The Old Town Hall is a building on Church Street in the

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

Poulton-le-Fylde Poulton-le-Fylde (), commonly shortened to Poulton, is a market town in Lancashire, England, situated on the coastal plain called the Fylde. In the 2021 United Kingdom census, it had a population of 18,115. There is evidence of human habitatio ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. Located to the north of

Market Place A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...

, the building was originally a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

before becoming a municipal building and then reverting to use as a public house.

History

The first municipal building in the town, known as the Moot Hall, stood at the southern end of the adjacent

, just in front of the

market cross A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. History Market crosses ...

, in late medieval times. Following significant population growth, particularly after the harbours at Wardleys and

Skippool Skippool is an area of Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire, England. It is situated between Little Thornton and Poulton-le-Fylde along the western banks of the River Wyre, about south of its mouth between Fleetwood and Knott End. These banks are kn ...

on the

River Wyre The River Wyre, in Lancashire, England, flows into the Irish Sea at Fleetwood. It is 28 miles (45 km) long and has a sheltered estuary which penetrates deep into the Fylde peninsula. Etymology The name ''Wyre'' is of pre-Roman, likely, ...

were developed, 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 1900. The new civic leaders originally held their meetings in a variety of places, but after finding this arrangement unsatisfactory, they decided to establish a dedicated meeting place. The site they selected had originally been developed as the Bay Horse Inn in 1869. The Bay Horse Inn had been rebuilt in redbrick with stone dressings, to a Victorian style design, in 1910, seemingly dropping the ''inn'' part of the name, around that time. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Church Street. The ground floor was slightly recessed in relation to the upper floors and featured a central doorway which was flanked by

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 surmounted by

bracket A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

s supporting the upper floors of the building. The central bay was fenestrated by a single

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 ...

on the first floor and a small

Diocletian window Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows characteristic of the enormous public baths (''thermae'') of Ancient Rome. They have been revived on a limited basis by some neo-classical architecture, classical rev ...

at attic level. The outer bays were fenestrated by

bay window A bay window is a window space projecting outward from the main walls of a building and forming a bay in a room. A bow window is a form of bay with a curve rather than angular facets; an oriel window is a bay window that does not touch the g ...

s with stone surrounds on the ground floor and by pairs of casement windows on the upper floors; the outer bays were surmounted

Tudor-style Tudor Revival architecture, also known as mock Tudor in the UK, first manifested in domestic architecture in the United Kingdom in the latter half of the 19th century. Based on revival of aspects that were perceived as Tudor architecture, in rea ...

half-timbered Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

gables. The council acquired the building in 1927 and converted the interior for use as council offices at that time. A butcher's shop adjoined the building to the left, at the corner of what was Burlington Avenue. Both were demolished in 1970 with the construction of the Teanlowe Centre shopping precinct. Old_Town_Hall_interior

The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Poulton-le-Fylde Urban District Council for much of the 20th century, and then briefly served as the meeting place of the enlarged

Wyre Borough Council Wyre may refer to: Places * Wyre, Orkney, an island in Scotland * Borough of Wyre, a local government district in Lancashire, England ** Wyre (UK Parliament constituency) * River Wyre, a river in Lancashire, England * Wyre Forest, a woodland in ...

after its 1974 formation; however, the building ceased to be the local seat of government in 1988, when the council relocated to the former Poulton Teacher Training College in

Breck Road Breck Road (formerly Breck Street; colloquially known as The Breck) is a road in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. Originally known as Breck Street, it runs for about from Chapel Street, Ball Street and Vicarage Road in the south to Amou ...

, which was converted for use as Wyre Civic Centre. The building in Church Street was converted back to its former use, as a public house, and was renamed the "Old Town Hall" at that time. It was extensively refurbished in 2012. In 2008, Wyre Council's ''Poulton-le-Fylde Conservation Area Appraisal'' included the property for its historic value, but stated that, due to the many alterations made to it over time, it was unlikely that listed status would be achieved.

References

{{Borough of Wyre buildings Buildings and structures in Poulton-le-Fylde Government buildings completed in 1910 1910 establishments in England City and town halls in Lancashire