Knutsford Town Hall is a former municipal building in Princess Street,

Knutsford Knutsford () is a market town in the borough of Cheshire East, in Cheshire, England. Knutsford is south-west of Manchester, north-west of Macclesfield and 12.5 miles (20 km) south-east of Warrington. The population at the 2011 Census wa ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. The structure, which for a long time was used as an events venue, 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 town hall was a gift to the town from 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 ...

, the 1st Lord Egerton who lived at

Tatton Hall Tatton Hall is a country house in Tatton Park near Knutsford, Cheshire, England. It is designated as a Grade I-listed building and is open to the public. History The original manor house in Tatton Park was Tatton Old Hall. Around 1716 a n ...

. It was designed by

Alfred Waterhouse Alfred Waterhouse (19 July 1830 – 22 August 1905) was an English architect, particularly associated with the Victorian Gothic Revival architecture, although he designed using other architectural styles as well. He is perhaps best known f ...

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 by J. Parnell & Sons in red brick with blue brick dressings and was completed in 1871. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing Princess Street; it was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with a large assembly room on the first floor. The second bay on the left featured a prominent

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

with a gable. The arcade of five bays to the right incorporated arched openings supported by blue brick columns, while the first floor featured a row of three-light gothic windows flanked by panels containing

coats of arms A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its wh ...

. The attic floor featured three

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

windows with

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

glazing and, at roof level, there was a central spirelet. The town hall was latterly mainly used as an events venue. Knutsford Urban District Council, formed in 1895, was initially based at offices in King Street but after Knutsford Prison closed in 1913, moved its main departments to the former Governor's House, just to the south of the town hall on Toft Road. While the ground floor of the town hall continued to be used for markets, the first floor was converted for use as a boys' club and an education centre: exhibits in the education centre included the 4th Lord Egerton's collection of military weapons and natural history items. Shortly before the

Normandy landings The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

in June 1944, General

George S. Patton George Smith Patton Jr. (November 11, 1885 – December 21, 1945) was a general in the United States Army who commanded the Seventh United States Army in the Mediterranean Theater of World War II, and the Third United States Army in France ...

, delivered a speech in Knutsford which was perceived to be critical of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, and to have "slap(ped) the face of every one of the United Nations except Great Britain"; these events were depicted in the film '' Patton: Lust for Glory'', with

George C. Scott George Campbell Scott (October 18, 1927 – September 22, 1999) was an American actor, director, and producer who had a celebrated career on both stage and screen. With a gruff demeanor and commanding presence, Scott became known for his port ...

in the title role, scenes from which were filmed in front of the town hall in 1969. The town hall was subsequently acquired by the conservationist, Randle Brooks. Brookes in turn leased it to a local furniture shop owner, Derek Panagakis, for use as a furniture showroom in 1973. The building fell empty in 2011 but was converted for public house use at a cost of £2 million by The Revere Pub Company in 2016; it now operates as a public house known as "Lost and Found".

References

{{reflist Alfred Waterhouse buildings Government buildings completed in 1871 City and town halls in Cheshire Knutsford Grade II listed buildings in Cheshire

History

See also

References