Shipley Town Hall is a municipal structure in Kirkgate in

Shipley, West Yorkshire Shipley is a historic market town and civil parish in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, by the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, north of Bradford. The population of the Shipley ward on Bradford City Council taken at ...

, England. It was the headquarters of Shipley Urban District Council.

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the increasing number of

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk. That village, together with North Walsham and Aylsham, for ...

mills in the town, the area became an

urban district Urban district may refer to: * District * Urban area * Quarter (urban subdivision) * Neighbourhood Specific subdivisions in some countries: * Urban districts of Denmark * Urban districts of Germany * Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...

in 1894. The new council initially occupied the office of the former

local board of health Local boards or local boards of health were local authorities in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulate environmenta ...

at the Manor House, but, during 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 ...

, it relocated to dedicated council offices at Somerset House. In the late 1920s, in the context of high rates of unemployment during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, civic leaders decided to create construction jobs for local people by procuring a new town hall: the site they selected had been occupied by the Manor House, which had since been demolished. The new building was designed in the Neo-Georgian style and was opened by the

Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire This is a list of those who have held the position of Lord Lieutenant of the West Riding of Yorkshire from its creation in 1660 to its abolition on 31 March 1974. From 1699 until 1974, all Lords Lieutenant were also Custos Rotulorum of the West Rid ...

, the

Earl of Harewood Earl of Harewood (), in the County of York, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. History The title was created in 1812 for Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood, Edward Lascelles, 1st Baron Harewood, a wealthy sugar plantation own ...

, on 2 December 1932. The earl unveiled a plaque in the entrance hall and was presented with a key decorated with 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 latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...

in enamel. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with thirteen bays facing onto Kirkgate with the end bays projected forward; the central section of three bays, which also projected forward, featured a flight of steps leading up to a doorway flanked by banded

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 and

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

s supporting an iron

balcony A balcony (from it, balcone, "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. Types The traditional Maltese balcony is ...

which was accessed from a French door. There were three tall

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 on the floor above and, at roof level, there were 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 ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

, four

urn An urn is a vase, often with a cover, with a typically narrowed neck above a rounded body and a footed pedestal. Describing a vessel as an "urn", as opposed to a vase or other terms, generally reflects its use rather than any particular shape or ...

s and three

dormer window A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable space ...

s. Internally, the principal room was the council chamber. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged

Bradford Council City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshire and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, ...

was formed in 1974. Nevertheless, Bradford Council continued to use the town hall as the local venue for meetings of groups of officers from different departments convened by an area co-ordinator. The town hall was the venue for a controversial public inquiry, from which angry protestors were excluded, into the route of a proposed Airedale Trunk Road in February 1976. The council chamber and a reception room known as the Miller Room were extensively refurbished in 1998.

Notes

References

{{City and town halls in West Yorkshire, state=collapsed Government buildings completed in 1924 City and town halls in West Yorkshire Shipley, West Yorkshire