Farnworth Town Hall is a municipal building in Market Street,

Farnworth Farnworth is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, southeast of Bolton, 4 miles south-west of Bury (7 km), and northwest of Manchester. Within the historic county of Lancashire, Farnworth lies on ...

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. ...

, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Farnworth 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

Shortly after it had been created in 1863, the

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 ...

established itself in a small office in Darley Street. After population growth associated with the increasing number of local

coal mine Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

s led to the area becoming an

urban district An urban district is a division generally managed by a local government. It may also refer to a city district, district, urban area or quarter Specific urban districts in some countries include: * Urban districts of Denmark * Districts of Germa ...

in 1894, civic leaders decided to procure a dedicated town hall: the site they selected was open land between Trafford Street and Rawson Street. The new building, which was designed by

Bradshaw Gass & Hope Bradshaw Gass & Hope is an English architect, architectural practice founded in 1862 by Jonas James Bradshaw (–1912). It is Bolton's oldest architectural practice and has exhibited archive drawings in London and Manchester. The style "Bradshaw ...

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 ...

and built in red brick with stone dressings, was officially opened by the chairman of the council, Thomas Stanley, on 30 March 1909. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto Market Street; the central section of three bays, which slightly projected forward, featured a semi-circular porch with

Ionic order The Ionic order is one of the three canonic classical order, orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric order, Doric and the Corinthian order, Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan order, Tuscan (a plainer Doric) ...

columns; there was a 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 window on the first floor and a

Diocletian window Diocletian windows, also called thermal windows, are large semicircular windows characteristic of the enormous public baths (''thermae'') of Ancient Rome. They have been revived on a limited basis by some neo-classical architecture, classical rev ...

flanked by

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 in the

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 ...

above. The middle bay in the left hand section featured a carved

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 ...

on the first floor with a curved pediment above, while the middle bay in the right hand section featured a mullioned window on the first floor with a curved pediment above. At roof level, there was a central

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

. Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the mayor's parlour, both on the first floor; there was a large stained glass window on the staircase depicting the council coat of arms. Civic leaders also procured a Carnegie library which was designed by the same architectural firm, built on open land between Carlton Street and Trafford Street (just to the north of the town hall) and completed in 1911. The town hall was subsequently extended to the north to create an additional bay which was set back to maintain the symmetrical form of the building. After the area achieved

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 ...

status in 1939, the building became the headquarters of the new

borough council A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged

Bolton Council Bolton Council, or Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council, is the local authority of the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is a Metropolitan Borough Council and provides the majority of local government services in th ...

was formed in 1974. Although the building was subsequently used for community purposes, it subsequently fell into a state of disrepair. On 2 July 1992, a security guard, Ian Foster, was fatally shot on the front steps of the town hall after being forced to hand over takings he had collected from an office in the building. Two men were subsequently tried and convicted of his murder. After an extensive programme of refurbishment works costing £1.3 million had been completed in June 2013, the building re-opened as additional workspace for the council departments of Bolton Council.

References

{{Buildings and structures in Bolton Government buildings completed in 1909 City and town halls in Greater Manchester Farnworth Grade II listed buildings in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton

History

See also

References