The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in the High Street in

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in the south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Fore ...

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

, England. The structure, which is now used as a bookshop and as the offices of Ross-on-Wye Town Council, is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

History

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "Ross Corn Exchange and Public Buildings Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built

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 exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

for the town. The site they selected was on the north side of the High Street. The new building was designed by Thomas Nicholson in the

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone and was completed in 1862. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of six bays facing onto the High Street. The left-hand bay contained a round headed carriage entrance with

voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...

s on the ground floor, and a round headed window with an elaborate surround on the first floor. The right-hand section of five bays contained round headed openings with voussoirs and keystones on the ground floor and

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 with segmental

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

s supported by

brackets 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. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

on the first floor. The first-floor windows were separated by

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

pilaster In architecture, a pilaster is both a load-bearing section of thickened wall or column integrated into a wall, and a purely decorative element in classical architecture which gives the appearance of a supporting column and articulates an ext ...

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 ...

and a

dentil A dentil (from Lat. ''dens'', a tooth) is a small block used as a repeating ornament in the bedmould of a cornice. Dentils are found in ancient Greek and Roman architecture, and also in later styles such as Neoclassical, Federal, Georgian Rev ...

led

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were at the rear of the building; there was a market hall on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor. The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. However, it continued to be used for public events: performers at that time included the

D'Oyly Carte Opera Company The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company is a professional British light opera company that, from the 1870s until 1982, staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere. The ...

. It was converted for cinema use, under the branding of "The New Theatre", in 1922, and hosted performances the Ross Operatic and Dramatic Society, before it was badly damaged by a fire in 1939. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the ground floor of the front area was converted from a draper's shop to a car showroom. The large rear area, which had held the corn market and The New Theatre was partially rebuilt and became a car repair workshop. Ross-on-Wye Town Council subsequently converted part of the front area for use as its meeting place and offices. The ground floor of the front area was re-purposed for retail use and, in 2010, became the first branch of a new chain of bookshops, Rossiter Books. The large rear area was eventually converted into a licensed event space and micro brewery by the owners of the King's Head Hotel in 2022. Notable works of art in the building include a portrait by an unknown artist of the local

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

John Kyrle John Kyrle (22 May 1637 – 7 November 1724), known as "the Man of Ross", was an England, English philanthropist, remembered for his time in Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. Education and legal background Born in the parish of Dymock, Glouceste ...

, sometimes referred to as ''The Man of Ross''.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1862 Ross-on-Wye Grade II listed buildings in Herefordshire

History

See also

References