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

Thrapston Thrapston is a market town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. It was the headquarters of the former East Northamptonshire district, and at the time of the 2021 census, had a pop ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

, England. The structure, which is now used as the offices of a local firm of auctioneers and estate agents, 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

The building was originally commissioned as a public house known as The George Inn and was built in

rubble masonry Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wi ...

in around 1750. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto the High Street. Following the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, a locally-born designer and hydraulic engineer, Freeman Roe, whose offices were in The Strand in London, decided to initiate a major remodelling of the building to create a corn exchange. The foundation stone for the remodelled structure was laid on 5 October 1850. The works, which were carried out by a local contractor, John Eaton, involved the construction of a new doorway, which was flanked by stone panels inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange" and 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 ...

supporting a

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 ...

containing a carved wheatsheaf and two

scythe A scythe (, rhyming with ''writhe'') is an agriculture, agricultural hand-tool for mowing grass or Harvest, harvesting Crop, crops. It was historically used to cut down or reaping, reap edible grain, grains before they underwent the process of ...

s. The outer bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were newly 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. An additional entrance was installed to the right: it was flanked by

Doric order The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

columns supporting an entablature, inscribed with the words "Erected by F. Roe 1850", a dentilled cornice and carvings of a

plough A plough or ( US) plow (both pronounced ) is a farm tool for loosening or turning the soil before sowing seed or planting. Ploughs were traditionally drawn by oxen and horses but modern ploughs are drawn by tractors. A plough may have a wooden ...

and a wheatsheaf. Internally, the principal room was a new main hall which was long and wide and capable of accommodating 400 people. Roe went on to design the Manchester Fountains in front of the Manchester Lunatic Hospital in Piccadilly Gardens for

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's visit to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

in October 1851. The building was also used for public events including lectures and speeches. The Conservative Party candidate, Brownlow Cecil, delivered a speech in the main hall during the 1877 North Northamptonshire by-election. However, 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. In 1900, the building was acquired by a local firm of auctioneers and estate agents, Terrence Hodgkins Associates, later rebranded as Hodgkins Boden Associates. However, the main hall has continued to be hired out for public events such as local fairs.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1850 Thrapston Grade II listed buildings in Northamptonshire

History

See also

References