Stratford-upon-Avon Guildhall is a municipal building in Church Street,

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon (), commonly known as just Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is situated on the River Avon, north-we ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England. It is a Grade I

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 guildhall was established as a meeting place for the Guild of the Holy Cross, a religious group of merchants in the town. It was sited adjacent to the 13th century

Guild Chapel The Guild Chapel of the Holy Cross, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire is a chapel of 13th century origins. Founded by the Guild of the Holy Cross before 1269, it passed into the control of the town corporation in 1553, when the Guild was suppress ...

which was the place of worship of the merchants. It also adjoined the

almshouses An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) was charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the medieval era. They were often targeted at the poor of a locality, at those from certain ...

, which were built around the same time. The building, which is timber-framed with plaster infill, was completed in around 1417; the design made extensive use of

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the availa ...

timber framing Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and featured an entrance to left end bay with iron gates at ground floor level and six leaded windows at first floor level; there was a wing to the south-east. Internally, the design involved a main hall, with a stone floor and

chamfer A chamfer or is a transitional edge between two faces of an object. Sometimes defined as a form of bevel, it is often created at a 45° angle between two adjoining right-angled faces. Chamfers are frequently used in machining, carpentry, fu ...

ed ceiling beams, on the ground floor and two rooms, with spine beam, on the first floor. Originally the ground floor hall displayed iconography depicting

God the Father God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the third person, God t ...

flanked by

Mary, mother of Jesus Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jews, Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Jose ...

and

John the Evangelist John the Evangelist ( grc-gre, Ἰωάννης, Iōánnēs; Aramaic: ܝܘܚܢܢ; Ge'ez: ዮሐንስ; ar, يوحنا الإنجيلي, la, Ioannes, he, יוחנן cop, ⲓⲱⲁⲛⲛⲏⲥ or ⲓⲱ̅ⲁ) is the name traditionally given t ...

. The wing to the south-east is thought to have been used as an armoury. Following the suppression of the chantries and religious guilds under

King Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. Edward was the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour ...

in 1547, the local borough council petitioned for control of the building and secured ownership of it in 1553. The council used the ground floor hall as their main offices and also as a

court of record A court of record is a trial court or appellate court in which a record of the proceedings is captured and preserved, for the possibility of appeal. A court clerk or a court reporter takes down a record of oral proceedings. That written recor ...

, so that local commercial disputes might be resolved. The medieval iconography was whitewashed as part of the Government's

reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

policy in 1563. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the ground floor hall was used for public assemblies, including theatre performances, but also continued to be used as the meeting place of Stratford-upon-Avon Borough Council until meetings were transferred to larger facilities at Stratford-upon-Avon Town Hall in Sheep Street in 1843. Meanwhile, the first floor rooms were used for teaching by the newly re-founded King's New School from 1560.

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

probably attended the school as a child, although he is thought to have left at an early age, in the early 1570s. The facility, which continues to be used by King Edward VI School, was restored, at a cost on £1.8 million, with support from the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

, between July 2015 and April 2016. The restoration included treatment of the timbers and conservation of the medieval iconography and also revealed an additional unexpected medieval painting of

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

. The guildhall was then opened to the public for the first time in April 2016.

References

{{reflist Grade I listed buildings in Warwickshire Government buildings completed in 1417 City and town halls in Warwickshire Buildings and structures in Stratford-upon-Avon