South Molton Guildhall | |
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Location | Broad Street, South Molton |
Coordinates | 51°01′03″N3°50′04″W / 51.01750°N 3.83436°W Coordinates: 51°01′03″N3°50′04″W / 51.01750°N 3.83436°W |
Built | 1743 |
Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
Official name | Guild Hall (including borough museum) |
Designated | 20 August 1951 |
Reference no. | 1106866 |
The Guildhall on Broad Street in South Molton in Devon was built between 1739 and 1743 [1] and has been a Grade I listed building on the Register of Historic England since 1951. [2] Today the building is the town hall for South Molton. [3] Beside it, beneath the Old Assembly Room, is the entrance to the Pannier Market for the town. [4]
Completed in two phases - 1743 and 1773 - much of the materials used in the building of the 1743 phase were bought following the demolition of Stowe House in 1739, the former 17th-century mansion in Cornwall. The façade is built of Portland stone with the Court Room supported by three arches extending out over the pavement. [5] The building's two-storeys are stuccoed while the ground floor is rusticated. The upper storey stands over the pavement on three round-headed arches with keystones. The first floor has four pilasters with Corinthian capitals and a pediment displaying the Royal Arms. Atop the building is a wooden cupola with a clock and weather vane erected in 1753. [5] A central niche holds a bust of Hugh Squier (1625-1710) of Petty France, Westminster, a wealthy merchant best remembered as a generous benefactor to the town of South Molton, the place of his birth, where in 1684 he founded a "free school". [6] The bust was placed here in 1910 on the bi-centenary of his death with a floral wreath below it. [2]
The building of 1743 contains the Court Room with its fine 17th-century panelling and gilded moulding brought here following the demolition of Stowe House in 1739; the Constable's Room, the Mayor's Parlour and a fine early 18th-century staircase with twisted balusters and dado panelling. [7]
The Mayor’s Parlour includes 17th-century materials bought from Stowe House including plasterwork decorative picture frames, a decorated plaster ceiling, four doorcases with gilded pediments, a large overmantel painting in the style of Rubens of "Atalanta presented with the head of the Calydonian Boar by Meleager" and four classical capriccio scenes in small rectangular panels above the doors. [1] The wooden dock in the Court Room was a portable type which could easily be jumped by prisoners. [8]
In 1773 a two-storey wing of stone rubble was constructed at the building's rear to hold a large dining room to provide meals and other services for visiting notables, with the kitchen and other offices below. This wing is now known as the Old Assembly Room and retains its plain 18th-century marble fireplace and paneling. The original early 18th-century jury benches survive while the Kings Arms were made by William Puckridge of London in 1743. [2] Beneath this is the entrance to the town's Pannier Market. [4] The clock was first illuminated in 1903. [9]
South Molton Museum is located on the Guildhall's first floor and is managed by South Molton Town Council and volunteers. The Museum displays the social history of South Molton and its development across the centuries. The Museums's collections reflect the life and times of the historic market town and the surrounding district including two Town Charters, granted by Elizabeth I and Charles II, local archaeological finds, agricultural implements, items of domestic interest, textiles, documents, maps, toys, etc. Apart from the permanent exhibition there is also a regularly changing programme of displays. [10] Displayed are the Newsham Fire Engine used in the town from 1736 to 1886 until it was replaced by the Merryweather Fire Engine which was still in use until the early 1930s and which is also displayed. [11]
Maristow House in the parish of Bickleigh, Devon, England, is a large country house set in landscaped parkland, on the River Tavy to the north of Plymouth. It was built in about 1560, rebuilt in the mid-18th century and further remodelled in the early 20th century. Between 1798 and 1938 it was the residence of the Lopes family, Barons Roborough. The house was ruined by fire after World War II, but was restored and converted into apartments in the late 1990s by Kit Martin. It is a grade II* listed building, having been so designated on 29 March 1960.
South Molton is a town in Devon, England. It is part of the North Devon local government district. The town is on the River Mole. According to the 2001 census the civil parish of South Molton had a population of 4,093, increasing to 5,108 at the 2011 Census. The town also has an electoral ward with the same name. The population of this ward at the same census was 4,875 We have therefore the unusual situation where the town is larger than the ward. The town was one of the boroughs reformed by the Municipal Reform Act 1835. It retained this status as a municipal borough until 1967, when it became a rural borough in the South Molton Rural District.
Lawrence House is a Georgian townhouse in Launceston, Cornwall. Built in 1753, the house is a National Trust property and a Grade II* listed building. It is leased to Launceston Town Council and used as a local museum.
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Pentecost Dodderidge of Barnstaple in North Devon, was three times Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1621, 1624 and 1625.
Stowe House in the parish of Kilkhampton in Cornwall, England, UK, was a mansion built in 1679 by John Grenville, 1st Earl of Bath (1628–1701) and demolished in 1739. The Grenville family were for many centuries lords of the manor of Kilkhampton, which they held from the feudal barony of Gloucester, as they did their other principal seat of nearby Bideford in Devon. It is possible that the family's original residence at Kilkhampton was Kilkhampton Castle, of which only the groundworks survive, unusual in that it had a motte with two baileys.
Hugh Squier (1625-1710) of Petty France, Westminster, was a wealthy merchant best remembered as a generous benefactor to the town of South Molton in Devon, the place of his birth, where in 1684 he founded a "free school".
The Mayor of South Molton in Devon is an ancient historical office which survives at the present time. In the Middle Ages the town of South Molton was incorporated by royal charter into a borough governed by a Mayor and Corporation. This enabled the inhabitants to free themselves from the jurisdiction of the lord of the manor of South Molton and to subject themselves instead to the jurisdiction of the king.
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The Guildhall is a town hall and community building in the town of Chard in the English county of Somerset.
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The Pannier Market in Bideford in North Devon is a large covered Victorian pannier market together with the Butcher's Row of small artisan stalls running along the lower level of the Market. There has been a market on the site since 1675. Since 1989 it has been a Grade II listed building on the register of Historic England.
The Pannier Market in Great Torrington in Devon is a Victorian pannier market of 12 small indoor shops - six either side of a narrow cobbled lane built in 1842 and restored in 1999. The Market House building at the front of the complex has been a Grade II* listed building on the Historic England Register since 1951.
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South Molton Pannier Market is the pannier market for the town of South Molton in Devon, England located behind the town's Grade I listed Guildhall which was constructed between 1739 and 1741.
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And whereas I have, about twenty-eight years ago, erected and built a free school in the town of South Molton, in Devon