Congleton Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street, Congleton, Cheshire, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Congleton 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 town hall on the site was a half-timbered, black and white structure referred to as the "moot hall": it included a lock-up and a courtroom and was completed in the late 15th century. This structure was replaced by a second building on the same site referred to as the "guildhall"; it was designed in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the 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 prevailing sty ...

with a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

, a lock-up and a courtroom and was completed in 1804. It was expanded, as a gift from Sir Edmund Antrobus, 1st Baronet, to create a market hall and an assembly room in 1823. After the second town hall became inadequate, civic leaders decided to procure a third town hall on the site. The third building was the subject of a design competition which was assessed by Alfred Waterhouse and won by

Edward William Godwin Edward William Godwin (26 May 1833, Bristol – 6 October 1886, London) was a progressive English architect-designer, who began his career working in the strongly polychromatic " Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by ...

. Construction started in 1864. It was designed in the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths ** Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken ...

, built by a Mr Burkitt of

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

at a cost of £8,000, and was officially opened on 11 July 1866. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay featured an arched doorway on the ground floor with a two-stage high clock tower with a

pyramid A pyramid (from el, πυραμίς ') is a structure whose outer surfaces are triangular and converge to a single step at the top, making the shape roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be trilateral, quadrilat ...

-shaped roof above; there was a row of thirty-three shields and eight round headed windows flanked by colonettes forming an arcade on the first floor and there were dormer windows on either side of the clock tower at attic level. The front elevation also featured a statue of

Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln (c. 1251February 1311), Baron of Pontefract, Lord of Bowland, Baron of Halton and hereditary Constable of Chester, was an English nobleman and confidant of King Edward I. He served Edward in Wales, France, and S ...

(on the right), who granted the town a charter in 1272, and of

King Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal ...

(on the left), who granted the town the right to hold markets in 1274, and a statue of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

(on the clock tower). Internally, the principal rooms were a double-height main hall with a hammerbeam roof, a courtroom and a library. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of Congleton Urban District Council but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged

Congleton Borough Council Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The town is by the River Dane, south of Manchester and north of Stoke on Trent. At the 2011 Census, it had a population of 26,482. Top ...

, which had been formed in 1974, relocated to Westfields in

Sandbach Sandbach (pronounced ) is the name of a historic market town and a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. The civil parish contains four settlements: Sandbach itself as the largest, Elworth, Ettiley Heath a ...

. An extensive programme of refurbishment works costing £975,000 was completed at the town hall in 1996. Congleton Town Council, which was created in 1980, established offices in the building in January 2007 and acquired its freehold in June 2008. The

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

and the

Duchess of Cornwall Duchess of Cornwall is a courtesy title held by the wife of the eldest son and heir of the British monarch. The current title-holder is Catherine, wife of William, Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall. Duchesses of Cornwall Until her husband' ...

visited the town hall and met with local charities and community groups on 24 January 2018. Works of art in the town hall include a silver gilt ceremonial mace which originally bore the words "The Freedome of England by God's Blessing Restored" and the date of manufacture which was 1651 but, after the restoration of the monarchy, it was altered to show the initials "C. R." (Charles Rex) and given an amended date of 1661.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1866 City and town halls in Cheshire Congleton Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire

History

See also

References