The Old Town Hall, also known as No. 9 Devon Square, is a former municipal building in Devon Square in

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge, Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its population was 24,029 in 2011, and was estimated at 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in ...

, a town in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, in England. The structure, which started life as a private house and was later converted for municipal use, 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 commissioned by the local landowner,

William Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon William Reginald Courtenay, 11th Earl of Devon Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (14 April 1807 – 18 November 1888), styled Lord Courtenay between 1835 and 1859, was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Duchy o ...

, as part of a terrace of five properties on Devon Square. The site he chose was occupied by a lock-up which was used to accommodate escaped prisoners from

HM Prison Dartmoor HM Prison Dartmoor is a Category C men's prison, located in Princetown, high on Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. Its high granite walls dominate this area of the moor. The prison is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, and is operated by ...

and was supervised by the Superintendent Constable of the Lock-up House, William Thomas Baker. The terrace was designed by the earl’s architect, William John Rowell, 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 1862. On completion of the building, Rowell moved into No. 9 himself, accompanied by his wife and children. Rowell continued to live there until he died in September 1911. The building was then taken over by the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...

which remained there until after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In the 1980s, the building was acquired by Newton Abbot Town Council as their offices and meeting place and an extension was added at its rear. The Newton Abbot Town and Great Western Railway Museum was established in the building in the early 1990s. At a ceremony in the building, the commanding officer of the

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion ...

, HMS ''Triumph'', Commander Steve Waller, accepted the freedom of the town in September 2019. In March 2020, the town council relocated to St Leonard's Church in Wolborough Street, which was restored and converted to accommodate the council. The museum followed to St Leonard's Church in October 2020. The building in Devon Square, which was renamed Great Western House, was subsequently occupied by a firm of funeral directors, Parker's Family Funeral Directors.

Architecture

The two-storey building, No. 9 Devon Square, is at one end of the terrace, and was originally a mirror image of No. 13 Devon Square, at the other end of the terrace. Like No. 13, it is projected forward from the centre of the terrace, and its front is three bays wide and features an oculus in the centre of the gable. The ground floor is fenestrated by rusticated

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 which are pedimented, except for the central bay which is surmounted by a

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 ...

. The first floor is fenestrated round headed windows; the window in the central bay is surmounted by a curved pediment. Access to No. 9 is up a short flight of steps and through a doorway on the St Paul's Road frontage to the building. The entire terrace was

grade II listed 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, H ...

in 1975.

Notes

References

{{reflist City and town halls in Devon Newton Abbot Grade II listed buildings in Devon Government buildings completed in 1862