| Boston Guildhall | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Location | Boston, Lincolnshire |
| Coordinates | 52°58′33″N0°01′23″W / 52.9759°N 0.0231°W |
| Built | 1390 |
Listed Building – Grade I | |
| Designated | 20 November 1975 |
| Reference no. | 1389007 |
  Location of Boston Guildhall in Lincolnshire | |
Boston Guildhall is a former municipal building in Boston, Lincolnshire. It currently serves as a local museum and also as a venue for civil ceremonies and private functions. [1] It is a Grade I listed building. [2]
St. Mary's Guild in Boston was founded as a merchant guild by a group of individuals in 1260. [3] [4] The guildhall, based on evidence from dendrochronology, was built in 1390, just two years before incorporation of the guild and probably in anticipation of that event. [5] The guild became wealthy as a result of extensive gifts received in the 14th and 15th centuries and an inventory shows that it held various items of gold, silver and gilt, as well as the sacred relics. [6] As a result of the dissolution of the chantries and religious guilds, imposed by King Edward VI, the guildhall was confiscated by the Crown and passed to the Boston Corporation in 1555. [6]
In autumn 1607 a group of Puritans led by William Brewster, now known to as the Pilgrim Fathers, were brought before the magistrates in the guildhall, accused of seeking to travel to Holland without the King's permission. They were discharged by the magistrates and lived in Boston for several months before reaching Holland the following year by another route; they later sailed from Plymouth in the Mayflower for the New World in 1620. [7]
As the building was increasingly used for civic purposes in the 18th century, ongoing changes were put in place which removed or masked much of the building's medieval fabric. Pishey Thompson, writing in 1856, claimed that "the interior of the building is so completely modernised that nothing of the original but the construction of the roof is visible". [8] After the new Sessions House in Church Close was completed in 1842, the guildhall ceased to be a place for the administration of justice, [9] and after the new Municipal Buildings in West Street were completed in 1904, the guildhall ceased to have any municipal role. [10]
The guildhall operated a restaurant which served as a National Soup Kitchen in the First World War and as a British Restaurant in the Second World War but was forced to close after an outbreak of food poisoning in 1949. [6] The whole building was expensively restored after receiving £1 million in support from the Heritage Lottery Fund in 2008. [11]
The walls consist of two faces of brickwork between which is a rubble core matrix. The bonding of the brickwork is characteristic of a late medieval date. Irregular shaped bricks are laid in a fairly thick mortar and in a haphazard bond consisting largely of rows of stretchers with the occasional header used to bond the two wall surfaces together. This construction pre-dated the widespread adoption of English Bond (alternating courses of headers and stretchers) and Flemish Bond (alternating headers and stretchers in each course) in England. The courses of brickwork are bonded together with a lime-based 'common mortar' which was originally pointed back flush with the wall face. It survives on the bedding planes and is exposed in several places on the north elevation. [12]
Works of art include a portrait, painted by Thomas Phillips, of Sir Joseph Banks, recorder of Boston in 1813, who sailed with Captain James Cook aboard the Endeavour on the first great voyage to discover Australia. [13] The guildhall also holds a copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs and artefacts from various archaeological excavations. [6]
A brick is a type of construction material used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term brick denotes a unit primarily composed of clay, but is now also used informally to denote units made of other materials or other chemically cured construction blocks. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesives or by interlocking. Bricks are usually produced at brickworks in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region, and are produced in bulk quantities.
Masonry is the craft of building a structure with brick, stone, or similar material, including mortar plastering which are often laid in, bound and pasted together by mortar. The term masonry can also refer to the building units themselves.
Boston is a market town and inland port in the borough of the same name in the county of Lincolnshire, England.
St Botolph's Church is the Anglican parish church of Boston, Lincolnshire, England. It has been referred to as "Boston Stump" since it was constructed. Its tower is 266 feet 9 inches (81.31 m) tall, and was long used as a landmark for the Boston fishermen; on a clear day it can be seen from Norfolk. The church is a Grade I listed building.
Brickwork is masonry produced by a bricklayer, using bricks and mortar. Typically, rows of bricks called courses are laid on top of one another to build up a structure such as a brick wall.
Guildhall is a municipal building in the Moorgate area of the City of London, England. It is off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. The current building dates from the 15th century; however documentary evidence suggests that a guildhall had existed at the site since at least the early 12th century. The building has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation. It should not be confused with London's City Hall, the administrative centre for Greater London. The term "Guildhall" refers both to the whole building and to its main room, which is a medieval great hall. It is a Grade I-listed building.
The Pilgrim Fathers Memorial is located on the north bank of The Haven at the site of the former Scotia Creek, Fishtoft, seaward of Boston in Lincolnshire, England, and consists of a small granite obelisk mounted on a granite block. It commemorates the attempt at finding religious freedom in September, 1607 by the Scrooby Congregation, a group of English Separatist Protestants who left for Holland. They were precursors of the Pilgrims who later crossed the Atlantic to New England.
A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house," is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Europe, with many surviving today in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some cases museums while retaining their original names.
Brothertoft is a village in the civil parish of Holland Fen with Brothertoft, in the Boston district, in the county of Lincolnshire, England. It is about 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest from the market town of Boston.
Boston College is a predominantly further education college in Boston in Lincolnshire, England. It is a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) for Early Years Care.
High Street in Lincoln, England extends from the St Catherine's roundabout and ends approximately 1.2 miles further north at The Strait. The historic High Street has evolved through many changes over its 2000 year history, encompassing Roman roads and settlement, medieval buildings, markets, places of worship, civic buildings, bridges, the arrival of the railways and heavy industry.
A course is a layer of the same unit running horizontally in a wall. It can also be defined as a continuous row of any masonry unit such as bricks, concrete masonry units (CMU), stone, shingles, tiles, etc.
Hereford Road Skew Bridge is a disused railway bridge in Ledbury, Herefordshire. Built in 1881 to carry the Ledbury and Gloucester Railway across the Hereford Road at an angle of approximately 45°, it was built as a ribbed skew arch with stone spandrels and wing walls, and ribs of blue brick. The railway line was closed in 1959 and the bridge is now used as part of the Ledbury Town Trail footpath.
The Guildhall and Stonebow, Lincoln, has been the meeting place of Lincoln City Council from Medieval times to the present. The term Stonebow, which is derived from the Danish word stennibogi, indicates a stone archway that visitors entering the city from the south, along the High Street, would have passed through. It is a Grade I listed building. Lincoln City Hall, a 20th-century building on Orchard Street, provides further accommodation for the city council.
St Mary's Guildhall is a major domestic complex, indicating the highest social status, built in the part of the medieval city of Lincoln, England, known as Wigford. The Guildhall faces directly onto Lincoln High Street and stands to the north of Sibthorp Street. To the south is the late Saxon church of St Peter at Gowts. Stocker describes it as "the only survivor from the small group of the king's town houses which existed in several major towns….St Mary's Guildhall is a domestic complex on a palatial scale, indicating the highest social status, and as such is representative of a little known urban building type".
The Guildhall is a municipal building in Cathedral Square, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. It is a Grade II* listed building.
Boston Sessions House is a judicial structure in Church Close, Boston, Lincolnshire, England. The structure, which used to be the main courthouse for the north of Parts of Holland, is a Grade II* listed building.
The Municipal Buildings are in West Street, Boston, a town in Lincolnshire, in England. The complex accommodates the offices and meeting place of Boston Borough Council.
