2023.
13. "1841 – Corn Exchange". Local History. Retrieved 19 June 2023.