Hungerford Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street,

Hungerford Hungerford is a historic market town and civil parish in Berkshire, England, west of Newbury, east of Marlborough, and 60 miles (97 km) west of London. The population of the parish at the 2021 census was 5,869. The Kennet and Avon Can ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Hungerford Town 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

The first town hall in Hungerford, known at the time as the "Courte House", was a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

structure which was probably arcaded on the ground floor with an assembly room on the first floor: located in the middle of the High Street, it was completed in the mid-13th century. When this building became dilapidated, it was replaced by the second town hall which was designed in the

Elizabethan style Elizabethan architecture refers to buildings in a local style of Renaissance architecture built during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England from 1558 to 1603. The style is very largely confined to secular buildings, especially the large ...

and completed in 1573. After a while this building also deteriorated and it was replaced by a

Georgian style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover, George I, George II, Ge ...

structure with an

octagon In geometry, an octagon () is an eight-sided polygon or 8-gon. A '' regular octagon'' has Schläfli symbol and can also be constructed as a quasiregular truncated square, t, which alternates two types of edges. A truncated octagon, t is a ...

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 ...

in 1786. In 1830, during the

Swing Riots The Swing Riots were a widespread uprising in 1830 by agricultural workers in southern and eastern England in protest of agricultural mechanisation and harsh working conditions. The riots began with the destruction of threshing machines in the ...

, William Oakley harangued the magistrates in this town hall. In the 1860s civic leaders decided to procure a fourth structure: the site selected this time, on the west site of the High Street, had previously been occupied by an unused property known as "Church House". The foundation stone for the new building was laid by George Charles Cherry of Denford Park on 7 September 1870. It was designed by John Money in the

Italianate style The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Ita ...

, was built by a local contactor, a Mr Hoskins, at a cost of £4,000 and was opened without ceremony on 11 October 1871. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto the High Street; the left-hand section of three bays formed 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 ...

, with a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

balcony A balcony (from , "scaffold") is a platform projecting from the wall of a building, supported by columns or console brackets, and enclosed with a balustrade, usually above the ground floor. They are commonly found on multi-level houses, apartme ...

and three rounded headed windows on the first floor 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 ...

above. The right-hand bay, which slightly projected forwards, contained an arched doorway on the ground floor, a balcony and a double-arched window with an elaborate carving in the tympanum on the first floor and a

clock tower Clock towers are a specific type of structure that house a turret clock and have one or more clock faces on the upper exterior walls. Many clock towers are freestanding structures but they can also adjoin or be located on top of another building ...

with a lead cupola and

weather vane A wind vane, weather vane, or weathercock is an instrument used for showing the direction of the wind. It is typically used as an architectural ornament to the highest point of a building. The word ''vane'' comes from the Old English word , m ...

above. Internally, the principal meeting rooms were at the front (the magistrates' room on the ground floor and the upper hall on the first floor), and there was a

corn exchange A corn exchange is a building where merchants trade grains. The word "corn" in British English denotes all cereal grains, such as wheat and barley; in the United States these buildings were called grain exchanges. Such trade was common in towns ...

, with a vaulted ceiling, at the rear. The chiming clock, made by J. Moore & Sons of Clerkenwell, had been presented by the magistrate's clerk, Mr W. R. Hall, in 1866; it had initially been housed in a newly-built clock tower atop the Georgian town hall, before being transferred (along with the bells) to the new building in 1871. The corn exchange was converted for use as a large meeting hall in 1923 and it served as a

British Restaurant British Restaurants were communal kitchens created in 1940 during the Second World War to help people who had been bombed out of their homes, had run out of ration coupons or otherwise needed help. In 1943, 2,160 British Restaurants served 600,0 ...

during 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 ...

. The building served as the meeting place of Hungerford Rural District Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be local seat of government when the enlarged

West Berkshire Council West Berkshire Council is the local authority of West Berkshire in Berkshire, England. The council was created in 1974 as Newbury District Council, and was a lower-tier district council until 1998. The district was renamed West Berkshire on 1 Ap ...

was formed in 1974. However, meetings of Hungerford Town Council continued to take place in the building. The constable i.e. mayor and other officers of the town continued to be elected in the town hall each

Hocktide Hocktide (also Hock tide or Hoke Day) is the Monday and Tuesday in the second week after Easter. It was an English medieval festival; both the Tuesday and the preceding Monday were the Hock-days. Together with Whitsuntide and the twelve days of ...

(second Tuesday after Easter).

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1871 City and town halls in Berkshire Hungerford Grade II listed buildings in Berkshire Corn exchanges in England