Chippenham Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building in the High Street,

Chippenham Chippenham is a market town in north-west Wiltshire, England. It lies north-east of Bath, Somerset, Bath, west of London and is near the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The town was established on a crossing of the River Avon, ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Chippenham Borough 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

After significant population growth, largely associated with the cloth trade, Chippenham became a

municipal borough A municipal borough was a type of local government Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of governance or public administration within a particular sovereign state. Local governments typically constitute a subdivision of ...

in 1835. In this context, civic leaders decided to accept the offer of the local member of parliament,

Joseph Neeld Joseph Neeld (1789–1856) was Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom for the rotten borough of Gatton, Surrey from March to July 1830 and for Chippenham, Wiltshire, England from September 1830 to March 1856. Career Neeld was one of five ...

, who had recently bought the nearby Grittleton House estate, to pay for a new town hall to replace the ageing Yelde Hall in the Market Place. The site they selected had been occupied by a public house, The Cannon Inn. The new building was designed by James Thomson 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 £12,000 and completed in 1834. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto the High Street with the right hand bay projected forward; the left hand section featured a

loggia In architecture, a loggia ( , usually , ) is a covered exterior Long gallery, gallery or corridor, often on an upper level, sometimes on the ground level of a building. The corridor is open to the elements because its outer wall is only parti ...

of three bays each with openings on the ground floor flanked by full-height plain

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; there were three-light

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 windows in each of the bays on the first floor and, above that, a panel bearing the inscription "The Corporation of Chippenham erected the Arms of Joseph Neeld Esq, the founder of this Hall and Market Place in acknowledgement of his private munificence 1851". Above the panel was a

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative Moulding (decorative), moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, ar ...

and a

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 ...

bearing the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of Joseph Neeld. Internally, the principal rooms were the market hall, on the ground floor, and the council chamber, on the first floor. The town hall was extended to the rear between 1848 and 1850 to create a large cheese hall which later became known as the "Neeld Hall". The building was converted into an auxiliary war hospital for wounded soldiers operated by the local

Voluntary Aid Detachment The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units we ...

during 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 ...

. In the 1960s, the Neeld Hall was regularly used as an events venue: performers hosting concerts there included the

rock band ''Rock Band'' is a series of rhythm games first released in 2007 and developed by Harmonix. Based on their previous development work from the Guitar Hero, ''Guitar Hero'' series, the main ''Rock Band'' games have players use game controllers mod ...

The Kinks The Kinks were an English rock band formed in London in 1963 by brothers Ray Davies, Ray and Dave Davies, and Pete Quaife. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British ...

in September 1964 and the rock band

The Who The Who are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup (1964–1978) consisted of lead vocalist Roger Daltrey, guitarist Pete Townshend, bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon. Considered one of th ...

in May 1965. The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Chippenham Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged North Wiltshire District Council was formed in 1974. Following completion of a major programme of refurbishment works in 1999, the Chippenham Town Council moved their own offices into the building. Additional improvements were made to the air conditioning, lighting and acoustics in the Neeld Hall in 2015 to enable it to function as a community and arts centre.

References

{{Commons category Government buildings completed in 1834 City and town halls in Wiltshire Chippenham Grade II listed government buildings Grade II listed buildings in Wiltshire