Fordingbridge Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of Fordingbridge Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.

History

The building was commissioned by the Loyal New Forest Lodge of the Ancient Order of Oddfellows as their meeting place: the site they selected was almost in the centre of the town. It was designed 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 in red brick with stone dressings and was completed in 1877. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay featured an arched doorway with a stone surround surmounted by five brackets supporting a cast iron balcony. On the first floor, there was a French door with a date stone set in the

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

and, at attic level, there was a gable containing an

oculus Oculus (a term from Latin ''oculus'', meaning 'eye'), may refer to the following Architecture * Oculus (architecture), a circular opening in the centre of a dome or in a wall Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Oculus'' (film), a 2013 American ...

. The outer bays were fenestrated by pairs of

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 with stone surrounds and, at roof level, there was a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

, with a pyramid-shaped roof. (The clock chimed the Westminster Quarters on a set of hemispherical bells within the turret.) Internally, the principal rooms were the main hall on the ground floor and the council chamber on the first floor. Shortly after completion of the building, ownership of the structure was transferred to a company which had been specially formed by local businessmen and was known as the Fordingbridge Town Hall Company. The town had historically been administered by the local constable, an appointee of the

court leet The court leet was a historical court baron (a type of manorial court) of England and Wales and Ireland that exercised the "view of frankpledge" and its attendant police jurisdiction, which was normally restricted to the hundred courts. Etym ...

, which itself was presided over by John Constable, lord of the manor of Nether Burgate. Following abolition of the office of constable in 1878, an elected parish council established and, after ownership of the building had been transferred to the parish council, the Fordingbridge Town Hall Company was liquidated in March 1931. During the Second World War, the building was requisitioned by the War Office but it was returned to the parish council in 1953. It was used by the parish council as a meeting place and also as a cinema and a venue for theatre performances and concerts. A small local history museum was also established in the town hall: significant archaeological items in the collection included a palstave which had been found at Alderholt in Dorset. Following local government re-organisation in 1974, the parish council was renamed Fordingbridge Town Council; the council continued to use the town hall as its regular meeting place. Works of art in the town hall include landscape paintings by the artist, Edgar Downs, entitled ''Gathering Kelp'' (1914) and ''Cattle Ploughing in an Open Landscape'' ().

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1877 City and town halls in Hampshire Fordingbridge Grade II listed buildings in Hampshire