Kirton in Lindsey Town Hall 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 ...

. It is a community building within the Market Place in

Kirton in Lindsey Kirton in Lindsey, also abbreviated to Kirton Lindsey, is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. It is south-east from Scunthorpe. History Catherine Parr, the Wives of Henry VIII, sixth wif ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

, England.

History

The first municipal building in the town was an old courthouse: it was used as the venue for manorial court hearings and the depository for manorial records and was completed in 1762. In the late 19th century, civic leaders decided to erect a new structure to celebrate the

Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria was officially celebrated on 22 June 1897 to mark the occasion of the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. Queen Victoria was the first British monarch ever to celebrate a Diamond ...

. The site they selected was occupied by the Greyhound Inn and was donated to the town by William Emberton-Fox of Northorpe Hall. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the Member of Parliament, Emerson Bainbridge, on 16 June 1897. It was designed by a local architect, J. K. Broughton, in the

Palladian style Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

and built in

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

which had been recovered from an 18th-century house of correction. The new building was officially opened on 14 June 1899. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the east side of the Market Square; the central bay featured a round headed doorway with a

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

, an

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 ...

surround and a keystone. The outer bays on the ground floor and the bays on the first floor were fenestrated by round headed

casement window A casement window is a window that is attached to its frame by one or more hinges at the side. They are used singly or in pairs within a common frame, in which case they are hinged on the outside. Casement windows are often held open using a c ...

s with ashlar surrounds and keystones. The front elevation was surmounted by a band inscribed with the words "Diamond Jubilee Town Hall" and by a pediment with an oculus in the tympanum. Internally, the principal rooms were the upper hall and the lower hall. The town hall continued to be the meeting place of the parish council for much of the 20th century and, following local government re-organisation in 1974, it served as the meeting place of the town council. By the late 20th century the condition of the building had deteriorated significantly and it became unable to host large functions. The building was closed completely in 2009 so that a major programme of refurbishment works could be carried out at a cost of £1 million. The works, which were financed by

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

North Lincolnshire Council North Lincolnshire Council is the local authority of North Lincolnshire, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the function ...

and Kirton Town Council and included space for a new local heritage centre, were completed in time for the building to be re-opened by the

Earl of Wessex Earl of Wessex is a title that has been created twice in British history – once in the pre-Norman Conquest, Conquest Anglo-Saxon nobility of England, and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. In the 6th century AD the region of Wessex ( ...

in June 2011. The town hall became available for theatre and concert events again with performers such as the Canadian folk trio, ''

The Once The Once is a folk trio based in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. The group features Geraldine Hollett on lead vocals and vocalist-instrumentalists Phil Churchill and Andrew Dale playing a variety of instruments. The group performs a mix of ori ...

'', appearing in March 2014. The town council also moved its own offices back into the town hall in November 2017.

References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1899 Kirton in Lindsey City and town halls in Lincolnshire Grade II listed buildings in Lincolnshire