The Inglis Memorial Hall is a municipal structure in the High Street in

Edzell Edzell (; ; ) is a village in Angus, Scotland. It is 5 miles (8 km) north of Brechin, by the River North Esk. Edzell is a Georgian-era planned town, with a broad main street and a grid system of side streets. Originally called Slateford, ...

Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...

, Scotland, which for much of the 20th century served as Edzell Parish Hall. The structure, which is currently used as a community events venue and accommodates a public library, is a Category A

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

Although

David Lindsay of Edzell, Lord Edzell Sir David Lindsay of Edzell, Lord Edzell (1551?–1610) was a Scottish judge. Early life The eldest son of David Lindsay, 9th Earl of Crawford and Katherine Campbell, Countess of Crawford, Catherine Campbell, daughter of Sir John Campbell of Lor ...

had secured promotion of the area to burgh status in 1588, Edzell was a "parchment burgh", i.e. burgh in name but not in practice. Following implementation of the

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1894 ( 57 & 58 Vict. c. 58) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It created a Local Government Board for Scotland and replaced existing parochial boards with parish councils. Part I of the a ...

, which established parish councils, the new parish council needed a meeting place and offices. The building was commissioned by a London stockbroker, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Robert William Inglis (1843–1923), who had served as chairman of the

London Stock Exchange The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...

, as a gift to the parish and a memorial to his parents. It was designed by Charles and Leslie Ower in the Gothic Revival style, built in

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and was officially opened by Inglis on 22 July 1898. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto the High Street: the central bay featured a five-stage clock tower. The first stage was formed by a

porte-cochère A porte-cochère (; ; ; ) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which originally a ...

with

Corinthian order The Corinthian order (, ''Korinthiakós rythmós''; ) is the last developed and most ornate of the three principal classical orders of Ancient Greek architecture and Ancient Roman architecture, Roman architecture. The other two are the Doric or ...

columns and

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 supporting an archway and a segmental open pediment containing the words "Inglis Memorial Hall" in the tympanum; the second stage, which was round, contained

cross-window A cross-window is a window whose lights are defined by a mullion and a transom, forming a cross.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture'', 2nd ed., OUP, Oxford and New York, p. 214. . The Late ...

s with pediments and

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s; the third stage, which was also round, was blind and the fourth stage, which was

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

al, contained alternating clock faces and

balconies A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

, while the final stage consisted of 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 ...

with narrow

lucarne In general architecture a lucarne is a dormer window. The term is borrowed from , which refers to a dormer window, usually one set into the middle of a roof although it can also apply to a façade lucarne, where the gable of the lucarne is aligne ...

s and a

. The outer bays were fenestrated with

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...

ed and transomed windows on both floors with

crenelated A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging turret projecting from the walls of late-medieval and early-modern fortifications from the early 14th c ...

s and

stepped gable A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

s above. Internally, the principal rooms were a library, a reading room, the parish council offices, a small assembly hall and a large assembly hall. Stained glass windows were installed by William Meikle & Sons of

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

in the main halls. Additionally, Inglis donated a collection of 5,000 specially bound books to fill the library. Inglis also granted to the parish council £3,000 of loan stock in the Caledonian Railway Company for the maintenance of the building and, in his will, he left an additional £2,000 () to the parish council, when he died in 1923. Following local government reorganisation in 1975, the building became the local meeting place of Inveresk Community Council. Ownership of the building passed to

Angus Council Angus Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Angus, Scotland, Angus, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. History The first election to Angus District Council was held in 1974, initially operating as a shadow authori ...

at that time and, since its formation in 2015, the building has been managed by "Angus Alive", which is the culture, sport and leisure arm of Angus Council.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1898 City chambers and town halls in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Angus, Scotland

History

See also

References