Myrtle Grove, also known since 1926 as Bingley Town Hall, is a municipal building in Myrtle Park,

Bingley Bingley is a market town and civil parish in the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is sited on the River Aire and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The town had a population of 18,040 at the United Kingdom ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England. The building, which was the headquarters of Bingley Urban District 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 Myrtle Grove estate dates back to the mid-18th century when it consisted of a house known as "Spring Head", a farm and an old

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

meeting-house. In 1767, Dr Johnson Atkinson purchased the estate, demolished the existing buildings and commissioned the current mansion which was designed in the

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...

, 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 completed in around 1770. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing Myrtle Park; the central bay featured a doorway 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 ...

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

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 ...

. There were

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 in the other bays on the ground floor and in the bays on the first floor. The building, which also featured rusticated

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 and a high

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

finished in Westmorland slate, was flanked by a stable block and by a coach house. Atkinson was one of the promotors of the

Bradford Canal The Bradford Canal was a English canal which ran from the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Shipley, West Yorkshire, Shipley into the centre of Bradford. It opened in 1774, and was closed in 1866, when it was declared to be a public health hazard. ...

. He took on the name Johnson Atkinson Busfeild after receiving an inheritance from his wife's uncle, Thomas Busfeild, in 1772. The theologian,

John Wesley John Wesley ( ; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, Christian theology, theologian, and Evangelism, evangelist who was a principal leader of a Christian revival, revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies ...

, stayed at the house with him in April 1779 and referred to it as a "little paradise". The house was acquired by a Mr Birch in 1805 and then by General William Twiss in 1810. Twiss's son-in-law, Walker Ferrand, inherited the house in 1827. Following Ferrand's death, the house was put up for sale again and was acquired by a local mill-owner, Alfred Sharp, in 1874. Sharp was one of the town commissioners and having already been instrumental in founding the

mechanics institute Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult ed ...

in York Street, he initiated a proposal on behalf of the town commissioners, in 1890, to take a lease on the mechanics institute, to establish a public library there and to convert the old reading room into a board room. After significant population growth, largely associated with the

worsted Worsted ( or ) is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead (from Old English ''Wurðestede'', "enclosure place"), a village in the English county of Norfolk. T ...

yarn industry, the area became an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

with the old mechanics institute as its town hall in 1895. After Sharp died in 1896, his wife lived at Myrtle Grove for a while, but in 1908, the new council decided to acquire the whole Myrtle Park estate for the town. The council progressively moved its staff into Myrtle Grove between 1923 and 1926, at which point the house became Bingley Town Hall. A council chamber, which was wood panelled, was installed in the building at that time. Myrtle Grove continued to serve as the headquarters of Bingley Urban District Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged

Bradford Council City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the Local government in England, local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Bradford has had an elected council since 1847, which has been reformed on several occasions. ...

was formed in 1974. It was subsequently used as offices for the delivery of local services by Bradford Council.

References

{{City and town halls in West Yorkshire Government buildings completed in 1770 City and town halls in West Yorkshire Buildings and structures in Bingley Grade II listed buildings in West Yorkshire

History

See also

References