Ederney Town Hall, also styled as Ederney Townhall, is a municipal structure in Market Street,

Ederney Ederney () is a village situated primarily in the townlands of Drumkeen and of Ederny in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 587. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available ...

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of and had a population of 63,585 as of 2021. Enniskillen is the ...

, Northern Ireland. The structure, which is used as a community events venue, is a Grade B1

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 building was commissioned by the Reverend William James West, who lived at White Park, near

Brookeborough Brookeborough (; Irish: ''Achadh Lon'', meaning 'Field of the Blackbirds') is a village in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, at the westerly foot of Slieve Beagh. It lies about eleven miles east of Enniskillen, just off the A4 trunk road, an ...

in County Fermanagh, as a market house for the local people. The building was designed by William Deane Butler 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 coursed stone and was completed in 1839. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Market Street; the central bay featured a wide segmental archway 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 was flanked by two narrower openings with architraves, while the first floor was fenestrated by

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s also with architraves. The central bay was surmounted by an open

pediment Pediments are a form of gable in classical architecture, usually of a triangular shape. Pediments are placed above the horizontal structure of the cornice (an elaborated lintel), or entablature if supported by columns.Summerson, 130 In an ...

with a clock in the tympanum. At roof level there was

modillion A modillion is an ornate bracket, more horizontal in shape and less imposing than a corbel. They are often seen underneath a Cornice (architecture), cornice which helps to support them. Modillions are more elaborate than dentils (literally transl ...

ed cornice and a

hip roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including Tented roof, tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other ve ...

. On the Ardvarney Road side, there was an archway in a similar style on the ground floor and a prominent Venetian window on the first floor. Internally the principal rooms were the market hall on the ground floor and the assembly hall on the first floor. The arcading on the ground floor was infilled and the building was converted for use as a civic meeting place in 1889. The assembly room was used as a school room and as a venue for community events: facilities were also provided for meetings of Ederney Masonic Lodge. The building continued to be used as an events venue into the early 20th century but, by the mid 20th century, usage was falling and, by the 1970s, it was merely being used as a furniture store. The condition of building deteriorated during the second half of the 20th century and, after an intensive local campaign to save the building, it was acquired by

Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (; Ulster-Scots: ''Districk Cooncil o Fermanagh an Omey'') is a local authority in Northern Ireland and was established on 1 April 2015. It replaced Fermanagh District Council and Omagh District Council an ...

in 1989 and comprehensively restored. It subsequently became the home of the newly-established Ederney Community Development Trust, which provides and promotes a range of activities within the building.

References

{{City and town halls in Ireland Government buildings completed in 1839 City and town halls in Northern Ireland Grade B1 listed buildings Fermanagh and Omagh district