Failsworth Town Hall, also known as Failsworth and Hollinwood District Town Hall, is a former municipal building on Oldham Road,

Failsworth Failsworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, north-east of Manchester and south-west of Oldham. The M60 motorway, M60 ring-road motorway skirts it to the east. The population at the United Kingdom C ...

, a town in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

in England. The building, which served as the offices and meeting place of Failsworth Urban District Council, now accommodates a library, a lifelong learning centre, the current council's support and housing team, and some charities.

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the linen industry, a

local board of health A local board of health (or simply a ''local board'') was a local authority in urban areas of England and Wales from 1848 to 1894. They were formed in response to cholera epidemics and were given powers to control sewers, clean the streets, regulat ...

was established in Failsworth in 1863, with its headquarters in the Old School on Pole Lane. In the 1870s the board decided to commission dedicated offices for their meetings. The site they selected was open land on the southeast side of Oldham Road with the

Rochdale Canal The Rochdale Canal is in Northern England, between Manchester and Sowerby Bridge, part of the connected system of the canals of Great Britain. Its name refers to the town of Rochdale through which it passes. The Rochdale is a broad canal be ...

at the back. The building was designed by John Whittaker Firth of

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

, built in brick at a cost of £2,600 and was completed in 1880. In 1894, the local board of health was succeeded by Failsworth Urban District Council, which established its headquarters in the town hall. In the early 20th century, the Scottish American industrial,

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

, offered £3,000 to establish a public library in Failsworth. The council decided to erect the Carnegie library on an adjacent site to the northeast of the town hall. However, the opportunity was taken to remodel the façade so that the style of main frontage of the town hall was like that of the new library. The new frontage was designed by Ernest Ogden and Percy Cartwright Hoy in the Jacobean Revival style, built in red brick with

Portland stone Portland stone is a limestone geological formation (formally named the Portland Stone Formation) dating to the Tithonian age of the Late Jurassic that is quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England. The quarries are cut in beds of whi ...

dressings and was completed in 1909. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of seven bays, four on the left for the Carnegie Library and three on the right for the town hall, facing onto Oldham Road. The town hall featured, in the central bay, a rounded headed doorway with an archivolt surmounted by an entablature inscribed with the words "Council Offices"; there was a

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 and transomed window on the first floor surmounted by a chequered pattern. The outer bays were fenestrated by bay windows on the ground floor and by mullioned and transomed windows on the first floor. The building continued to serve as the offices of Failsworth Urban District Council for much of the 20th century, but ceased to be the local seat of government when Oldham Metropolitan Borough Council was formed in 1974. The new council accommodated various departments in the building. In 2007, the final department, social services, moved out, and the building was left vacant. The building was vandalised, but in 2011, it was restored, and a glazed extension was added, providing views over the Rochdale Canal. The building was used to house a library and a lifelong learning centre while, by 2023, it also housed the council's support and housing team, and some charities.

References

{{reflist City and town halls in Greater Manchester Government buildings completed in 1880 Failsworth