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Retford Town Hall is a municipal building in The Square,
Retford Retford (), also known as East Retford, is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It lies on the River Idle and the Chesterfield Canal. Retford is located east of Sheffield, west of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, Linco ...
,
Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...
, England. The town hall, which was the meeting place of Retford 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 ...
. It is still used for meetings of Bassetlaw District Council.


History


Earlier buildings

A
moot hall A moot hall is a meeting or assembly building, traditionally to decide local issues. In Anglo-Saxon England, a low ring-shaped Earthworks (engineering), earthwork served as a moot hill or moot mound, where the elders of the Hundred (county subdiv ...
was built in Retford in 1388 on a different site to the present town hall, in between the old market place and St Swithun's church, to the North of the current market place. It 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 ...
timbered structure and was destroyed by the fire which devastated three-quarters of Retford in 1528. A new moot hall was built to replace the one destroyed by fire but by August 1754 it was in danger of collapse. The corporation of East Retford decided to demolish it. The 1528 moot hall was replaced with another building on the same site designed 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 ...
by Messrs White and Watson. This was completed in 1755. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto the Market Place; the central section of three bays was pedimented and featured 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 ...
.Piercy 1828, p. 142 This hall provided a venue for assemblies, a court house for local and county sessions, and a
shambles Shambles is an obsolete term for an open-air slaughterhouse and meat market. Shambles or The Shambles may also refer to: *The Shambles, a historic street in York, England *The Shambles, Malton, a historic street in North Yorkshire, England *Shamb ...
for the weekly market. Other markets, for example, egg and butter, were held outside on the east side, and the corn market was held in the nearby market square. The building was described by local historian John Piercy in 1828: “The roof was surmounted by a small
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 ...
, of a very antiquated appearance, containing a bell, but no clock. This bell was rung at the commencement of the markets, and was also used for summoning the inhabitants to attend the courts, and the Council sessions, etc." Later a clock was added. The main hall was long and wide, and was "extremely well lighted by twelve square-headed windows". In addition to being used for the
Quarter Sessions The courts of quarter sessions or quarter sessions were local courts that were traditionally held at four set times each year in the Kingdom of England from 1388; they were extended to Wales following the Laws in Wales Act 1535. Scotland establ ...
and public meetings, was "appropriated to the performance of theatrical and other amusements" according to Piercy.Piercy 1828, p. 144 Another room, which was used by the grand jury at Quarter Sessions, was connected to the hall "by means of a pair of folding doors".


The current town hall

The 1755 town hall became an obstruction to traffic as The Great North Road ran through the centre of the town and the building and markets were causing congestion. In 1868 it was demolished and a new site chosen to the south of the current market place, which had previously been the site of a four-storey 18th-century townhouse. This site was purchased from Cooke's & Co Bank for £2,600 in June 1864. A condition of the sale was that a new road should also be built, which was to become Exchange Street. A design competition took place and a budget of £6,000 was agreed. Eighteen architects submitted designs, but Bellamy and Hardy were selected. Permission was sought from the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury to raise a mortgage of £9,000 for the land and building costs. This was not popular with the town's inhabitants. Permission was eventually granted with a Retford resident, George Chapman, agreeing to provide the funds and local builder Thomas Hopkinson being awarded the construction tender. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor on 19 June 1866. A time capsule with a copy of The Times newspaper and one of almost every 1866 coin was placed under the foundation stone. The Bellamy and Hardy design was 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 ...
, in red brick with stone dressings. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto The Square; the end bays featured doorways flanked by paired
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 supporting
entablature An entablature (; nativization of Italian , from "in" and "table") is the superstructure of moldings and bands which lies horizontally above columns, resting on their capitals. Entablatures are major elements of classical architecture, and ...
s and they had
mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called French roof or curb roof) is a multi-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope at a steeper angle than the upper, and often punctured by dormer wi ...
s; there were five round headed windows with balconies forming an arcade on the first floor and a large cupola, clock and
roof lantern A roof lantern is a Daylighting (architecture), daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight stru ...
at roof level. In 1867 T. Cooke & Sons of York transferred the clock from the old town hall into the new, and added a set of
quarter bells A clock chime is a melody or a set of melodies played at intervals upon a set of bells to mark the passage of time. It is also the name of the installed set of bells, when they are not part of a larger bell instrument such as a carillon. Bells tha ...
to sound the Westminster chimes, (the latter having been funded by public subscription). Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber (fronting the Market Square and measuring by ) and the ballroom (to the south, measuring by ), both on the first floor and accessed by a double staircase. Immediately to the east of the council chamber was the mayor's
parlour A parlour (or parlor) is a reception room or public space. In medieval Christian Europe, the "outer parlour" was the room where the monks or nuns conducted business with those outside the monastery and the "inner parlour" was used for necessar ...
. At the rear of the ballroom, a residence was provided for the hall-keeper, and there was also a kitchen "fitted up with a Leamington
range Range may refer to: Geography * Range (geographic), a chain of hills or mountains; a somewhat linear, complex mountainous or hilly area (cordillera, sierra) ** Mountain range, a group of mountains bordered by lowlands * Range, a term used to i ...
, capable of cooking a first-class dinner for 500 people". Below the ballroom was a poultry market, and additional buildings were also provided to the south for the corn exchange and shambles. This design was controversial. The local press described the building as 'handsome and commodious' and 'replete with convenience' But the design was used as an example of the sometimes unsatisfactory results of architectural competitions by ''Building News'' (October 1867) and the facade compared unfavourably with a design submitted by Godwin & Crisp. Pevsner criticised the design saying it was "without any of the Victorian qualities we appreciate today: a bad mansard roof and a bad lantern". The building continued to serve as a meeting place for Retford Borough Council for much of the 20th century. When the enlarged Bassetlaw District Council was formed in 1974 it established its main offices in
Worksop Worksop ( ) is a market town in the Bassetlaw District in Nottinghamshire, England. It is located south of Doncaster, south-east of Sheffield and north of Nottingham. Located close to Nottinghamshire's borders with South Yorkshire and Derbys ...
, but continues to use the town halls in both Retford and Worksop for meetings. It is also used for concerts, wedding receptions and other events. The original design has been altered over the years. A new Mayor's Parlour was opened on the ground floor in 1935, replacing a pair of offices at the front of the building. In about 1980 the first floor was expanded into the 'Old Bank' building next door, which had been bought by Retford Borough Council in 1926 and was being used as municipal offices. The bells were replaced in 1901, and the following year a new clock was installed by John Smith of Derby. The Courthouse was replaced in the 1930s. The Shambles and Corn Exchange were demolished in the 1980s.


Works of art

Works of art in the town hall include a portrait of
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
by Thomas Benjamin Kennington which was donated to the town by Alderman Denman to commemorate 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 ...
. Other works of art include a portrait of Colonel Whittaker by Henry Harris Brown (1864-1948), Thomas Bescoby (1890) by Edwin Arthur Ward, JW Holmes (1919) by Frederick Hall, Thomas William Denman by Thomas Benjamin Kennington and John Smith (1868) by Hugh Ford Crighton.


See also

* Listed buildings in Retford


References

{{reflist Government buildings completed in 1868 City and town halls in Nottinghamshire Retford Grade II listed buildings in Nottinghamshire