HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in Queen Street,
Market Rasen Market Rasen ( ) is a town and civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The River Rase runs through it east to west, approximately north-east from Lincoln, east from Gainsborough, 14 miles (23 km) west of L ...
,
Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershir ...
, England. The structure, which is used as the offices of a firm of charted surveyors, 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

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company, to be known as the "Market Rasen Corn Exchange and Market Company", to finance and commission a corn exchange for the town. After some debate, they selected a site on the north side of Queen Street The building was designed by Henry Goddard in the
Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabular ...
, 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 Vitr ...
stone and was completed in July 1854. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Queen Street. The ground floor was rusticated and each of the bays was flanked by
pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...
s. The central bay featured a round headed doorway with a keystone decorated with a carved wheatsheaf, while the outer bays featured round headed windows with keystones. The first floor was fenestrated with
sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...
s; the central window was surmounted by a triangular
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 pedim ...
supported by corbels, while the outer windows were surmounted by
cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
s which were also supported by corbels. At roof level, there was a
modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a cornice which it helps to support. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally translated as small teeth). Al ...
ed cornice. A rival faction, who had dissented over the location chosen, commissioned an alternative hall designed by
Bellamy and Hardy Bellamy and Hardy was an architectural practice in Lincoln, England, that specialised particularly in the design of public buildings and non-conformist chapels. Pearson Bellamy had established his own architectural practice by 1845 and he ente ...
on the corner of the Market Place and the High Street. The Market Place building opened in September 1854, but almost immediately got into financial difficulty. After a merger of the two operations in 1856, the Queen Street building became the sole corn exchange in the town. The use of the Queen Street 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. Instead, it became a public events venue hosting balls, concerts and public meetings. It also became the meeting place of the local
masonic lodge A Masonic lodge, often termed a private lodge or constituent lodge, is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also commonly used as a term for a building in which such a unit meets. Every new lodge must be warranted or chartered ...
, "Bayons Lodge". In May 1945, a dance was arranged in the building to celebrate
Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easte ...
, in the latter stages 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. After the war and, into the 21st century, regular auctions of agricultural goods were held in the corn exchange sale room. An extensive programme of refurbishment works was completed in 2008, and the building subsequently became the offices of a firm of chartered surveyors, Perkins, George Mawer & Co.


See also

* Corn exchanges in England


Notes


References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1854 Market Rasen Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire
Market Rasen Market Rasen ( ) is a town and civil parish within the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. The River Rase runs through it east to west, approximately north-east from Lincoln, east from Gainsborough, 14 miles (23 km) west of L ...