The Much Wenlock Guildhall is a

guildhall A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in som ...

located on Wilmore Street in Much Wenlock,

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...

. It 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

In the aftermath of the dissolution of the monasteries, which saw the powers of

Wenlock Priory Wenlock Priory, or St Milburga's Priory, is a ruined 12th-century monastery, located in Much Wenlock, Shropshire, at . Roger de Montgomery re-founded the Priory as a Cluniac house between 1079 and 1082, on the site of an earlier 7th-century mon ...

suppressed, civic leaders sought a new meeting place to conduct the business of the town. The new half-timbered building which they commissioned was completed in two phases, the south end (the court room) in 1540 and the north end (the council chamber) in 1557. The design for the main frontage on Wilmore Street featured three large gables. On the ground floor, at the north end there was initially a prison (it was dismantled in 1869), in the central section there was arcading to allow markets to he held and at the southern end there was a passageway for carriages to pass through. At first floor level, the design involved tall

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 ...

windows below each of the three gables. A new

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, fro ...

was erected on the roof in 1720. Internally, the principal rooms are the courtroom and the council chamber, both on the first floor. The courtroom was the venue for 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 ...

where the more serious offences were considered, and also the venue for 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 sessio ...

s where more trivial offences were considered. The Royal Coat of Arms, which is that of

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

, was erected in the courtroom in 1589. An "inner room" for the storage of court records was created in 1616. The last quarter sessions were held in the courtroom in 1951 and the last petty sessions, by then known as

magistrates' courts A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) * Magistrate's Cour ...

, were held there in 1985. The council chamber was the meeting place of the

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 ...

of Much Wenlock which was incorporated under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835; it was fitted out with ornate

Jacobean style The Jacobean style is the second phase of Renaissance architecture in England, following the Elizabethan style. It is named after King James VI and I, with whose reign (1603–1625 in England) it is associated. At the start of James' reign ther ...

panelling which had been retrieved from a local country house and installed at the expense of the

educationalist Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

William Penny Brookes William Penny Brookes (13 August 1809 – 11 December 1895) was an English surgeon, magistrate, botanist, and educationalist especially known for founding the Wenlock Olympian Games, inspiring the modern Olympic Games, and for his promotion of ...

in 1848. The council chamber ceased to be the local seat of government when Much Wenlock was absorbed into the

Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. Histor ...

Rural District in 1966. However, it still remains the meeting place of the local town council. The principal rooms are open to visitors (after the payment of a fee) from April to October. The stocks and the

whipping post The pillory is a device made of a wooden or metal framework erected on a post, with holes for securing the head and hands, formerly used for punishment by public humiliation and often further physical abuse. The pillory is related to the stocks ...

can both be seen on the ground floor.

Notes

References

{{reflist Guildhalls in the United Kingdom

City and town halls in Shropshire Government buildings completed in 1557

History

Notes

See also

References