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

Wrentham, Suffolk Wrentham is a village and civil parish in the East Suffolk district, in the north-east of the English county of Suffolk. It is located about from the North Sea coast on the A12 trunk road, about south-west of Lowestoft, north of Southwold ...

, England. The building, which was the meeting place of Wrentham Parish Council, 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 Rector of St Nicholas' Church, the Reverend Stephen Clissold, who saw the need for a public hall in the middle of Wrentham. It was financed in part by Clissold himself and in part by a legacy from a wealthy benefactor, Miss Lehman, for the "welfare of the inhabitants". It was designed in the

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

, built in red brick with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone dressings and was completed in 1862. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay featured a tall five-light arched window with

tracery Tracery is an architectural device by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding. Most commonly, it refers to the stonework elements that support th ...

. The gable above contained a panel inscribed with the words "Wrentham Hall" and originally also contained a clock with a semi-circular stone

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

above. The central bay was flanked by full height square

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s, which slightly projected forward and were fenestrated by

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s. Beyond that, there were gabled porches on either side. At roof level, there was a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

which was originally surmounted by a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

. Internally, the principal room was the main hall, which contained a concert organ and was designed to accommodate 400 people. The parish council placed ownership of the town hall in a charitable foundation in October 1868. Improvements, which included a new projecting clock on the face of the building, were initiated by Sir Alfred Sherlock Gooch, 9th baronet, whose seat was at

Benacre Hall Benacre Hall is a Grade II listed country house and estate in Benacre, Suffolk. The current house is high Georgian, with Palladian geometric influence and figures externally roughly as it stood on its building, in 1764. It is the seat of the G ...

, to commemorate the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

in 1897. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

the building was requisitioned for the use of military units in the area which included the 2/7th (Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire) Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers which was based in Wrentham from November 1916 to May 1917. The dials on the projecting clock were replaced with illuminated dials at the expense of Sir Thomas Vere Sherlock Gooch, 10th Baronet as part of the celebrations for the

Silver Jubilee of George V The Silver Jubilee of George V on 6 May 1935 marked 25 years of George V as the King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India.Harold Nicolson, ''King George V'' (1953) pp 510–532online/ref> The Jubilee was marked ...

in May 1935. The building continued to serve as a venue for community events for much of the 20th century but, by the early 1980s, it was becoming increasingly dilapidated and in need of costly repairs. The parish council decided to construct a modern community hall on the corner of London Road and Southwold Road; the old town hall was auctioned and acquired by a developer for conversion to residential use in March 1985 with the proceeds being applied towards the cost of the new community hall.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1862 City and town halls in Suffolk Grade II listed buildings in Suffolk Wrentham, Suffolk