Painswick Town Hall is a municipal building in Victoria Square,

Painswick Painswick is a town and civil parish in the Stroud District in Gloucestershire, England. Originally the town grew from the wool trade, but it is now best known for its parish church's Taxus baccata, yew trees and the local Painswick House, Pain ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...

, England. The building, which is used as an events venue and also as the offices of Painswick 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 first municipal building in Painswick was a structure on the south side of Victoria Square close to St Mary's Parish Church on a site known as "Jumbles Den". The building, known as the "Stock House", included a school and a lock-up for petty criminals and was completed in 1628. A

workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

was subsequently built behind the old Stock House but, by the early 19th century, the old Stock House had become dilapidated and the parish leaders decided to demolish the old buildings and to commission a new Stock House on the north side of the square. The old Stock House was duly demolished and, re-purposed as a garden: in 1920, it became the site of a new war memorial, designed by F. L. Griggs in the form of a shaft with an

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 head to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who had died in 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 new building was designed in the Tudor Revival style, built in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and was completed in 1840. The design involved a main frontage with just one bay facing onto Victoria Square; on both the ground floor and the first floor there were five-light

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 with pointed heads to the lights. There was a

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 ...

above, which contained a

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

-shaped panel with an inscription commemorating the old Stock House, and a

lean-to A lean-to is a type of simple structure originally added to an existing building with the rafters "leaning" against another wall. Free-standing structures open on one or more sides (colloquially referred to as lean-tos in spite of being unattac ...

structure to the right containing an arched doorway giving access to the main building. Internally, the principal rooms were the lower hall, which was used as an events venue, and the upper hall, which was used as a school classroom from 1844 until 1867. In the late 20th century, the author,

Laurie Lee Laurence Edward Alan Lee, (26 June 1914 – 13 May 1997) was an English poet, novelist and screenwriter, who was brought up in the small village of Slad in Gloucestershire. His most notable work is the autobiographical trilogy '' Cider w ...

, who wrote the autobiographical trilogy '' Cider with Rosie'', ''

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' (1969) is a memoir by the British writer Laurie Lee. Lee is probably best known for his autobiographical work, although he was also a poet. ''As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning'' is the middle work ...

'' and '' A Moment of War'', was a frequent visitor to receptions held in the town hall. Following the closure of the old public library on the east side of Stroud Road in December 2009, a major refurbishment of the town hall took place in spring 2012, and a new community library, established with financial support from

Gloucestershire County Council Gloucestershire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Gloucestershire, in England. The council was created in 1889. The council's principal functions are county roads and rights of way, social servi ...

, opened on the first floor of the building in May 2012. A room on the ground floor was made available for use as a

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

and the parish council moved back into an office on the first floor of the building.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1840 City and town halls in Gloucestershire Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Painswick