Shire Hall, Woodbridge

Shire Hall
Shire Hall, Woodbridge
Location	Market Hill, Woodbridge
Coordinates	52°05′39″N1°18′49″E / 52.0941°N 1.3136°E / 52.0941; 1.3136
Built	c.1575
Architectural style(s)	Neoclassical style
Listed Building – Grade I
Official name	The Shire Hall and Corn Exchange
Designated	25 January 1951
Reference no.	1377037
Shown in Suffolk

The Shire Hall is a municipal building in Market Hill in Woodbridge, Suffolk, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of Woodbridge Town Council, is a Grade I listed building. ^[1]

History

From the reign of King Edgar in the 10th century, Woodbridge was the centre of the Wicklaw Region ^[2] and developed as a county town in its own right with its own shire courts. ^[3] After the quarter-sessions were removed from Melton, a courtier to Queen Elizabeth I, Thomas Seckford, decided to commission a new sessions house for the Liberty of St Etheldreda. ^[4] The building was arcaded on the ground floor, so that corn markets could be held, with a courtroom on the first floor which Seckford gave to the county in perpetuity. ^[5] It was designed in the neoclassical style, built in red brick and was completed in around 1575. ^{[1] [6]}

The design provided for access to the courtroom at either end of the building using external stone staircases with wrought iron railings, which led up to first-floor doorways with architraves and carvings of the Seckford coat of arms. At the east end, the doorway was flanked by a pair of niches and surmounted by a gable containing a window and a clock, while at the west end, the doorway was flanked by blind brick panels and surmounted by a gable containing a window and an oculus. The north and south elevations, which had each five openings on the ground floor, were each fenestrated by three sash windows on the first floor. ^[1]

The appearance of the building was enhanced by the installation of Dutch gables surmounted by small pediments at either end of the building in the 17th century, and by the infilling of the openings on the ground floor in the early 19th century. ^[7] Meanwhile, the west end of the market hall was leased for use as a fire station in 1817. ^[1] A village pump, with Doric order turrets and a pyramid-shaped roof, was paid for by the Seckford Foundation and installed outside the west end of the building in 1877. ^[8]

After the courts service recommended the closure of the magistrates' court in Woodbridge in 1985, ^[9] the building was acquired by Woodbridge Town Council in 1987 and it subsequently became the meeting place of the town council. ^[10] The room on the first floor was leased out to the Seckford Foundation, a charity formed to support young and elderly people in the town. ^[11] A statue of a little drummer boy, which had been donated to the town by Diana Keppel, Countess of Albemarle shortly after she moved to the town in 1962 and installed outside the local council offices, was relocated to the east end of the shire hall in March 2018. ^{[12] [13]}

Works of art in the shire hall include a nautical painting by William Pike entitled The Sylph at Sea. ^[14]

References

1. Historic England. "The Shire Hall and Corn Exchange (1377037)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 April 2022.
2. Cam, Helen M. (2014). Liberties and Communities in Medieval England: Collected Studies in Local Administration and Topography. Cambridge University Press. p. 101. ISBN   978-1107452770.
3. Warner, Peter M. (1996). The origins of Suffolk. Manchester University Press. p. 2. ISBN   978-0719038174.
4. "Woodbridge Conservation Area Appraisal" (PDF). East Suffolk Council. p. 9. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
5. Loder, Robert (1792). The statutes, and ordinances, for the government of the alms-houses, in Woodbridge, founded by Thomas Seckford, in 1587. p. ii.
6. Pevsner, Nikolaus (1961). Suffolk (Buildings of England Series). Vol. 20. Penguin Bokks. p. 103.
7. "Shire Hall & Market Square". Woodbridge Town Council. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
8. Historic England. "Pump in Centre of Hill, West of the Shire Hall (1031031)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 22 April 2022.
9. "Days Gone By: What made the news on January 11, 1985". East Anglian Daily Times. 11 January 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
10. "Council looking at future options for iconic Grade I listed hall". East Anglian Daily Times. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
11. "The Seckford Foundation". Charity Commission. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
12. "Woodbridge's 'Drummer Boy' statue finds new home after public vote". East Anglian Daily Times. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
13. "Elation for Woodbridge as Drummer Boy statue makes welcome return". East Anglian Daily Times. 3 March 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2022.
14. "The Sylph at Sea". Art UK. Retrieved 22 April 2022.