Sale Town Hall is a municipal building on School Road in
Sale, Greater Manchester
Sale is a town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, in the historic county of Cheshire on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of Manchester. In 2011, it had a population of 134 ...
, England. The town hall was the headquarters of
Sale Borough Council
Sale, Greater Manchester, Sale was, from 1867 to 1974, a district in Cheshire, England. The district had in turn the status of local board of health, local government district, Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland), urban district and municip ...
until the council was abolished in 1974.
History
After rapid development as a commuter town, which saw its population tripling by the end of the 19th century, Sale became an urban district in 1894.
Civic leaders decided to procure a town hall and the site they selected on the north side of School Road had already been occupied by local council offices.
The foundation stone for the new building (the eastern wing of the main frontage) was laid by the Chairman of the Public Offices Committee, James McDonald, on 9 May 1914.
It was 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 ...
in red brick and was officially opened by the Chairman of the council, Ernest Jones, on 4 December 1915.
[ A war memorial, which depicted a mourning ]Saint George
Saint George (Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin: Georgius, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christian who is venerated as a saint in Christianity. According to tradition he was a soldier ...
on top of a stone pedestal, was designed by Arthur Sherwood Edwards to commemorate 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 ...
and was unveiled by Major-General Arthur Solly-Flood
Major-General Arthur Solly-Flood (28 January 1871 − December 1940) was a British Army officer.
Military career
Born the son of Major-General Sir Frederick Solly-Flood and Constance Eliza Frere, Arthur Solly-Flood was educated at Wellington Co ...
on 23 May 1925.
After Sale became a municipal borough in September 1935, civic leaders decided to extend the building. The foundation stone for the extension (the western wing of the main frontage) was laid by the Chairman of the Public Offices Committee, Alderman Paley Parrish, on 5 May 1937.[ By this time, the design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto School Road; the central section of seven bays, which slightly projected forward, incorporated a central bay which was faced with stone and featured a doorway on the ground floor with stone ]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 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 words "Sale Town Hall" and a 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 ...
and 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 ...
above; there was a French door, which was recessed, on the first floor and a pediment
Pediments are gables, usually of a triangular shape.
Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the lintel, or entablature, if supported by columns. Pediments can contain an overdoor and are usually topped by hood moulds.
A pedimen ...
above. Sale Library on Tatton Road, which had been based just behind the town hall extension, was rebuilt around the same time. Internally, the principal room in the town hall was the council chamber which was panelled and was decorated in an Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style.Manchester Blitz
The Manchester Blitz (also known as the Christmas Blitz) was the heavy bombing of the city of Manchester and its surrounding areas in North West England during the Second World War by the German ''Luftwaffe''. It was one of three major raids on ...
, a part of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
: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 ...
with 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 ...
, was completed in 1952. The works included the re-instatement of a stained glass window on the main staircase depicting the coat of arms of the former local member of parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
, Sir William Cunliffe Brooks.
The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of Sale Borough Council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Trafford Council
Trafford Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan district council, one of ten in Greater Manchester and one of 36 in the metropolitan counties of England, and pr ...
was formed in 1974.[ The works involved the conversion of the civic theatre into the new Waterside Arts Centre and the creation of the Robert Bolt Theatre, named after the playwright and a twice ]Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People
* Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms.
* Oscar (Irish mythology), ...
-winning screenwriter, Robert Bolt
Robert Oxton Bolt (15 August 1924 – 20 February 1995) was an English playwright and a two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, known for writing the screenplays for ''Lawrence of Arabia'', ''Doctor Zhivago'', and '' A Man for All Seasons'', ...
, behind the east wing of the town hall.[
]
References
{{Buildings and structures in Trafford Borough
Government buildings completed in 1915
City and town halls in Greater Manchester
Sale, Greater Manchester