Abergavenny Town Hall ( cy, Neuadd y Dref Y Fenni) is a municipal building located on Cross Street,

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; cy, Y Fenni , archaically ''Abergafenni'' meaning "mouth of the River Gavenny") is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a ''Gateway to Wales''; it is approximately from the border wi ...

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The town hall, which also houses the town's market, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The first building on the site was a market hall which had been financed by a legacy from the local

member of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, Philip Jones, and which was completed in the early 17th century. Following their appointment in 1794, one of the first acts of the new Abergavenny Improvement Commissioners was to commission a new market hall which was designed by the well-known

Regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

and

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era architect, John Nash, and completed in 1796. In the 1860s, in anticipation of a further increases in their responsibilities, including those of an urban sanitary authority, the commissioners decided to procure a town hall which would be built on the same site. Construction of the new building, which was built with old red sandstone with Bath limestone and slate roofs, started in 1869. It was designed by Wilson and Willcox of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, built by S. J. Moreland and Sons of

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

and completed in 1871. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Cross Street; the central section featured an archway leading to a market hall flanked by two gothic windows on each side. There were five two-light

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s divided by

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (Greek: Κορινθιακός ρυθμός, Latin: ''Ordo Corinthius'') is the last developed of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric order ...

columns on the first floor and there was a clock tower with a copper roof at the north west corner. The building incorporated a corn exchange, municipal offices, a council chamber, a market hall, an assembly room and the local poor law offices. The assembly room was converted for use as a theatre in 1906 and subsequent performers there included the

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

, ''

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'', who gave a concert in June 1963. The building served as the headquarters of the Abergavenny Urban District Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be local seat of government when the enlarged Monmouth District Council was formed in 1974. Abergavenny Town Council, which was formed in 1981, made the building its home and installed two members of staff there. Subsequent improvements included the modernisation of the theatre in 1996. The cattle market, which had been held on the site for over 150 years, moved to

Bryngwyn Bryngwyn is a village and rural location in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Location Bryngwyn is located two miles to the west of Raglan in Monmouthshire. History and amenities Bryngwyn is a rural areclose to Raglan Castle and with ea ...

in Monmouthshire in December 2013. Other types of market continued to be held in the building, including a

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

which continued to be held there every Wednesday. A programme of works, designed by GWP Architecture and costing £2.2 million, to convert the building into a community hub was completed in September 2020.

References

{{reflist Abergavenny City and town halls in Wales Grade II listed buildings in Monmouthshire Government buildings completed in 1871