Langholm Town Hall

Langholm Town Hall
Langholm Town Hall
Location	High Street, Langholm
Coordinates	55°09′02″N2°59′54″W / 55.1506°N 2.9983°W / 55.1506; -2.9983 Coordinates: 55°09′02″N2°59′54″W / 55.1506°N 2.9983°W / 55.1506; -2.9983
Built	1813
Architect	William Elliot
Architectural style(s)	Neoclassical style
Listed Building – Category B
Official name	High Street, Town House
Designated	3 August 1971
Reference no.	LB37122
Shown in Dumfries and Galloway

Langholm Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The structure, which is used as a community events venue, is a Category B listed building. ^[1]

History

The drinking fountain and plaque commemorating William Julius Mickle on the front of the town hall

The first municipal building in the town was a tolbooth which dated back at least to the early 18th century. It featured a prison on the ground floor and a courtroom for the Regality of Eskdale on the first floor. After the tolbooth became dilapidated, it was demolished to make was for the current structure. ^[2] The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 24 June 1811. It was designed by William Elliot of Kelso in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1813. ^{[3] [4]}

The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing northwest along the High Street. The central bay, which slightly projected forward, was formed by a five-stage clock tower which rose in diminishing stages above the second stage. There was a doorway in the first stage, a tall round-headed window with a keystone in the second stage, a shorter round-headed window with a keystone flanked by pilasters supporting a parapet in the third stage, clock faces in the fourth stage and a belfry with louvres in the fifth stage. The tower was surmounted by an ogee-shaped roof and a weather vane. The outer bays were fenestrated by sash windows on both floors. Internally, the principal room was the burgh council chamber. ^[5]

A white marble statue of the locally-born naval officer, Admiral Sir Pulteney Malcolm, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet in the late 1820s and, again, in the early 1830s, was sculpted by David Dunbar and unveiled in front of the town hall in March 1842. It was later relocated to the rear of the town hall. ^[6]

The complex was extended to the rear to create a public library in the 1870s. The library itself had been founded in July 1800 and was partially endowed by the civil engineer, Thomas Telford, in 1834. The site for the new library was donated by Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 5th Duke of Buccleuch and the cost of construction was financed by public subscription for which the principal subscriber was Alexander Reid, the proprietor of Reid &Taylor, a business which was based at Langholm Woollen Mills. The library was designed by James Burnet in the Jacobean style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1878. It featured ogee-shaped turrets which could be seen rising high above the building when viewed from in front of the town hall. ^[7]

A drinking fountain and a plaque, commemorating the life of the poet, William Julius Mickle, were donated by the London Eskdale Society and installed on the front of the town hall in 1896. ^[8] Following the appointment of Elizabeth Grieve as caretaker of the library in 1899, the Grieve family, including Elizabeth's son, Christopher Murray Grieve, better known by his later pen name, Hugh MacDiarmid, moved into the caretaker's flat within the complex. ^[9]

The town hall continued to serve as the meeting place of the burgh council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Annandale and Eskdale District Council was formed in 1975. ^{[10] [11]} The burgh council chamber, which was renamed the "Telford Room", after the civil engineer, was subsequently used as a community events venue by the Langholm Town Band and other community groups. ^[5] Meanwhile, the area outside the town hall continued to be used as the venue for the closing ceremony of the annual common riding celebrations. ^{[12] [13]}

Works of art in the town hall include portraits of three brothers, who including Sir Pulteney Malcolm, became known as the "Four Knights of Eskdale": these were James, John and Charles Malcolm. ^[14] The portrait of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Malcolm is by Thomas Herbert Maguire, ^[15] the portrait of General Sir John Malcolm is by an unknown artist, ^[16] and the portrait of Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm is by John Philip Davis. ^[17] There is also a portrait by Lemuel Francis Abbott of Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley, ^[18] a portrait by Alexander Ignatius Roche of William Elphinstone Malcolm who was a local magistrate, ^[19] and a portrait by George Reid of William Johnstone Carlyle, who was also a local magistrate. ^[20]

See also

• List of listed buildings in Langholm, Dumfries and Galloway

References

1. Historic Environment Scotland. "High Street, Town House (LB37122)" . Retrieved 23 July 2022.
2. Historic Environment Scotland. "Langholm, High Street, Town Hall (67684)". Canmore . Retrieved 23 July 2022.
3. "Langholm Town Hall". Dictionary of Scottish Architects. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
4. Tolbooths and Town-houses Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. 1996. p. 129. ISBN   978-0114957995.
5. "Town Band prepare for National contest" (PDF). Eskdale and Liddesdale Advertiser. 2 September 2021. p. 7. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
6. Historic Environment Scotland. "High Street, Statue of Sir Pulteney Malcolm (in library garden) (LB37124)" . Retrieved 23 July 2022.
7. Historic Environment Scotland. "High Street, Library (LB37123)" . Retrieved 23 July 2022.
8. Plaque on the front of the town hall.
9. Krol, Jelle (2018). "Combative Minority Literature Writers in the Aftermath of the Great War" (PDF). University of Groningen. p. 180.
10. "Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973". Legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
11. "Langholm Burgh". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
12. "Why family history sends one man across the world to be at Scotland's Langholm Common Riding". Scotland Now. 22 July 2014. Archived from the original on 23 July 2014.
13. "Major events: Langholm Common riding". Welcome to Langholm. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
14. "Langholm". Wilson's Eskdale and Liddesdale Directory and Almanac for 1887. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
15. Maguire, Thomas Herbert. "Colonel Sir James Malcolm (1767–1849), KGB (after Henry Raeburn)". Art UK. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
16. "General Sir John Malcolm (1769–1833)". Art UK. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
17. Davis, John Philip. "Admiral Sir Charles Malcolm (1782–1851), KT". Art UK. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
18. Abbott, Lemuel Francis. "Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley (1734–1808), Bt". Art UK. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
19. Roche, Alexander Ignatius. "William Elphinstone Malcolm of Burnfoot (1817–1907), MA, DL, JP". Art UK. Retrieved 23 July 2022.
20. Reid, George. "William Johnstone Carlyle, MD, LRES, JP". Art UK. Retrieved 23 July 2022.