Todmorden Town Hall is a municipal building in Halifax Road,

Todmorden Todmorden ( ; ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Upper Calder Valley in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Manchester, south-east of Burnley and west of Halifax, West Yorkshire, Hal ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Todmorden Town Council, 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

In the mid-19th century Todmorden experienced significant population growth associated with the increasing number of cotton mills in the town. In this context, in the early 1860s, the

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 ...

decided to procure a town hall: the site they selected straddled the Walsden Water, a tributary of the River Calder, which formed the historic boundary between

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. The board appointed local architect, James Green, as the designer for the project and construction got underway in 1866. However, after supplies of raw cotton from the United States were cut during the

Lancashire Cotton Famine The Lancashire Cotton Famine, also known as the Cotton Famine or the Cotton Panic (1861–65), was a depression in the textile industry of North West England, brought about by overproduction in a time of contracting world markets. It coincided wi ...

of 1861–65, the project and its supporters got into financial difficulties. The Fielden family, who owned many of the cotton mills in the town, acquired the site, appointed John Gibson as the new architect and took over financial responsibility for the development. Work restarted in June 1871. The building, which 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 ...

, was built in

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone and officially opened by the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official respons ...

Lord John Manners John James Robert Manners, 7th Duke of Rutland, (13 December 18184 August 1906), known as Lord John Manners before 1888, was an English wikt:statesman, statesman. Youth and poetry Rutland was born at Belvoir Castle, the younger son of John Ma ...

, on 3 April 1875. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Halifax Road; there was rusticated basement with a plinth above. On the plinth there were

blind niche A niche (CanE, or ) in Classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea (AD 64–69) was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms th ...

s in each of the bays with

oculi An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's- ...

above flanked by

Composite order The Composite order is a mixed order, combining the volutes of the Ionic order capital with the acanthus leaves of the Corinthian order.Henig, Martin (ed.), ''A Handbook of Roman Art'', p. 50, Phaidon, 1983, In many versions the composite o ...

columns 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 ...

with a

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

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 ...

. The high pediment contained a finely carved tympanum which depicted two central female figures on a pedestal. The left-hand sculpture represented Lancashire (cotton spinning and weaving industries), and the right-hand one Yorkshire (wool manufacturing, engineering and agriculture). The side elevations contained seven bays in a similar style but with windows instead of niches and the rear elevation was curved and also contained windows instead of niches. Internally, the principal rooms were the main hall which extended the full length of the building on the first floor and the courtroom below. For a while it was possible to dance in the main hall, forward and back, across two counties of England. However, the administrative border between Yorkshire and Lancashire was altered by the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

placing the whole of the town within the

West Riding The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. The Fielden family donated the building to the town on 6 August 1891. The courtroom was adapted for use as a council chamber after the building became the headquarters of Todmorden Urban District Council in 1894 and of Todmorden Borough Council in 1896. The building continued to serve as a meeting place for Todmorden Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged

Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. The council styles itself Calderdale Council. It is a metropolitan district council, one of five in West Yorkshi ...

was formed in 1974. The building subsequently became the meeting place of Todmorden Town Council and a committee room was re-named after the locally-born

Nobel laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make out ...

, Sir John Cockcroft, in September 2018. Works of art in the building include sculptures by

Giovanni Maria Benzoni Giovanni Maria Benzoni (28 August 1809 – 28 April 1873) was an Italian neoclassical sculptor. He was trained in Rome, where he later set up his own workshop. Benzoni designed some of his sculptures with a production line in mind using ot ...

depicting the Flight from Pompeii and the Biblical Ruth as well as a bust of John Fielden MP by

Thomas Campbell Thomas Campbell may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Thomas Campbell (poet) (1777–1844), Scottish poet * Thomas Campbell (sculptor) (1790–1858), Scottish sculptor * Thomas Campbell (visual artist) (born 1969), California-based visual artist ...

and a memorial plinth by

Gilbert Bayes Gilbert William Bayes (4 April 1872 – 10 July 1953) was an English sculptor. His art works varied in scale from medals to large architectural clocks, monuments and equestrian statues and he was also a designer of some note, creating chess piec ...

History

See also

Notes

References

Further reading