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

Steyning Steyning ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Horsham District, Horsham district of West Sussex, England. It is located at the north end of the River Adur gap in the South Downs, north of the coastal town of Shoreha ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, England. The building, which was used as a courthouse and a public events venue, 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 the town was a market house in the middle of the High Street: it was located just outside the current No. 44 High Street and dated back at least to the 15th century. It was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with an assembly room on the first floor. After it became very dilapidated and an obstruction to traffic, it was demolished in 1771. A second market house was built on a site previously occupied by a house owned by Sir John Honywood, 3rd Baronet; it was a

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 ...

structure completed in 1771. Steyning had a very small electorate and two dominant patrons (Sir John Honywood and the

Duke of Norfolk Duke of Norfolk is a title in the peerage of England. The premier non-royal peer, the Duke of Norfolk is additionally the premier duke and earl in the English peerage. The seat of the Duke of Norfolk is Arundel Castle in Sussex, although the t ...

), which meant it was recognised by the

UK Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of ...

as a

rotten borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or Electoral district, constituency in Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain, or the United Kin ...

. Its borough council, which had met in the market hall, was abolished and its right to elect members of parliament was removed by the

Reform Act 1832 The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the Reform Act 1832, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. 4. c. 45), enacted by the Whig government of Pri ...

. A clock tower was added to the building in 1835. In the 1870s, a group of local businessmen led by a local landowner, Colonel Robert Ingram, decided to form a company to finance and commission a new municipal building, which was initially designated the "Steyning Public Hall and Assembly Rooms". The new building was designed by a local architect, Charles Dalby, in the Neo-Georgian style, built by local builders, Messrs Chalcraft, in red brick at a cost of £791 and was completed in 1886. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay contained a doorway with a stone surround; the outer bays on the ground floor were fenestrated by canted

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, while the first floor was fenestrated by

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. A panel with the inscription "Town Hall 1886" was installed above the doorway and the building was given a

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 ...

. Internally, the principal room was the assembly hall, which was intended for use as a courtroom for

petty session Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...

hearings and as a public events venue for up to 400 people.

West Sussex County Council West Sussex County Council is the upper tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of West Sussex in England. The county also contains seven district and borough councils, and 158 town, parish and neighbourhood councils. The county c ...

acquired the town hall from the original development company in 1958 and erected modern courtrooms and prisoner cells to the rear of the town hall. The complex continued to act as a venue for

magistrates' court A magistrates' court is a lower court where, in several Jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions, all criminal proceedings start. Also some civil matters may be dealt with here, such as family proceedings. Courts * Magistrates' court (England and Wales) ...

hearings until the courts service relocated in 1994. The building was subsequently converted for commercial use and was subsequently occupied by a firm of estate agents. The building is accessible by the Steyning Clock Tower bus stop, which is served by Brighton & Hove bus routes 2 and 60.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1886 City and town halls in West Sussex Grade II listed buildings in West Sussex Steyning