Cowbridge Town Hall ( cy, Neuadd y Dref Y Bont-faen) is a public building in the High Street of

Cowbridge Cowbridge ( cy, Y Bont-faen) is a market town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, approximately west of the centre of Cardiff. The Cowbridge with Llanblethian community and civil parish elect a town council. A Cowbridge electoral ward exists for ...

in South Wales. The town hall, which is the meeting place for Cowbridge with Llanblethian Town Council, and also houses the

town clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a Tow ...

's office, the committee rooms and the Cowbridge Museum, is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

History

The town hall was commissioned to replace an aging guildhall, located in the middle of the High Street, which had previously been the civic meeting place as well as the venue for the

Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388 (extending also to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535). They were also established in ...

which travelled around South Wales. Civic leaders found that the guildhall was restricting the movement of traffic in the High Street and decided to find an alternative venue: the site they selected was a building dating back to 1806 which had served as a prison or "House of Correction" but had fallen vacant when correctional activities were consolidated in Swansea. Plans of the House of Correction dating from 1823 show the two-storeyed building flanked by the walls of prisoners' exercise yards, which were incorporated into the new Town Hall to provide additional rooms. In 1824 it was reported that the "Plans and estimate of the expense attending the erection of a new Town Hall ... have been procured by the Revd. John Montgomery Traherne at his own expense". On 15 October 1829 and 22 July 1830 The Court of Common Council for Cowbridge ordered that thanks be given to Isaiah Verity Esq of Ash Hall (son of John Verity of Rooley Hall, Bowling) for "offering ground for the erection of the Town Hall". Verity, in gratitude for planning and directing the new town hall, was awarded the freedom of the borough, after the conversion of the building from a House of Correction to a town hall was completed in 1830. The borough council, which had met in the town hall, was abolished under the

Municipal Corporations Act 1883 A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

. The building was restored and enlarged in 1895. Internally, there were two main committee rooms inside the building and a mayor's parlour. In the floor of the parlour, the remains of one of the wells which were located in the exercise yards to provide water for prisoners can still be seen. The design involved a broadly symmetrical frontage with five bays facing the High Street; the central bay featured a gabled doorway on the ground floor flanked by

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s with a small rounded headed window on the first floor; the bay to the left had a tall round-headed window while the bay to the right had two smaller round-headed windows one above the other; the end bays featured smaller doorways with

oculi An oculus (; ) is a circular opening in the center of a dome or in a wall. Originating in antiquity, it is a feature of Byzantine and Neoclassical architecture. It is also known as an '' œil-de-boeuf'' from the French, or simply a "bull's- ...

above; a two-stage clock tower with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, most often dome-like, tall structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome. The word derives, via Italian, fro ...

was erected at roof level. The clock in the clock tower was donated by

Edward Copleston Edward Copleston (2 February 177614 October 1849) was an English churchman and academic, Provost of Oriel College, Oxford, from 1814 till 1828 and Bishop of Llandaff from 1827. Life Born into an ancient West Country family, Copleston was born ...

, the

Bishop of Llandaff The Bishop of Llandaff is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of Llandaff. Area of authority The diocese covers most of the County of Glamorgan. The bishop's seat is in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (the site of ...

. A war memorial commemorating local people who had died in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

was unveiled in front of the town hall in 1921. The building was renovated in 1974. The Cowbridge Museum, which was established in the 1980s, took over six of the eight intact prison cells, to accommodate and display its collection.

Notes

References

External links

{{Government buildings in Wales Town hall Grade II* listed buildings in the Vale of Glamorgan 1830 establishments in Wales Tourist attractions in the Vale of Glamorgan City and town halls in Wales Government buildings completed in 1806