The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place in

Mansfield Mansfield is a market town and the administrative centre of the Mansfield District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is the largest town in the wider Mansfield Urban Area and the second largest settlement in Nottinghamshire (following the city ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, England. The town hall, which was the meeting venue of Mansfield District Council, is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In the early 19th century civic meetings were held in the Moot Hall. After civic leaders found the moot hall was inadequate for their needs (the largest room measured only long by wide), a group of local businessmen decided to form "The Town Hall Company" to develop a new building. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by John Coke of Debdale Hall on 21 July 1835. It was designed by William Adams Nicholson in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone and completed in 1836. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the Market Place; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a tetrastyle

portico A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cu ...

with

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

columns 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 ...

bearing the town's

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 last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

. The open space behind the columns was intended to be a

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

, with ground floor rooms for magistrates, reading, and a library. Behind were houses for the careaker and a constable with a lock-up having ten cells."Up Our Street. Market Place". ''

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

'', 22 August 2012, p.23. Accessed 29 April 2024 There were

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 windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s on the first floor and a clock in the

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

above. Internally, the principal room on the first floor was the council chamber, described as "a noble hall of assembly for North Nottingamshire", with a side-chamber for Commissioners. After completion in 1836, a grand ball was held on 23 December. A clock was provided as the nearest public clock, on St Peter's Church, was not visible from the centre of town. It was lit by gas from 4 February 1837.Mansfield Town Hall: A hive of activity. ''The 1985 Mansfield Citizens Guide'', p.4. published by the ''Mansfield Chronicle Advertiser (

)''. Accessed 5 December 2024 In 1840 the market place was enlarged, taking on its present shape.Markets. ''The 1985 Mansfield Citizens Guide'', p.10. published by the ''Mansfield Chronicle Advertiser (

)''. Accessed 5 December 2024 The Town Improvement Commissioners purchased the buildings, including a space to the front, from the Town Hall Company in April 1883 and a public reading room was opened in the building on 28 October 1891. The area, which became a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1891, saw continued population growth with the development of the

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

industry in the early 20th century, with the town hall serving as the headquarters of the new borough council.

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

and Queen Mary made an official visit to Mansfield on 25 June 1914, and did so again on 11 July 1928, and on both occasions attended receptions in front of the town hall. The building was requisitioned by the

War Office The War Office has referred to several British government organisations throughout history, all relating to the army. It was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, at ...

at the start of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and council meetings were held in the electricity showrooms in Regent Street until the building was handed back in August 1944. The town hall became the local seat of government for the enlarged Mansfield District Council when it was formed in 1974.

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

, accompanied by the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the capital city of Scotland, Edinburgh, is a substantive title that has been created four times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not pr ...

, went on a walkabout along Westgate before signing the visitors book at the town hall on 28 July 1977. The town hall ceased to be the local seat of government when the new council relocated to Mansfield Civic Centre, which was opened by

Princess Anne Anne, Princess Royal (Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise; born 15 August 1950) is a member of the British royal family. She is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the only sister of King ...

in 1986. However, a tourist information office was established in the town hall in August 1994. Rebecca Adlington at Mansfield Town Hall 2008

The local competitive swimmer, Rebecca Adlington, who won gold medals for each of the 400 and 800-metre freestyle swimming events at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, was welcomed home to Mansfield by thousands of people who lined the streets to applaud as she passed by in an open top bus and then appeared at a ceremony at the town hall in August 2008.

Refurbishment

Mansfield District Council identified that the building needed urgent repairs. The adjacent old indoor market was demolished in 2010 to provide car parking. After heavy rain on 4 April 2012 dislodged roof tiles, the ceiling of the council chamber part-collapsed during a 60-year anniversary celebration for ''

'', the local Mansfield newspaper. A temporary repair was effected. To allow wider remedial works to start on the structure, Mansfield BID (

Business Improvement District A business improvement district (BID) is a defined area within whichever businesses elect to pay an additional fee (or assessment) in order to fund projects within the district's boundaries. A BID is not a tax, as taxes fund the government. BID f ...

), based at the old Town Hall since inception in 2010, moved out in 2015, together with some remaining council administrators. Further upgrading and long-term underuse prompted applications for further works and renovation grants from 2018, including facilitating creation of rentable office accommodation, internal retail areas and renovation of two external retail units.Old Town Hall renovation shortlisted for top awards
d2n2lep.org, 17 August 2020. Retrieved 8 February 2021 In October 2021, the council announced a plan to create a new community hub in the old town hall, intending to relocate their own staff together with other local parties having vested interests in the Civic Centre and the area. The project will be subject to a successful bid for funding from central government under the Levelling up scheme announced in 2021. In March 2022, Mansfield District Council announced that all of the retail units had been let – two external and three internal – to a variety of small businesses. The council's Town Centre Management Team are also based within the building. 2023 saw the council's priorities change, no longer intending to relocate staff into the building, having acquired a £20million grant from central government towards the cost of converting the nearby old

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

-styled former Co-Operative store, closed since 2020, into a multi-agency hub with space sub-let to partner organisations such as police, social services, Jobcentre Plus and the local college; the college subsequently planned to occupy the former

Debenhams Debenhams plc was a British department store chain that operated in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark, as well as franchised locations across Europe and the Asia Pacific. The company was founded in 1778 as a single store in London and gr ...

store, closed since 2021, in a modern shopping precinct. The footprint of the former indoor market to the rear of the town hall, which became a temporary car park, was converted into a hard-landscaped, terraced, memorial garden, with associated nearby sustainable drainage planting in the town hall approaches.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1836 City and town halls in Nottinghamshire Buildings and structures in Mansfield Grade II* listed buildings in Nottinghamshire

History

Refurbishment

See also

References