The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in the Market Place,

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century civil war between St ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershir ...

, England. The structure, which was commissioned as a

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchange. Such trade was common in towns ...

and is now used as an events venue, 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 I ...

History

Until the mid-19th century, corn merchants in the town traded their goods in the open, with sacks piled around the

market cross A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. History Market crosses ...

. In the mid-19th century, civic officials decided to commission a purpose-built corn exchange: the site they selected was occupied by the Bear Assembly Rooms. The old assembly rooms were demolished and new assembly rooms were erected at the rear of the Bear Hotel. The current building was designed by William Hill of

Leeds Leeds () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the thi ...

in the

neoclassical style Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the 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 prevailing style ...

, built by John Rendall of Devizes 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 Vitr ...

stone at a cost of £3,456 and was officially opened by the mayor, Henry Butcher, on 3 December 1857. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto the Market Place. The central section of three bays featured three round headed openings with

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window, often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, and is sometimes hinged to a transom. ...

s, architraves and

keystones A keystone (or capstone) is the wedge-shaped stone at the apex of a masonry arch or typically round-shaped one at the apex of a vault. In both cases it is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, all ...

flanked by Corinthian order columns, supporting 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 ...

, 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 ...

and stone

balustrade A baluster is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

. The outer bays were fenestrated by round headed windows with architraves and keystones. At roof level, there was a central pedestal supporting a statue of the goddess, Ceres, as well as four decorative

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. The Station Road elevation featured a long range of round headed openings flanked by Corinthian order pilasters supporting a frieze, an entablature and a parapet in a similar style to the main elevation. The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the

Great Depression of British Agriculture The Great Depression of British Agriculture occurred during the late nineteenth century and is usually dated from 1873 to 1896. Contemporaneous with the global Long Depression, Britain's agricultural depression was caused by the dramatic fall in g ...

in the late 19th century. However, it was used for scenes in the film, ''

Far from the Madding Crowd ''Far from the Madding Crowd'' (1874) is Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and his first major literary success. It originally appeared anonymously as a monthly serial in ''Cornhill Magazine'', where it gained a wide readership. The novel is set in ...

'', which starred

Julie Christie Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Sh ...

and was made in 1967. It also became an events and concert venue and performers included the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band, ''

The Who The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are conside ...

'', in November 1968, the

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band, ''

Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...

'', in September 1971 and the hard rock band, ''

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or s ...

'', in February 1973. The heavy metal band, ''

Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...

'', also performed there in October 1974. The condition of the building declined significantly during the 1980s. After an extensive programme of refurbishment works in the early 1990s, the building was re-opened by the 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 Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

, Sir Charles Morrison, on 3 May 1995. In May 2010, the building was also the venue for a performance of the musical, ''

Smike ''Smike'' is a pop musical adaptation of a small part of Charles Dickens' 1839 novel '' Nicholas Nickleby'', that was televised for the BBC in 1973. The musical is based on the character Smike from that novel. The TV production starred Beryl R ...

'', adapted from

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

' 1839 novel ''

Nicholas Nickleby ''Nicholas Nickleby'' or ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby'' (or also ''The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Containing a Faithful Account of the Fortunes, Misfortunes, Uprisings, Downfallings, and Complete Career of the ...

'' with music by

Roger Holman Roger Holman is a British musician and composer. He is best known for the televised musical ''Smike'', and as the co-writer of Stephanie De Sykes's two hit singles. As a performer, Holman released a 1971 self-produced single with two songs, "Ac ...

and

Simon May Simon May (born 15 August 1944) is a British composer. He has composed many British television theme tunes, including '' EastEnders'' and '' Howards' Way'', and the music for the 1988 film '' The Dawning''. Biography Born in Devizes and a p ...

. In September 2010, May returned to the corn exchange to play numbers from his compilation album of television and film music, ''

The Simon May Collection ''The Simon May Collection'' is a 2010 compilation album of television and film music written by Simon May. The album was released to coincide with the departure of the character Peggy Mitchell, played by Barbara Windsor, from the BBC soap opera ' ...

''.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1857 Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire Corn exchanges in England Devizes William Hill buildings

History

See also

References