The Moot Hall is a judicial building in Chapel Lane in

Wirksworth Wirksworth is a market town and civil parish in the Derbyshire Dales district of Derbyshire, England. Its population was 4,902 in the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census.Area E04002820 (Wirksworth parish) in Table PP002 - Sex, from Wirkswor ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, England. The building, which is used as the meeting place of the

barmote court A barmote court (also written bergjisote, barghmote, bargemote and barmoot) is a court held in the lead mining districts of Derbyshire, England, for the purpose of determining the customs peculiar to the industry and also for the settlements of ...

, a body formed to regulate the local lead mining industry, 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

was established in the town in order to regulate the local lead mining industry in 1288 during the reign of

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

. The first permanent building erected to accommodate the barmote court was a moot hall in the Market Place which was commissioned by the

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...

Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon Thomas Villiers, 1st Earl of Clarendon, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (1709 – 11 December 1786) was a Kingdom of Great Britain, British politician and diplomat from the Villiers family. Clarendon was the second son of William Villie ...

, in 1773. After the first moot hall became dilapidated, a later Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Charles Bathurst, decided to commission a new moot hall in Chapel Lane. The new building was designed 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 1814. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Chapel Lane. The central bay, which was approached by a short flight of steps, contained a double leaf wooden doorway. Above the doorway was a stone panel, which was surmounted by a

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

and engraved with the words: "This hall was built by the direction of the Right Honourable Charles Bathurst, Chancellor of His Majesty's Duchy County Palatine of Lancaster in the 54th year of the resign of His Majesty George III AD MDCCCXIV". The outer bays were fenestrated by

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, beyond which there were stone panels, depicting various lead mining tools including a

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number ...

, a

pickaxe A pickaxe, pick-axe, or pick is a generally T-shaped hand tool used for Leverage (mechanics), prying. Its head is typically metal, attached perpendicularly to a longer handle, traditionally made of wood, occasionally metal, and increasingly ...

and a trough. These panels had been recovered from the earlier moot hall. Internally, the principal room was the barmote courtroom. The barmote court consisted on a chief barmaster, the deputy barmasters and 24 jurors: they met twice a year in the moot hall to determine the allocation of mines and sought to resolve any disputes.

King Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disagreement w ...

presented a bronze dish, capable of holding of lead ore, to the barmote court in 1512. It was kept in the moot hall and was used by barmote court officials to ensure that the miners' dishes conformed to the required dimensions. The barmote court also acted as a coroner's court, investigating mining accidents, and also acted as a criminal court: the penalty for stealing from a mine was to have a hand nailed to the stowce (winch), giving a miscreant the choice of tearing himself loose or starving to death. The building remains in the ownership of the

Duchy of Lancaster The Duchy of Lancaster is an estate of the British sovereign. The estate has its origins in the lands held by the medieval Dukes of Lancaster, which came under the direct control of the monarch when Henry Bolingbroke, the then duke of Lancast ...

, which is a private estate of the

British sovereign The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with their powers regulated by the British cons ...

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1814 Grade II listed buildings in Derbyshire Wirksworth