Burton upon Trent Town Hall is a municipal building in King Edward Place,

Burton upon Trent Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a market town in the borough of East Staffordshire in the county of Staffordshire, England, close to the border with Derbyshire. In 2011, it had a population of 72,299. The ...

, Staffordshire, England. It 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

In the mid 19th century local council meetings were held in the old Town Hall in the Market Square: this was a building which was commissioned by the

lord of the manor Lord of the Manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England, referred to the landholder of a rural estate. The lord enjoyed manorial rights (the rights to establish and occupy a residence, known as the manor house and demesne) as well as seig ...

, Lord Paget. It had been designed in the

classical style Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the works of the Roman architect V ...

, possibly by

James Wyatt James Wyatt (3 August 1746 – 4 September 1813) was an English architect, a rival of Robert Adam in the neoclassical and neo-Gothic styles. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1785 and was its president from 1805 to 1806. Early life W ...

, and completed in 1772. The current building, which was designed by Reginald Churchill in a Victorian Gothic style, was commissioned by

Michael Thomas Bass Michael Thomas Bass, DL (6 July 1799 – 29 April 1884) was an English brewer and a Member of Parliament. Under his leadership, the Bass Brewery became the largest brewery in the world, and Bass the best known brand of beer in England. Bass r ...

for use as the St Paul's Institute and the Liberal Club and completed in 1878. Bass' son,

Michael Arthur Bass Michael Arthur Bass, 1st Baron Burton, KCVO (12 November 1837 – 1 February 1909), known as Sir Michael Arthur Bass, 1st Baronet, from 1882 to 1886, was a British brewer, Liberal politician and philanthropist. He sat in the House of Commons ...

, donated the building to the town in 1891 and it was extended, by the inclusion of purpose-built municipal offices, a council chamber, a concert hall and a new staircase, in 1894. A statue by F. W. Pomeroy of Michael Arthur Bass (by then Lord Burton) was erected in the square in front of the building in 1911. A further large extension, designed by George Moncur, the borough surveyor, in the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

style was built to the southeast of the main building and completed in 1939. During the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the town hall was used as a

Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

auxiliary hospital. In the entrance lobby are four large wooden plaques, listing the names of the men of the County Borough of Burton who gave their lives in each world war. Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, visited the town hall and waved to the crowd from the town hall balcony on 28 March 1957. The new town hall initially became the headquarters of Burton upon Trent municipal borough, before becoming the headquarters of Burton upon Trent County Borough in 1901 and, more recently, of

East Staffordshire Borough Council East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

in 1974.

Organs

The hall boasts a

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

organ, which had originally been installed at the Cameo Theatre in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

in 1925; after a fire in the theatre it was repossessed by its manufacturer before being installed at the Forum Cinema in

Northenden Northenden is a suburb of Manchester, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 14,771 at the 2011 census. It lies on the south side of the River Mersey, west of Stockport and south of Manchester city centre, bounded by Didsbury to ...

, Manchester, in 1934 and then being moved to Burton Town Hall in 1973. In 1995 OS Digital Recordings released a recording from Burton upon Trent Town Hall entitled ''Come Dancing'' which involved excerpts of music performed by Arnold Loxam on the organ. An earlier Kirkland organ was added to the St Paul's Institute in 1880 and expanded by

Norman and Beard Norman and Beard were a pipe organ manufacturer based in Norwich from 1887 to 1916. History The origins of the company are from a business founded in Diss in 1870 by Ernest William Norman (1851–1927). In 1876 he moved to Norwich where he we ...

in 1906.

Notes

References

{{reflist City and town halls in Staffordshire Grade II listed buildings in Staffordshire Government buildings completed in 1878 Buildings and structures in Burton upon Trent