Stocksbridge Town Hall is a municipal building in Manchester Road in

Stocksbridge Stocksbridge is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish, it is encircled to the north and east by the southern edge of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley, although since 1974 it lies within the borders of the City of Sheffield, in ...

, a town in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the north, the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north-east, Lincolnshire ...

in England. The town hall, which was previously the offices and meeting place of Stocksbridge Urban District Council, is now the home of Stocksbridge Town Council as well as other community organisations.

History

Stocksbridge Town Hall Extension - geograph

After significant industrial growth in the mid-19th century, largely associated with the steel industry, a

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 ...

was formed in 1872. The local board initially established its offices in a row of terraced cottages sloping down what is now Fox Valley Way. Stocksbridge became an urban district in 1894 and, in the mid-1920s, civic leaders decided to erect a new town hall just to the southeast of the old council offices. The new building was designed by Henry Maynard Aitchison, the municipal architect and surveyor, 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 ...

, built by David Brearley & Sons in

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 ...

stone and was officially opened on by James Hinchliffe, the chair of the council, on 26 March 1928. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of four bays facing Manchester Road. The second bay on the left featured a round headed doorway with

voussoir A voussoir ( UK: ; US: ) is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault.“Voussoir, N., Pronunciation.” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7553486115. Acces ...

s and a keystone flanked by full-height

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 constructed in

rubble masonry Rubble masonry or rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Some medieval cathedral walls have outer shells of ashlar wi ...

. On the first floor there was a French door, a

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 ...

fronted by iron railings and, on the right-hand side, a

flagpole A flagpole, flagmast, flagstaff, or staff is a pole designed to support a flag. If it is taller than can be easily reached to raise the flag, a cord is used, looping around a pulley at the top of the pole with the ends tied at the bottom. The fla ...

. The left-hand bay was fenestrated by 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 ...

with voussoirs and keystones on the ground floor and by a

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 ...

on the first floor. The right-hand section of two bays was fenestrated by two Diocletian windows with voussoirs and keystones on the ground floor and by a single Diocletian window with voussoirs and keystones on the first floor, and was surmounted by a gable containing a blind oculus. Internally, the principal rooms were the meeting space and offices for the council and a

mortuary A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...

. There was also garaging for the local fire service behind the main building. In the early 21st century, a major programme of works, involving the reconstruction of a 1960s two-storey extension at the rear and the refurbishment of the main building, was initiated. Internal re-modelling allowed the complex to accommodate the offices of Stocksbridge Town Council, Stocksbridge's Future Partnership, and the local police service. The work was carried out by O & P Construction Services at a cost of £700,000 to a design by Service Design Associates and completed in April 2008. The complex subsequently became the home of the Valley History Museum Stocksbridge, featuring a collection of 17th century Bolsterstone Glass and 18th century Stocksbridge Pottery. Works of art in the town hall include three paintings of industrial scenes by the local artist, Robert Penistone.

History

References

Further reading