The Rolls Hall | |
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General information | |
Address | Whitecross Street |
Town or city | Monmouth |
Country | Wales |
Coordinates | 51°48′47.8″N2°42′42.8″W / 51.813278°N 2.711889°W |
Completed | 1888 |
Cost | £8,000 |
Client | John Rolls |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | F.A.Powell |
Designations | Grade II listed |
The Rolls Hall, Whitecross Street, Monmouth, Monmouthshire is a Victorian hall, now public library, donated to the town in celebration of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee by John Rolls, the future Lord Llangattock. It is a Grade II listed building as of 8 October 2005, [1] and is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail. [2]
The hall was constructed in 1887-8 by F. A. Powell in a Jacobean style, at a cost of £8,000. [3] The materials are Old Red Sandstone and Forest ashlar. [4] The Rolls family of The Hendre were substantial Monmouthshire landowners and benefactors to the town, and attended the building's opening on 24 May 1888. The building was designed by F.A.Powell who was the eldest son of the Mayor of Monmouth, Mr Champney Powell. The hall was given to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee in 1888. [5] A new organ was installed in 1889 which had novel additions to its design by William Sweetland, [6] and the following year several paintings were installed. In September 1890, a successful Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition was held in the building; the catalogue can be seen in the Monmouth Museum. Between 1897 and 1903, the Hall was used for a number of plays staged by the actor, director and impresario Ben Greet. [2]
In 1963 the organ was inspected by an organ tuner who declared it to be useless. Water had affected the sounding boards and the instrument was falling to pieces. This was reported in the local paper but the organ remained in place for at least three years [6] when the hall was used as a dance hall, and later as a night club.
In 1992, the building became used for the town's public library, which had previously been located at the Shire Hall. [2] The Library was refurbished in 2010 with a £210,000 grant from the Museums Archives and Libraries: Wales, which matched funding from the County Council. [7] The library still honours its original benefactors as large full length portraits of John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, his wife Lady Llangattock and his son John Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock are the main decoration on one wall. However the floor mosaic, that showed the Rolls and Monmouth symbols linked together, is now exhibited on another wall.
In 2012 the library installed QRpedia codes to each bookcase as their part of the "MonmouthpediA" project which provides visitors with information about all aspects of the town. [8] The staff also installed these codes in dozens of books that linked to the book's author.
John Allan Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, was a Victorian landowner, Conservative Party politician, socialite, local benefactor and agriculturalist. He lived at The Hendre, a Victorian country house north of Monmouth.
John Maclean Rolls, 2nd Baron Llangattock was a British barrister and army Major.
The Hendre, in Rockfield, is the only full-scale Victorian country house in the county of Monmouthshire, Wales. The ancestral estate of the Rolls family, it was the childhood home of Charles Rolls, the motoring and aviation pioneer and the co-founder of Rolls-Royce. Constructed in the Victorian Gothic style, the house was developed by three major architects, George Vaughan Maddox, Thomas Henry Wyatt and Sir Aston Webb. It is located in the civil parish of Llangattock-Vibon-Avel, some 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west of the town of Monmouth. Built in the eighteenth century as a shooting box, it was vastly expanded by the Rolls family in three stages during the nineteenth century. The house is Grade II* listed and is now the clubhouse of the Rolls of Monmouth Golf Club. The gardens and landscape park, mainly laid out by Henry Ernest Milner in the later 19th century, are designated Grade II* on the Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales.
Llangattock-Vibon-Avel is a rural parish and former community, now in the community of Whitecastle in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales, in the United Kingdom. It is located 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Monmouth and some 13 miles (21 km) east of Abergavenny, just off the B4233 old road between the two. Villages within the former community include Llangattock itself, Skenfrith, Rockfield, and Newcastle.
The Monmouth Museum, alternatively known as The Nelson Museum and Local History Centre, is a museum in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It features a collection of artifacts associated with Admiral Horatio Nelson. The museum is located in the old Market Hall in the town centre.
A memorial statue to the aviation pioneer Charles Rolls stands in front of the Shire Hall in Agincourt Square, Monmouth, Wales. The 8 feet (2.4 m) high bronze statue was designed by Sir William Goscombe John, R.A. and Sir Aston Webb, R.A. designed the pink granite plinth. The statue is a Grade II* listed structure.
The Dispensary is a Georgian town house which is fairly typical of many town-centre houses in Monmouth, Wales, dating from the mid 18th century, but with early 19th-century additions. It stands in St James Square, opposite the Catalpa tree. The building was listed at Grade II on 27 June 1952.
John Etherington Welch Rolls was a High Sheriff of Monmouthshire, art collector, Deputy Lieutenant and Justice of the Peace. Rolls was President of, and co-founded the Monmouth Show.
St Mary's Priory Church, in Whitecross Street, Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, is an Anglican church founded as a Benedictine priory in 1075. The current church dates mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries. It was designated a Grade II* listed building in 1952. It is one of 24 buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail.
The Mayor of Monmouth is an elected position given to a town councillor in Monmouth in Wales. The position dates back about 750 years.
Agincourt Square is an open space in the centre of Monmouth, Wales, in front of the Shire Hall. The area has been used for public functions and markets over the centuries.
Georgiana, Lady Llangattock,, born Georgiana Marcia Maclean and after her marriage termed Georgiana Marcia Rolls, was a socialite, benefactor and an enthusiast for Horatio Nelson and associated naval heroes. She was the wife of John Rolls, 1st Baron Llangattock, a Victorian landowner, Member of Parliament and agriculturalist. She and her husband lived at The Hendre, a Victorian country house north of Monmouth.
The Rolls family were substantial landowners and benefactors in and around Monmouth in south-east Wales. The ascent of the family to the aristocracy was through marriage. A prominent member of the family was Charles Stewart Rolls, who co-founded the Rolls-Royce car manufacturing company.
Whitecross Street is a historic street in the town centre of Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was in existence by the 15th century, and appears as Whit crose on the 1610 map of the town by cartographer John Speed. It runs in an east-west direction, between Church Street and St James Square. It has been suggested that the street takes its name from a plague cross. Whitecross Street is lined with numerous listed buildings.
Kingsley House and Hendre House are a pair of 19th-century, semi-detached houses on the North Parade section of Monk Street in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. The grade II listed houses were designed by noted Monmouth architect and builder George Vaughan Maddox, who also designed at least two of the twenty-four blue plaque buildings on the Monmouth Heritage Trail, including the Market Hall and the Monmouth Methodist Church. Hendre House should be distinguished from The Hendre, the estate of the Rolls family.
The Nelson Rooms is a grade II listed building in Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales. It is in the historic Glendower Street and Agincourt Street neighbourhood, within the medieval town walls. The building initially served as a gymnasium and was a gift from Lady Llangattock to the town of Monmouth. In 1924, after the benefactor's death, it reopened as the Nelson Museum, and showcased the collection of memorabilia related to Admiral Horatio Nelson that had been amassed by the baroness. The Nelson Museum moved to new quarters at the Market Hall in 1969. The former gymnasium and museum is now an apartment building.
Major Alexander Rolls was a native of Swansea, Glamorganshire, Wales. A member of the renowned Rolls family of The Hendre at Llangattock-Vibon-Avel near Monmouth, Monmouthshire, his life in public service included four terms as Mayor of Monmouth. He was an officer in the Royal Monmouthshire Militia and the 4th Royal Irish Dragoon Guards. Rolls married twice; the widower's second marriage was to a divorcée, English actress Helen Barry.
John Rolls of The Hendre was a native of Bermondsey, in Southwark, London, Surrey, England. A member of the renowned Rolls family of The Hendre at Llangattock-Vibon-Avel near Monmouth, Monmouthshire, Wales, he undertook the first of several expansions of the mansion. The Hendre was also the childhood home of his great-grandson Charles Stewart Rolls, aviation pioneer and co-founder of Rolls-Royce Limited. John Rolls was a Justice of the Peace, as well as a Lieutenant Colonel of the Loyal Southwark Volunteer Infantry.
Sarah Coysh was the heiress to the estates of the Coysh, Allen, and James families. Her marriage to John Rolls (1735–1801) illustrates one of the methods by which the renowned Rolls family of Monmouthshire, Wales, and London, England, accumulated and improved their properties and advanced their social rank during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
St Cenedlon's is a parish church in the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. The dedication to St Cenedlon is unusual and the history of the saint is obscure. Some sources suggest that she was a daughter of Brychan king of Brycheiniog while others identify her as the wife of King Arthfael ab Ithel, king of Glywysing. The existing church dates from the Middle Ages but only the tower remains from that period. After the English Reformation, the surrounding area of north Monmouthshire became a refuge for Catholics and Matthew Pritchard (1669-1750), Roman Catholic bishop and Vicar Apostolic of the Western District is buried at the church. By the mid-19th century the church was in ruins and a complete reconstruction was undertaken by the ecclesiastical architects John Pollard Seddon and John Prichard in around 1860. St Cenedlon's is an active parish church in the Diocese of Monmouth. It is designated by Cadw as a Grade II listed building.