Lampeter Town Hall ( cy, Neuadd y Dref Llanbedr Pont Steffan) is a municipal structure in the High Street,

Lampeter Lampeter (; cy, Llanbedr Pont Steffan (formal); ''Llambed'' (colloquial)) is a town, community and electoral ward in Ceredigion, Wales, at the confluence of the Afon Dulas with the River Teifi. It is the third largest urban area in Ceredigion, ...

, Wales. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Lampeter 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

The first town hall in Lampeter, which was commissioned by 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 ...

and partner in Harford Bank of

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Richard Hart Davis Richard Hart Davis (8 June 1766 - 21 February 1842) was a British merchant and Tory politician who served as Member of Parliament for both Colchester and Bristol. Merchant career Davis was a successful merchant in Bristol trading with the West ...

, was designed by

Peter Frederick Robinson Peter Frederick Robinson (1776–24 June 1858) was an English architect. Career Robinson began his career in Henry Holland's office and worked under William Porden at the Brighton Pavilion in 1801–02. In 1805 he designed Hans Town Assembl ...

and completed in 1818. Davis got into financial difficulty in 1819 and sold his estate, which included the town hall, to his son-in-law,

John Scandrett Harford John Scandrett Harford, FRS (8 October 1785 – 16 April 1866) was a British banker, benefactor and abolitionist. Early life and background Harford was the son of John Scandrett Harford, a prominent banker in Bristol. By the end of the 18th c ...

, of

Blaise Castle Blaise Castle is a folly built in 1766 near Henbury in Bristol, England. The castle sits within the Blaise Castle Estate, which also includes Blaise Castle House, a Grade II* listed 18th-century mansion house. The folly castle is also Grade I ...

in 1820. In the late 1870s, after the first town hall became dilapidated, the trustees of a Harford descendent, John Battersby Harford, offered to demolish it and to replace it with a new building. The new building was designed by

Robert Jewell Withers Robert Jewell Withers (1824–1894) was an English ecclesiastical architect. Early life Robert Jewell Withers was born on 2 February 1824 in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, England. His father was John Alexander Withers and his mother, Maria Jewell. ...

in the Queen Anne Revival style, built in grey brick with red brick

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

s at a cost of £4,000 and was completed in 1881. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the High Street; the ground floor was arcaded with the central bay forming a carriageway and the outer openings being glazed to form two shops. On the first floor, there were three large

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows, each of which were flanked by quoins, and there was a central

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 ...

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 ...

supported by stone

brackets 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 ...

. At roof level, there was 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

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, from ...

with a clock with an

ogee An ogee ( ) is the name given to objects, elements, and curves—often seen in architecture and building trades—that have been variously described as serpentine-, extended S-, or sigmoid-shaped. Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combinatio ...

-sharped

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...

. The clock was designed and manufactured by

Gillett and Bland Gillett & Johnston was a clockmaker and bell foundry based in Croydon, England from 1844 until 1957. Between 1844 and 1950, over 14,000 tower clocks were made at the works. The company's most successful and prominent period of activity as a bel ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

. Internally, the principal room was the main hall. Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

, which established county councils in every county, it became necessary to establish a meeting place for the newly formed

Cardiganshire County Council Cardiganshire County Council was the local government authority for the county of Cardiganshire, Wales, between 1889 and 1974. It was superseded by Dyfed County Council. Overview The administrative county of Cardigan and its local authority, the C ...

; the new county council regularly met in the town hall although offices were established for the county officials at the former town hall in Aberaeron in 1910. The town hall in Lampeter was also the venue for the trial of Captain William Killick who was accused and eventually acquitted of the attempted murder of the

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

, in March 1945. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the Lampeter Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after

Ceredigion District Council Ceredigion District Council was one of six district-level authorities in the county of Dyfed, Wales, from 1974 until 1996. The district had an identical area to the pre-1974 administrative county of Cardiganshire. From its creation in 1974 the ...

was formed in 1974. The

Lord Chancellor's Department The Lord Chancellor's Department was a United Kingdom government department answerable to the Lord Chancellor with jurisdiction over England and Wales. Created in 1885 as the Lord Chancellor's Office with a small staff to assist the Lord Chancell ...

announced the closure of the building as a venue for magistrates' court hearings with effect from December 1994. Following a change of ownership and an extensive programme of refurbishment works, which involved conversion of the building into the Jen Jones Welsh Quilt Centre, the building was officially re-opened by 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

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' ...

in July 2010. Although the Welsh Quilt Centre closed as a permanent feature in May 2018, the owners announced their intention to host temporary quilt exhibitions in the building.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1881 City and town halls in Wales Lampeter Grade II listed buildings in Ceredigion