Thaxted Guildhall is a municipal building in

Thaxted Thaxted is a town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of north-west Essex, England. The town is in the valley of the River Chelmer, not far from its source in the nearby village of Debden, and is 97 metres (318 feet) above sea level (w ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England. It is a Grade I

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

By the late 14th century, Thaxted was at the centre of the local cutlery trade. It is thought that the Guild of Cutlers contributed to the cost of the building, which the listed building details prepared in 1967 suggests, was completed between 1390 and 1410. However,

dendrochronology Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of chronological dating, dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed in a tree. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, ...

indicates that much of the timber used in the building actually dates to the late 15th century. The design made extensive use of

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber framing, timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of incr ...

timber framing Timber framing () and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy Beam (structure), timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and Woodworking joints, joined timbers with joints secure ...

: on the ground floor the building was arcaded to allow markets to be held; the first floor, which jutted out over the pavement on three sides, featured four small gothic windows on each side and the attic floor, which jutted out further, featured two small bay windows on each side. A large oak post was erected in the centre of the market area on the ground floor area to support the structure above. Internally the principal room was the meeting hall on the first floor at the front of the building; at the back of the building was a staircase on the left and a sealed off area known as the "old cage" on the right. The cage was probably used as a

village lock-up A village lock-up is a historic building once used for the temporary detention of people in England and Wales, mostly where official prisons or criminal courts were beyond easy walking distance. Lockups were often used for the confinement of d ...

as evidenced by its original doorway on the ground floor and the barred window grates on the first floor. The guildhall was used as meeting place for the town which flourished after receiving a charter from

Queen Mary I Mary I (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558), also known as Mary Tudor, was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 and Queen of Spain as the wife of King Philip II from January 1556 until her death in 1558. She made vigorous a ...

in the mid-16th century but then declined after the charter was rescinded when

King James II James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685, until he was deposed in the 1688 Glori ...

fell from power in the late 17th century. The building was restored at that time and converted into a school, remaining in that use, as Thaxted Grammar School, until 1878. Further refurbishment work, including timber restoration, was carried out in 1911 and again, as part of European Architectural Heritage Year, in 1975. In 2008 the guildhall was used for a Design Statement Exhibition, which sought local opinions to guide local development. Works of art in the guildhall include a portrait of the prominent British

Christian socialist A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the world. The words ''Christ'' and ''Chr ...

and local priest, the Reverend Conrad Noel, by Frank William Carter. There is also a small museum in the building exhibiting photographs and objects associated with the town and its development over time.

History

Notes

References

Further reading