Leconfield Hall, formerly Petworth Town Hall, is a municipal building in the Market Square in

Petworth Petworth is a small town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 road, A272 east–west road from Heathfield, East Sussex ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...

, England. The building, which is now used as a cinema, 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 building was commissioned to replace a

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

market house which dated back at least to the 15th century. By the late 18th century, the old building had become dilapidated and 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 ...

George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

, whose seat was at

Petworth House Petworth House in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England, is a late 17th-century Grade I listed country house, rebuilt in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the design of the architect Anthony Sa ...

, decided to demolish the old building and replace it with a new structure on the same site. The new building was designed 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

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and was completed in 1793. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing east onto the Market Square; it was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with an assembly hall on the first floor. The first floor was fenestrated with

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 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 supporting

voussoir A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

s, and the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, was surmounted by a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). All ...

pediment Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds. A pedimen ...

with a clock in the tympanum. A bust of

King William III William III (William Henry; ; 4 November 16508 March 1702), also widely known as William of Orange, was the sovereign Prince of Orange from birth, Stadtholder of Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Guelders, and Overijssel in the Dutch Republic from the ...

on a

pedestal A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ci ...

was created by French sculptor, Honoré Pellé, and installed in a

niche Niche may refer to: Science *Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development *Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species *Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...

on the north side of the building. The architectural historian,

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, was impressed with the bust and described it as "one of the finest baroque sculptures in England". In the 19th century, the arcading was infilled with round headed windows and building became known as Petworth Town Hall; at that time the assembly room on the first floor was used as a courthouse, while the ground floor was used as a store. The court room functioned as venue for the manorial court, 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 ...

, the

quarter sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

and the

petty session Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...

s. Items included in the ground floor store included the local horse-drawn fire engine; a fire bell was placed on the top of the pediment with which to summon the local firemen. The building was extended to the rear in a similar style but with a rendered brick finish in 1870. The musicologist,

Brian Trowell Brian Lewis Trowell (21 February 1931 – 12 November 2015) was an English musicologist and the Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford. Prior to his post at Oxford, he was the King Edward Professor of Music at King's College Lon ...

, was one of the guests who spoke in the town hall as part of the celebrations for the launch of the first Petworth Festival in 1979. A major programme of refurbishment works was carried out with financial support from a local artist,

Gwenda Morgan Gwenda Morgan (1 February 1908 – 1991) was a British wood engraver. She lived in the town of Petworth in West Sussex. Early life Morgan was born in Petworth, her father having moved there to work at the ironmongers, Austen & Co, of which he l ...

, and from

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

in the 1990s. As part of the works, the bust of King William III was relocated to Petworth House for safe-keeping and replaced with a replica which was paid for by John Max Henry Scawen Wyndham, 7th Baron Leconfield, 2nd Baron Egremont. The former town hall became known as Leconfield Hall on recognition of the support from the Wyndham family. The works, which also included stone restoration, a new dance floor on the ground floor and sound-proofing on the first floor, were completed to allow the building to be re-opened on 1 January 2000. A further programme of works, costing £250,000, was carried out in summer 2021. The works allowed the hall on the ground floor to function as an exhibition area while the hall on the first floor was fitted out as a cinema with raked seating; the cinema was re-opened with a performance of ''

No Time to Die ''No Time to Die'' is a 2021 spy film and the twenty-fifth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, starring Daniel Craig in his fifth and final portrayal of fictional British MI6 agent James Bond. It was directed by Cary Jo ...

'' in September 2021.

Notes

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1793 City and town halls in West Sussex Grade II* listed buildings in West Sussex Petworth

History

See also

Notes

References