The Old Town Hall is a municipal building in St Mary Street,

Newport, Shropshire Newport is a market town and Civil parishes in Shropshire, civil parish in the borough of Telford and Wrekin in Shropshire, England. It lies north-east of Telford, west of Stafford, and is near the Shropshire-Staffordshire border. The 2001 Ce ...

, England. The structure, which is now divided into a series of shop units on the ground floor and used as a children's play area on the first floor, 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 municipal building in Newport was an ancient

buttercross A buttercross, butter cross or butter market cross is a type of market cross associated with English market towns and dating from medieval times. The name originates from the fact that the crosses were located in market places, where people ...

which was erected to the southeast of St Nicholas Church. Following a great fire, it was rebuilt at the expense of Thomas Talbot, a younger son of

John Talbot, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury John Talbot, 10th Earl of Shrewsbury, 10th Earl of Waterford (1601 – 8 February 1654), was an English nobleman. Life He was the child and son of John Talbot of Longford, Newport, Shropshire (died London, 1607 or c. 1607), and his wife Eleano ...

, in 1665. It was a simple structure 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 ...

with ten columns supporting a frieze and a roof which was pedimented at both ends. After it was found to be in a dilapidated condition, the old buttercross was demolished in 1860. In 1858, an act of parliament was passed which allowed the Newport Market Company "to provide a market house and market place and other buildings for public accommodation". The site selected for the new building was further to the southeast along the High Street, close to the junction with Stafford Street. The new building was designed by a local architect, John Cobb Jr. of Chetwyn End, in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

, built in brick 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 1860. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of six bays facing onto the High Street with the end bays slightly projected forward as

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings; * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s. The central section of four bays originally contained two round headed doors on the ground floor. On the first floor, the central section was fenestrated by round headed windows with

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, ...

s. At roof level there was a

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

, a balustraded

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

and a central clock supported by elaborately carved

scroll A scroll (from the Old French ''escroe'' or ''escroue''), also known as a roll, is a roll of papyrus, parchment, or paper containing writing. Structure A scroll is usually partitioned into pages, which are sometimes separate sheets of papyru ...

s and

garland A garland is a decorative braid, knot or wreath of flowers, leaves, or other material. Garlands can be worn on the head or around the neck, hung on an inanimate object, or laid in a place of cultural or religious importance. In contemporary times ...

s. The outer bays contained doorways on the ground floor and square headed

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 with

s on the first floor, all surmounted by modillioned

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 ...

s. Internally, the principal rooms were a courtroom on the ground floor and a ballroom on the first floor. Behind the town hall, there was a nine-bay covered market hall, a

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

, some magistrates' offices and a

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 edu ...

. The borough council 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 ...

. However, the town hall continued to be used by the local

masonic lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...

for their meetings. The use of the corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. The corn market was re-purposed as a cinema from 1913: branded as "The Picture House", it operated until 1962. After 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 ...

in 1894, Newport Urban District Council used the building for official business, but that use ceased when the council moved to council offices at Chetwynd End in the 1960s. The courtroom was converted for retail use but, after a period of use as a function room, the ballroom fell into disuse in the 1990s. An extensive programme of refurbishment works to restore the ballroom at a cost of £120,000 was completed in January 2018. It initially re-opened as a dual-purpose fitness studio and function space, but, from May 2023, it became a children's play area.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1860 Newport, Shropshire Grade II listed buildings in Shropshire City and town halls in Shropshire Newport