Driffield Town Hall is a former municipal building in Exchange Street,

Driffield Driffield, also known as Great Driffield (neighbouring Little Driffield), is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The civil parish is formed by the town of Driffield and the village of Little Driffield. By ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, often abbreviated to the East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, S ...

, England. The structure is now used as an annex to a local hotel.

History

In the early 18th century, the local corn traders and farmers still conducted their trade in the open air at the rear of The Bell Hotel. In the late 1830s, after finding this arrangement unsatisfactory, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company to finance and commission a purpose-built

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 ...

for the town. The site chosen was on the northwest side of New Street, which was subsequently renamed Exchange Street. The building was designed by Henry Francis Lockwood 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 ...

, built in

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 at a cost of £2,000, and was completed on 1841. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing onto Exchange Street. Internally, the principal rooms were they main trading hall and a room to read newspapers. However, many of the corn merchants and farmers continued to conduct their trade at the rear of The Bell Hotel causing the company which had developed the corn exchange to get into financial difficulties. Also, the use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century. Following significant population growth, largely associated with the growing importance of Driffield as a market town, the area became an urban district in 1894. The old corn exchange was conveniently sited on the opposite side of the street to the newly established council offices at 18 Exchange Street. The old corn exchange was therefore re-purposed as a town hall and used for public meetings. It also became the venue for the announcement of general election results for the Buckrose constituency; it was there that the Unionist candidate, Admiral Sir Guy Gaunt, was declared the local member of parliament in November 1922. The neoclassical facade of the building was demolished and replaced by a red brick frontage in the mid-1930s. The new design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto Exchange Street. The central bay featured an opening flanked by two short pilasters supporting a

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 ...

and two taller pilasters surmounted by small

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. There was a central

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 ...

protruding into the

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural sty ...

and there were

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 in the outer bays. The building was officially re-opened on 8 May 1937. The building also served as a concert venue; the drummer,

Mick Woodmansey Michael "Woody" Woodmansey (born 4 February 1950) is an English rock music, rock drummer best known for his work in the early 1970s as a member of David Bowie's core backing ensemble that became known as the Spiders from Mars in conjuncti ...

, performer there with the

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band, ''The Mutations'', in the mid-1960s. Following local government reorganisation in 1974, the offices at Exchange Street ceased to be the local seat of government and the town hall ceased to be used for public meetings. It was acquired by The Bell Hotel in 1986 and was subsequently used as an annex for large functions.

References

{{reflist Commercial buildings completed in 1841 Driffield Corn exchanges in England City and town halls in the East Riding of Yorkshire

History

See also

References