A moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, traditionally to decide local issues.
In
Anglo-Saxon England
Anglo-Saxon England or early medieval England covers the period from the end of Roman Empire, Roman imperial rule in Roman Britain, Britain in the 5th century until the Norman Conquest in 1066. Compared to modern England, the territory of the ...
, a low ring-shaped
earthwork served as a
moot hill
A moot hill or ''mons placiti'' (statute hill) is a hill or mound historically used as an assembly or meeting place, as a moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, also traditionally to decide local issues. In Early Middle Ages, early mediev ...
or moot mound, where the elders of the
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101.
In mathematics
100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
would meet to take decisions. Some of these acquired permanent buildings, known as moot halls.
Surviving moot halls include:
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Moot Hall, Aldeburgh
The Moot Hall is a municipal building in Market Cross Place in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, England. The building, which is the meeting place of Aldeburgh Town Council, is a Grade I listed building.
History The building
The building was designed in the ...
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Moot Hall, Appleby
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Moot Hall, Brampton
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Moot Hall, Daventry
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Moot Hall, Elstow
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Moot Hall, Hexham
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Moot Hall, Holton le Moor
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Moot Hall, Keswick
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Moot Hall, Newcastle upon Tyne
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Moot Hall, Newark-on-Trent
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Moot Hall, Maldon
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Moot Hall, Mansfield
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Moot Hall, St Albans
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Moot Hall, Steeple Bumpstead
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Moot Hall, Wirksworth
See also
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Kgotla
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Mead hall
Among the early Germanic peoples, a mead hall or feasting hall was a large building with a single room intended to receive guests and serve as a center of community social life. From the fifth century to the Early Middle Ages such a building was t ...
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Meeting house
A meeting house (also spelled meetinghouse or meeting-house) is a building where religious and sometimes private meetings take place.
Terminology
Nonconformist (Protestantism), Nonconformist Protestant denominations distinguish between a:
* chu ...
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Thing (assembly)
A thing, also known as a folkmoot, assembly, tribal council, and Thing (assembly)#Etymology, by other names, was a governing assembly in early Germanic peoples, Germanic society, made up of the free people of the community presided over by a l ...
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Witenagemot
The witan () was the king's council in the Anglo-Saxon government of England from before the 7th century until the 11th century. It comprised important noblemen, including ealdormen, thegns, and bishops. Meetings of the witan were sometimes ...
References
{{portalbar, politics
Anglo-Saxon architecture
Buildings and structures in England
Seats of local government in Europe
Government buildings in England
Building types