The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street,

Brading The ancient 'Kynges Towne' of Brading is the main town of the civil parishes in England, civil parish of the same name. The ecclesiastical parish of Brading used to cover about a tenth of the Isle of Wight. The civil parish now includes the to ...

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

, England. The structure, which is now used to store and exhibition a collection of artefacts and records, 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 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 red brick and was completed in around 1730. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto the High Street. The ground floor was arcaded so that markets could be held: the first bay on the left was infilled with

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 ...

to create a lock-up for the incarceration of petty criminals, while the other two bays contained round headed openings 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 and iron gates. The first floor, which was used as an assembly room, was originally

timber framed Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs. If the struc ...

with diagonal tension braces to support the structure. In 1819, a new chest was acquired to store the important civic documents which included royal charter signed by

Edward VI Edward VI (12 October 1537 – 6 July 1553) was King of England and King of Ireland, Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death in 1553. He was crowned on 20 February 1547 at the age of nine. The only surviving son of Henry VIII by his thi ...

. By the 1840s, the assembly room was being used as a school room, but, by the early 1860s, the building had become very dilapidated and was disused. The building was remodelled in 1876, with the timber framing on the first floor being replaced by a red brick structure and a prominent four-part, slightly projecting, Tudor Revival style window being installed at the south end. The main frontage was fenestrated by two bi-partite

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s. The borough council, which had met in the town hall, was abolished under the

Municipal Corporations Act 1883 A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the gov ...

. The assets of the borough council, including the old town hall, were transferred to the newly created Brading Town Trust in 1898. The building was subsequently converted for use as a free library. A new town hall at the south end of the High Street was opened in February 1903. Meanwhile, the old town hall continued to be used to store the town stocks and whipping post as well as a collection of artefacts and records, together with the original weights and measures. Following the completion of an extensive programme of refurbishment works, the old town hall was re-opened on 8 April 2022.

References

{{reflist Brading Grade II listed buildings on the Isle of Wight City and town halls on the Isle of Wight