Midleton Library

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Midleton Library
Leabharlann Mainistir na Corann
Midleton Library, Main Street Midleton-Mainistir na Corann, Town Parks Townland - geograph.org.uk - 1903194.jpg
Midleton Library
Location map Ireland County Cork.png
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Midleton Library
Location within County Cork
General information
Architectural style Italianate style
AddressMain Street, Midleton
Country Ireland
Coordinates 51°54′50″N8°10′22″W / 51.9140°N 8.1729°W / 51.9140; -8.1729
Completed1789
Design and construction
Architect(s)John Morrison

Midleton Library (Irish : Leabharlann Mainistir na Corann), formerly Midleton Town Hall (Irish : Halla an Bhaile Mainistir na Corann), is a municipal building in Main Street, Midleton, County Cork, Ireland. The building, which was used as the market house and town hall throughout most of its life, is now used as a public library. It is included in Cork County Council's Record of Protected Structures. [1]

History

The building in its original form was commissioned by Sir St John Brodrick of Ballyannan who was granted rights as lord of the manor of the Ballyannan Estate to the southwest of Midleton in 1670. [2] It was complete by the time of the publication of Sir William Petty's county map, Hiberniae Delineatio, in 1685 and was enhanced by a clock in around 1750. [3] After it became dilapidated, George Brodrick, 4th Viscount Midleton invited proposals for the rebuilding of the structure in the early 1780s. [4]

The new structure was designed by John Morrison in the Italianate style, built in rough limestone and was completed in 1789. [5] [6] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Main Street. The building was arcaded, so that markets could be held, with meeting rooms on the first floor. There were five openings with imposts, voussoirs and keystones on the ground floor and round headed windows with architraves and keystones on the first floor. At roof level, there was a parapet and a central two-stage cupola, with clock faces in the first stage and a belfry in the second stage and an ogee-shaped dome and a weather vane above. Internally, the principal rooms were a shambles, a weigh-house and a market hall on the ground floor and an assembly room and council chamber for the use of Midleton Corporation on the first floor. [4]

The corporation was abolished under the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. [7] Soldiers from the 14th Regiment of Foot were billeted in the building, [8] in the aftermath of the Fenian Rising in East Cork which began in Midleton on Skellig Night in March 1867. [9]

After Midleton Urban District Council, formed in 1900, started to use the building as a town hall, [10] a town clerk's office was established at 45 Main Street, on the directly opposite side of the road. [11] The market house also eventually became the home of the local library. An extensive programme of refurbishment works to restore the fabric of the building to its original condition was completed in 2008. [12]

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References

  1. ↑ Volume 2 - Heritage and Amenity (PDF). Cork County Development Plan 2022 (Report). Cork County Council. 2022. p. 121. Retrieved 29 November 2023. Table 2.1.1 Record of Protected Structures [..] 02521 [..] Town Hall (former) [..] Main Street, Midleton
  2. ↑ "Brodrick, Sir St John". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  3. ↑ McCarthy, Kieran (2019). The Little Book of Cork Harbour. The History Press. ISBN   978-0750989602.
  4. 1 2 Lewis, Samuel (1837). Midleton. A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland. p. 369.
  5. ↑ "Midleton Library, Main Street, Midleton, County Cork". National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  6. ↑ "Morrison, John". Dictionary of Irish Architects. Retrieved 28 November 2023.
  7. ↑ "Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840". The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Vol. XV Part II. Her Majesty's Printer's. 1840. pp. 599–669. ISBN   978-0331531558 . Retrieved 31 July 2013.
  8. ↑ Mayhem and murder on Skellig night – the Fenian Rising in East Cork, March 1867. East Cork and Irish History, Ancestry and Heritage.
  9. ↑ Foy, Michael T. (2023). The Fenian Rising: James Stephens and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, 1858–1867. The History Press. ISBN   978-1803992624.
  10. ↑ Curley, Helen (2000). The Local Ireland Almanac and Yearbook of Facts. Local Ireland. p. 198. ISBN   978-0953653706. The Town Hall (erected 1789)
  11. ↑ Open procedure. Vol. 17. Official Journal of the European Communities. 1974. p. 321. Midleton Urban District Council, Town Clerk's Office, Pearse Memorial Chambers, 45 Main Street, Midleton, County Cork
  12. ↑ "Perspectives: Library Development Plan 2014–2019" (PDF). Cork County Library and Arts Service. p. 6. Retrieved 29 November 2023.
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