The Moot Hall is a municipal building in The Market Place in

Brampton Brampton is a city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario, and the regional seat of the Regional Municipality of Peel. It is part of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and is a List of municipalities in Ontario#L ...

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

, England. The building, which is used as a local tourist information office and as a meeting place for Brampton Parish 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

The first moot hall in the Market Place in Brampton dated back at least to the mid-17th century. The Parliamentary forces of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English statesman, politician and soldier, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in British history. He came to prominence during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, initially ...

, led by Major-General John Lambert, held 48 prisoners in the building in 1648 during the

Second English Civil War The Second English Civil War took place between February and August 1648 in Kingdom of England, England and Wales. It forms part of the series of conflicts known collectively as the 1639–1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms, which include the 164 ...

. Then, in November 1745, the area in front of the moot hall hosted the Army of the Young Pretender,

Charles Edward Stuart Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, ...

, as he laid siege to Carlisle Castle during the Jacobite rising. The present building was commissioned by the

lord of the manor Lord of the manor is a title that, in Anglo-Saxon England and Norman England, referred to the landholder of a historical rural estate. The titles date to the English Feudalism, feudal (specifically English feudal barony, baronial) system. The ...

Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle (28 May 1748 – 4 September 1825) was a British statesman, diplomat and author. Life He was the son of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle and his second wife Isabella Byron. His mother was a daughte ...

, whose seat was at

Naworth Castle Naworth Castle, also known or recorded in historical documents as "Naward", is a castle in Cumbria, England, near the town of Brampton, Carlisle, Brampton. It is adjacent to the A69 road (England), A69 road from Newcastle upon Tyne to Carlisle, ...

. It was designed in the Vernacular style, 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 ...

with a

stucco Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and ...

finish and was completed in 1817. The design involved an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al structure facing west onto the Market Place. The first floor was faced with a

finish and there were

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s at the corners. There was a segmental-shaped opening 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 flanked, on both sides, by a stone staircase with

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

railings which gave access to the first floor. On the first floor there was an arched doorway with an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

at the front, and arched windows with architraves on the other sides. At roof level there was a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

with a

belfry The belfry /ˈbɛlfri/ is a structure enclosing bells for ringing as part of a building, usually as part of a bell tower or steeple. It can also refer to the entire tower or building, particularly in continental Europe for such a tower attached ...

surmounted by an

ogee An ogee ( ) is an object, element, or curve—often seen in architecture and building trades—that has a serpentine- or extended S-shape (Sigmoid curve, sigmoid). Ogees consist of a "double curve", the combination of two semicircle, semicircula ...

-shaped roof, a ball

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

and a

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were the market hall on the ground floor and an assembly hall on the first floor. The ground floor was originally open and was used to sell poultry and dairy products. A ring to tether bulls for the purpose of

bull-baiting Bull-baiting (or bullbaiting) is a blood sport involving pitting a bull against dogs with the aim of attacking and subduing the bull by biting and holding onto its nose or neck, which often resulted in the death of the bull. History England ...

was installed in the cobbles in front of the building, although this practice was outlawed by the

Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 The Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 ( 5 & 6 Will. 4. c. 59) or the Humane Act 1835, or the Protection of Animals Act 1835, was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ire ...

George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle George James Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle (12 August 184316 April 1911), known as George Howard until 1889, was an English aristocrat, peer, politician, and painter. He was the last Earl of Carlisle to own Castle Howard. Early life Howard wa ...

presented the building to Brampton Parish Council on 25 January 1896; work was initiated at that time to enclose the ground floor, and a plaque to commemorate the work of the local poet, Peter Burn, was installed on the staircase after he died in 1902. The ground floor room subsequently became the home of the local tourist information office, while the assembly room on the first floor became the meeting place of Brampton Parish Council, and farmers' markets continued to be held on the last Saturday of every month in front of the moot hall.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1817 City and town halls in Cumbria Brampton, Carlisle Grade II* listed buildings in Cumbria

History

See also

References