Painswick Town Hall
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Painswick Town Hall is a municipal building in Victoria Square, Painswick,
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...
, England. The building, which is used as an events venue and also as the offices of Painswick Parish 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 municipal building in Painswick was a structure on the south side of Victoria Square close to St Mary's Parish Church on a site known as "Jumbles Den". The building, known as the "Stock House", included a school and a lock-up for petty criminals and was completed in 1628. A
workhouse In Britain, a workhouse () was an institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. (In Scotland, they were usually known as poorhouses.) The earliest known use of the term ''workhouse'' ...
was subsequently built behind the old Stock House but, by the early 19th century, the old Stock House had become dilapidated and the parish leaders decided to demolish the old buildings and to commission a new Stock House on the north side of the square. The old Stock House was duly demolished and, re-purposed as a garden: in 1920, it became the site of a new war memorial, designed by F. L. Griggs in the form of a shaft with an
octagon In geometry, an octagon (from the Greek ὀκτάγωνον ''oktágōnon'', "eight angles") is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, whi ...
al head to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who had died in the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. The new building was designed in the
Tudor Revival style Tudor Revival architecture (also known as mock Tudor in the UK) first manifested itself in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture ...
, built in
limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
and was completed in 1840. The design involved a main frontage with just one bay facing onto Victoria Square; on both the ground floor and the first floor there were five-light
casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a cas ...
s with pointed heads to the lights. There was a
stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a ...
above, which contained a
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 ...
-shaped panel with an inscription commemorating the old Stock House, and a
lean-to A lean-to is a type of simple structure originally added to an existing building with the rafters "leaning" against another wall. Free-standing lean-to structures are generally used as shelters. One traditional type of lean-to is known by its Finn ...
structure to the right containing an arched doorway giving access to the main building. Internally, the principal rooms were the lower hall, which was used as an events venue, and the upper hall, which was used as a school classroom from 1844 until 1867. In the late 20th century, the author,
Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan "Laurie" Lee, MBE (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy ...
, who wrote the autobiographical trilogy ''
Cider with Rosie ''Cider with Rosie'' is a 1959 book by Laurie Lee (published in the US as ''Edge of Day: Boyhood in the West of England'', 1960). It is the first book of a trilogy that continues with ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' (1969) and '' A ...
'', ''
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' (1969) is a memoir by Laurie Lee, a British poet. It is a sequel to '' Cider with Rosie'' which detailed his early life in Gloucestershire after the First World War. In this sequel Lee leaves the secur ...
'' and '' A Moment of War'', was a frequent visitor to receptions held in the town hall. Following the closure of the old public library on the east side of Stroud Road in December 2009, a major refurbishment of the town hall took place in spring 2012, and a new community library, established with financial support from
Gloucestershire County Council Gloucestershire County Council is a county council which administers the most strategic local government services in the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, in the South West of England. The council's principal functions are county road ...
, opened on the first floor of the building in May 2012. A room on the ground floor was made available for use as a
post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
and the parish council moved back into an office on the first floor of the building.


References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1840 City and town halls in Gloucestershire Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Painswick