Bewdley Guildhall is a municipal building in Load Street in

Bewdley Bewdley ( pronunciation) is a town and civil parish in the Wyre Forest District in Worcestershire, England on the banks of the River Severn. It is in the Severn Valley west of Kidderminster and southwest of Birmingham. It lies on the River Sev ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of Bewdley Town Council, 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 municipal building in the town was an ancient guildhall located to the "southwest of the chapel" i.e. to the southwest of St Anne's Church. It was in the old guildhall that rioters broke into the building to prevent the appointment of the bailiff in 1708. By the early 19th century, the ancient guildhall was in a dilapidated state and the borough council ordered its demolition. The borough council went on to commission a new guildhall: the site they chose had been occupied by the house of a local grocer, Thomas Wootton, who also owned a series of storerooms behind his house. These storerooms were demolished to make way for a butchers'

shambles Shambles is an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market. Shambles or The Shambles may also refer to: *The Shambles, a historic street in York, England *Shambles Square, Manchester, England *Shambles Glacier, Adelaide Island, A ...

in 1802, shortly before the house was demolished to make way for the new guildhall. The new guildhall was designed by John Simpson of

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and was completed in 1808. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Load Street. The ground floor was rusticated and featured three segmental openings, the central opening being wider than the others; all three featured

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

gates,

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s and

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allo ...

. The first floor was fenestrated with

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; on either side of the central window there were pairs of

Doric order The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of col ...

pilaster In classical architecture 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 ...

s and at the corners there were single pilasters, all supporting an

entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...

, a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

and a central

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

with a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

in the tympanum. Internally, the principal room was the courtroom on the first floor. The building was refurbished to a design by Henry Rowe of

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

in 1866. In the 20th century, offices for council officers and their departments were established at Borough House, further to the northeast along Load Street. The butchers' shambles, just behind the guildhall, was converted for heritage use and was officially opened by

Earl Baldwin Earl Baldwin (January 11, 1901 in Newark, New Jersey – October 9, 1970 in Hollywood, California, age 69) was an American screenwriter. During his career he wrote more than 50 produced screenplays, including ''Wild Boys of the Road'', '' Broth ...

as the

Bewdley Museum Bewdley Museum is a museum in the town of Bewdley in Worcestershire, England. It is managed by the Wyre Forest District Council. History The Bewdley Museum Trust was founded in 1969, prior to Bewdley Museum opening in 1972. It was founded by ...

in July 1972. Princess Alexandra also visited the guildhall that month and unveiled a plaque to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the granting of a charter to the town by

King Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in Englan ...

. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Bewdley Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Wyre Forest District Council Wyre may refer to: Places * Wyre, Orkney, an island in Scotland * Borough of Wyre, a local government district in Lancashire, England ** Wyre (UK Parliament constituency) * River Wyre, a river in Lancashire, England * Wyre Forest, a woodland in ...

was formed with its offices in

Kidderminster Kidderminster is a large market and historic minster town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, south-west of Birmingham and north of Worcester. Located north of the River Stour and east of the River Severn, in the 2011 census, it had ...

in 1974. Instead it became the meeting place of Bewdley Town Council. A statue by the sculptor,

Martin Jennings Martin Jennings, FRBS (born 31 July 1957, in Chichester, West Sussex) a British sculptor who works in the figurative tradition, in bronze and stone. His statue of John Betjeman at St Pancras railway station was unveiled in 2007 and the statu ...

, of the locally-born former

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...

, was unveiled outside the guildhall by the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

in September 2018. In February 2021, Wyre Forest District Council announced its intention to seek trustees to take over the management of the guildhall, among other local assets, as part of its localisation agenda.

Notes

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1808 City and town halls in Worcestershire Grade II listed buildings in Worcestershire Bewdley

History

See also

Notes

References