In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company to raise funds for the erection of a corn exchange.[2] The site they selected was on the north side of the Market Place and the foundation stone for the building was laid by the 8th Marquess of Lothian on 6 October 1856.[3] It was designed in the neoclassical style, built in red brick at a cost of £2,100 and was completed in 1857.[4][5]
The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with nine bays facing onto the Market Place; it involved two distinct sections: a main section of five bays and a right-hand section of four bays which was set back from the main section. The main section contained a central bay, which was slightly projected forward and featured a doorway, accessed by a short flight of steps, which was flanked by Ionic order pilasters supporting a segmental pediment; the central bay was surmounted by a modillioned pediment with a clock in the tympanum. The outer bays in the main section were fenestrated by sash windows with keystones. The right-hand section was also fenestrated by sash windows although the right-hand bay, which was still further set back, was blind. Internally, the principal room was the main assembly hall which contained a queen post roof.[4]
The 6th Battalion of the Norfolk Rifle Volunteers, which was raised on 23 September 1859,[6] used the building as its drill hall[7] and petty session hearings were held there once a fortnight in the 19th century.[8] The building was extended to the west to create additional office space in 1892.[4][9] Following a collapse in corn prices, the company which had developed the building got into financial difficulties: a local solicitor, William Forster, acquired the building and the company was wound up in 1893.[10]
The building was the venue for important public events and, in 1899, it hosted the declaration of the result for the 1899 North Norfolk parliamentary by-election which was won by the Liberal Party candidate, Sir William Gurdon.[11] After Forster's death in 1906, the building was acquired by the local parish council[12] and Sir Oswald Mosley held a gathering of the British Union of Fascists there in 1939.[13]
Following local government re-organisation in 1974, the town hall became the home of Aylsham Town Council.[14][15] A refurbishment of some of the facilities in the town hall was completed in March 2018.[16] Items of interest in the town hall include a collection of material relating to the locally-born pioneer of anaesthesia, Joseph Clover.[17]
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