Retford Town Hall is a municipal building in The Square,

Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England, and one of the oldest English market towns having been granted its first charter in 1105. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfie ...

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

, England. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Retford 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

Earlier buildings

A moot hall was built in Retford in 1388 on a different site to the present town hall, in between the old market place and St Swithun's church, to the North of the current market place. It was a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

timbered structure and was destroyed by the fire which devastated three-quarters of Retford in 1528. A new moot hall was built to replace the one destroyed by fire but by August 1754 it was in danger of collapse. The corporation of East Retford decided to demolish it. The 1528 moot hall was replaced with another building on the same site 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 ...

by Messrs White and Watson. This was completed in 1755. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the Market Place; the central section of three bays was pedimented and featured a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure which house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another buildi ...

.Piercy 1828, p. 142 This hall provided a venue for assemblies, a court house for local and county sessions, and a

shambles Shambles is an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market. Shambles or The Shambles may also refer to: *The Shambles, a historic street in York, England *Shambles Square, Manchester, England *Shambles Glacier, Adelaide Island, A ...

for the weekly market. Other markets, for example, egg and butter, were held outside on the east side, and the corn market was held in the nearby market square. The building was described by local historian John Piercy in 1828: “The roof was surmounted by a small

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 ...

, of a very antiquated appearance, containing a bell, but no clock. This bell was rung at the commencement of the markets, and was also used for summoning the inhabitants to attend the courts, and the Council sessions, etc." The main hall in addition to being used for meetings was "appropriated to the performance of theatrical and other amusements" according to Piercy.Piercy 1828, p. 144

The current town hall

The 1755 town hall became an obstruction to traffic as The Great North Road ran through the centre of the town and the building and markets were causing congestion. In 1868 it was demolished and a new site chosen to the south of the current market place, which had previously been the site of a four-storey 18th-century townhouse. This site was purchased from Cooke's & Co Bank for £2,600 in June 1864. A condition of the sale was that a new road should also be built, which was to become Exchange Street. A design competition took place and a budget of £6,000 was agreed. Eighteen architects submitted designs, but

Bellamy and Hardy Bellamy and Hardy was an architectural practice in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, that specialised particularly in the design of public buildings and Nonconformist (Protestantism), non-conformist chapels. Pearson Bellamy had established his ...

were selected. Permission was sought from the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to raise a mortgage of £9,000 for the land and building costs. This was not popular with the town's inhabitants. Permission was eventually granted with a Retford resident, George Chapman, agreeing to provide the funds and local builder Thomas Hopkinson being awarded the construction tender. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor on 19 June 1866. A time capsule with a copy of The Times newspaper and one of almost every 1866 coin was placed under the foundation stone. The Bellamy and Hardy design was in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

, in red brick with stone dressings. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto The Square; the end bays featured doorways flanked by paired

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...

columns supporting

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 ...

s and they had

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

s; there were five round headed windows with balconies forming an arcade on the first floor and a large cupola, clock and

roof lantern A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure. A lantern roof wil ...

at roof level. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the ballroom, both on the first floor. This design was controversial. The local press described the building as 'handsome and commodious' and 'replete with convenience' But the design was used as an example of the sometimes unsatisfactory results of architectural competitions by ''Building News'' (October 1867) and the facade compared unfavourably with a design submitted by Godwin & Crisp. Pevsner criticised the design saying it was "without any of the Victorian qualities we appreciate today: a bad mansard roof and a bad lantern". The building continued to serve as a meeting place for Retford Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be used for council meetings when the enlarged

Bassetlaw District Council Bassetlaw may refer to: * Bassetlaw (UK Parliament constituency), Nottinghamshire constituency in the British House of Commons * Bassetlaw District General Hospital, a National Health Service hospital in Worksop, Nottinghamshire * Bassetlaw Distri ...

was formed in 1974 and a new Bassetlaw town hall was built in

Worksop Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located east-south-east of Sheffield, close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbyshire, on the River Ryton and not far from the nor ...

. It is still used for concerts, wedding receptions and other events. The original design has been altered over the years. A Mayor's Parlour was opened in 1935. In about 1980 the first floor was expanded into the 'Old Bank' building next door, which had been bought by Retford Borough Council in 1926 and was being used as municipal offices. The bells were replaced in 1901. The Courthouse was replaced in the 1930s. The Shambles and Corn Exchange were demolished in the 1980s.

Works of art

Works of art in the town hall include a portrait of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

Thomas Benjamin Kennington Thomas Benjamin Kennington (7 April 1856 – 10 December 1916) was a British genre, social realist and portrait painter. He was a founder member of the New English Art Club (NEAC) and the Imperial Arts League. Life and works Kennington was bo ...

which was donated to the town by Alderman Denman to commemorate the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

. Other works of art include a portrait of Colonel Whittaker by Henry Harris Brown (1864-1948), Thomas Bescoby (1890) by

Edwin Arthur Ward Edwin Arthur Ward (1859–1933) was a British artist who established himself in London as a society portrait painter. Ward was born in Basford in Nottingham and moved to London at the age of 19. Between 1884 and 1903 he was a regular exhibitor ...

, JW Holmes (1919) by

Frederick Hall Frederick or Fred Hall may refer to: * Frederick Hall (actor) (1923–1995), British actor * Frederick Hall (painter) (1860–1948), English impressionist painter * Frederick Hall (Normanton MP) (1855–1933), British Labour Member of Parliament ...

, Thomas William Denman by

and John Smith (1868) by

Hugh Ford Crighton Hugh Ford Crighton (1824–1886) was a successful Scottish portrait artist in the 19th century. Largely known for commissioned portraits, the works (which frequently appear at auction) are largely now "anonymous" in their subject matter as the sit ...

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1868 City and town halls in Nottinghamshire Retford Grade II listed buildings in Nottinghamshire