Wetherby Town Hall is a community building in

Wetherby Wetherby () is a market town and civil parish in the City of Leeds district, West Yorkshire, England, close to West Yorkshire county's border with North Yorkshire, and lies approximately from Leeds City Centre, from York and from Harrogat ...

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 no longer plays a major civic function but provides an office which is used by Wetherby Town Council and facilities for local groups and events. It 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

Aerial photographs of Wetherby (7th May 2021) 025

Aerial photographs of Wetherby (7th May 2021) 018

Old Town Hall

Wetherby's first town hall occupied the same site on the Market Place. It was a small plain building with little decoration, a clock on the front and bell tower. Its northern side had an external staircase to the first floor where civic and county court functions were carried out. The ground floor contained the town gaol and outside were the town

stocks Stocks are feet restraining devices that were used as a form of corporal punishment and public humiliation. The use of stocks is seen as early as Ancient Greece, where they are described as being in use in Solon's law code. The law describing ...

. It was demolished in 1845. Adjacent to the old town hall was the Market Place Chapel, a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to the parish church in Spofforth, built in 1763. It was damaged in a fire in 1823 and became increasingly dilapidated.

New Town Hall

In 1845 William Raby, curate at Spofforth proposed that the old town hall site, together with that of the adjacent chapel should be the location for the new town hall and a national schoolroom. The schoolroom replaced the

Sunday school A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West. Su ...

held in the chapel. His proposal was supported by the

Bishop of Ripon The Bishop of Ripon is an episcopal title which takes its name after the city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. The bishop is one of the area bishops of the Diocese of Leeds in the Province of York. The area bishop of Ripon has oversight of ...

but was beset by problems. The church was assured the schoolroom would be used as a Sunday school in perpetuity but that use ended with the opening of a hall adjacent to St James' Church. The town hall's foundation stone was laid in 1845 and the building was completed at a cost of £1,300 which was raised by public subscription. The new building was used for the county court, assembly rooms, a reading room, a small gaol, and had a ground-floor schoolroom. In 1846 the schoolroom was fitted out with a grant from the National Society. 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 ...

the town hall was requisitioned by the military for billets as were the racecourse and masonic hall. The seat of Wetherby Rural District Council moved to new offices on Westgate in the late 1930s. The town hall was used as a court house until Wetherby Magistrates Court was built in the 1960s. The town hall's south side had a door to enable prisoners to be taken to the upper room but by 1962 it had gone. The main front chimney's originally had bells to summon the fire brigade. Town Hall, Wetherby - geograph

Following the implementation of the

Local Government Act 1972 The Local Government Act 1972 (c. 70) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974. It was one of the most significant Acts of Parliament to be passed by the Heath Gov ...

, the town hall ceased to be local seat of government and responsibility for managing it was transferred to

Leeds City Council Leeds City Council is the local authority of the City of Leeds 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, and provides the majority of l ...

Structure

Wetherby Town Hall and its front walls are grade II listed buildings. The

Classical style 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 works of the Roman architect V ...

two-storey town hall is built of

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

and has a Welsh slate hipped roof. Ramps were added for access in 2005.

Facilities and use

The town hall has rooms available for public hire and an office used by the town council. Several groups use the facilities and occasional craft and antique fairs are held on Thursdays to coincide with market day. Trade events and public consultations are held in the town hall. The use of the town hall for trading activities has caused controversy with established traders who have protested about the 'cut price' sale of trading space which harms traders whose rates have helped to pay for its maintenance. In 2014 the town hall was used in place of a theatre for the filming of ''

Get Santa ''Get Santa'' is a 2014 British Christmas comedy film directed and written by Christopher Smith. The film stars Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Warwick Davis, Stephen Graham, Jodie Whittaker and Kit Connor. Plot A few days before Christmas, Stev ...

''. In 2021 the town hall was used as a COVID-19 vaccination centre.

References

Sources

External links

Aerial view of town hall from 1928

Wetherby Town Hall in 1914Old view of town hall from WestgateEarly 20th-century viewWetherby Town Council - Wetherby Town HallWetherby Town Hall Events
{{City and town halls in West Yorkshire, state=collapsed Town Hall, Wetherby Government buildings completed in 1845 Grade II listed buildings in West Yorkshire Grade II listed government buildings City and town halls in West Yorkshire