Chapel-en-le-Frith Town Hall is a municipal building in Market Street,

Chapel-en-le-Frith Chapel-en-le-Frith () is a town and civil parish, in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It has been dubbed the "Capital of the Peak", in reference to the Peak District, historically the highland areas between the Saxon lands (below ...

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

, England. The structure operates as a community events venue, as well as the offices and meeting place of Chapel-en-le-Frith Parish Council.

History

The building was commissioned by a medical doctor, Thomas Slacke, who lived at Bowden Hall, as dedicated accommodation for the local magistrates, who had previously held their hearings in the Old Oak Inn. The site he selected was on the southeast side of Market Street. Slack retained ownership of the building but assigned all rentals for the benefit of local schools. The building 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

rubble masonry Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wi ...

at a cost of £2,000, and was opened as the "New Sessions House" in 1851. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Market Street. The central bay contained a segmental headed doorway with an

architrave In classical architecture, an architrave (; , also called an epistyle; ) is the lintel or beam, typically made of wood or stone, that rests on the capitals of columns. The term can also apply to all sides, including the vertical members, ...

and a keystone. It was flanked, in the outer bays, by two narrow

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. On the first floor there were three tall

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 with the central window placed higher than the others to allow the installation of a clock. The there was a high gable above surmounted by a

trefoil A trefoil () is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings, used in architecture, Pagan and Christian symbolism, among other areas. The term is also applied to other symbols with a threefold shape. A similar shape with f ...

-shaped

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 ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were the main hall on the first floor, which featured a

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

timber roof, and the courtroom behind. County court hearings as well as monthly

petty session Courts of petty session, established from around the 1730s, were local courts consisting of magistrates, held for each petty sessional division (usually based on the county divisions known as hundreds) in England, Wales, and Ireland. The session ...

s were held in the building, which was enlarged in 1882. After judicial hearings in the town hall were discontinued, the courtroom was later converted for use as a library. Ownership of the building was transferred to the parish council in 1928. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, proposals were developed to expand the building, as a lasting memorial to local service personnel who had died in the war. In the event, civic leaders decided to create an annex extending to the southwest of the exiting structure. The annex, which created a new room on the first floor, adjacent to the main hall and fenestrated by four square

s, was completed in 1970. Meanwhile, the building continued to serve as the offices and meeting place of Chapel-en-le-Frith Parish Council, as well as a local venue for public meetings, and community events. Works of art in the town hall include eleven landscape paintings by Neil Bennett depicting the town and surrounding villages, as well as a series of paintings by Norman Phillips depicting local scenes.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1851 Chapel-en-le-Frith City and town halls in Derbyshire