Hyde Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Street,

Hyde, Greater Manchester Hyde is a town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, which had a population of 34,003 in 2011. Historically in Cheshire, it is northeast of Stockport, west of Glossop and east of Manchester. History Early history Newton Hall was presen ...

, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Hyde Borough 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

After significant industrial growth in the 19th century, particularly in relation to the

cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

industry, Hyde became a

municipal borough Municipal boroughs were a type of local government district which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002. Broadly similar structures existed in S ...

in 1881. Civic leaders decided to procure a town hall: the site they selected had previously been occupied by Greenfield House, the former home of John Howard, a cotton mill owner who also owned

Brereton Hall Brereton Hall is an Elizabethan prodigy house north of Brereton Green, next to St Oswald's Church in the civil parish of Brereton, Cheshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I liste ...

. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor, Thomas Ashton, on 30 June 1883. It was designed by James William Beaumont 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 red brick with stone facings and was officially opened by the mayor, Edward Hibbert, on 27 June 1885. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with eleven bays facing onto Market Street with the last two bays at each end projected forward as

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s; the central section of seven bays featured a doorway with a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. Th ...

flanked by

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

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

s 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 ...

and a

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

; there was a window with an open pediment containing the borough

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 ...

on the first floor and 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 an

octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...

al dome above. On the first floor there was an

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

between the two left hand end bays to illuminate the mayor's parlour and two more oriel windows in the central section on either side of the tower. The clock and the bells were a gift from the manager of a local cotton mill, Joshua Bradley; the clock was by

Potts of Leeds Potts of Leeds was a major British manufacturer of public clocks, based in Leeds, Yorkshire, England. History William Potts was born in December 1809 and was apprenticed to Samuel Thompson, a Darlington clockmaker. In 1833, at the age of 24, ...

and the four bells by

Taylor of Loughborough John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell (instrument), bell foundry. It is locate ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber, the mayor's parlour and a large public hall. After 23 miners were killed in an explosion at Hyde Colliery in January 1889, the town hall was the venue for the subsequent inquiry held into the disaster in February 1889. A large extension to the rear, which incorporated a police station, a courtroom and additional offices, was completed in 1913. A mural depicting local scenes painted by the local artist,

Harry Rutherford Harry Rutherford (19031985) was a British painter who is regarded as one of the most important painters of the "Northern School", a group led by L. S. Lowry which depicted the post-industrial changes around North West England. He was the first ...

, was installed across the top of a beam above the main staircase at the time of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

in the 1951. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of Hyde Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan countie ...

was formed in 1974. In November 2002, a statue of two human figures designed by

Stephen Broadbent Stephen Broadbent is a British sculptor, specialising in public art. He was born in Wroughton, Wiltshire in 1961 and educated at Liverpool Blue Coat School. In Liverpool he studied sculpture for four years under Arthur Dooley. He has created publ ...

was unveiled outside the building, commemorating the role of the

Chartists Chartism was a working-class movement for political reform in the United Kingdom that erupted from 1838 to 1857 and was strongest in 1839, 1842 and 1848. It took its name from the People's Charter of 1838 and was a national protest movement, w ...

in bringing about parliamentary reform, and, in May 2007, a statue of a seal designed by Castle Fine Arts was unveiled outside the building, commemorating the achievements of the Hyde Seal Swimming and Water Polo Club which dominated

water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

and swimming in England in the early years of the 20th century. After a programme of refurbishment works, the local public library moved from Union Street into new accommodation in the town hall in March 2015.

References

{{Buildings and structures in Tameside Government buildings completed in 1885 City and town halls in Greater Manchester Hyde, Greater Manchester Grade II listed buildings in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside

History

See also

References