The first moot hall in the town was a medieval structure erected on the east side of New Street in around 1150.[2] In the early 19th century civic leaders decided to demolish the old moot hall and, as a replacement, to make appropriate alterations to an existing house in Chapel Lane, which had been designed in the neoclassical style and built in ironstone in 1769.[2] The design of the house involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Abbey Street; the ground floor featured three round headed windows with archivolts and keystones flanked by niches created with short Doric order pilasters and entablatures.[1] At the corners of the ground floor there were larger Doric order pilasters supporting a wider entablature and a cornice.[1] The first and second floors featured sash windows with archivolts and keystones and at roof level there was a modillioned pediment.[1] A cupola and a weather vane were erected at roof level.[1]
In 1806, following its acquisition by the town authorities under the Daventry Improvement, Market and Moot Hall Act 1806 (46 Geo. 3. c. cxviii), the Chapel Lane building was remodelled to create a new moot hall with the Chapel Lane elevation and much of the internal structure being rebuilt in red brick.[3] A new porch was erected on that elevation and the pediment on the Abbey Street side was augmented by the installation of a 17th century clock, which had been recovered from the old moot hall, in the tympanum.[2] The original staircase from the building was transferred to the Manor House in Welton.[4] The moot hall became the meeting place of the local borough council as well as the venue for the weekly hearings of the local magistrates' courts.[5] The original mechanically operated clock was replaced with an electrically operated one during the mid-20th century.[2]
The moot hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for much of the 20th century[6] but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Daventry District Council was formed with its offices in Church Walk in 1974.[7][8] A local history museum was established in the moot hall in the early 1980s: items on display included the original mechanically operated clock as well as a set of imperial measures, typically held by local authorities to ensure tradesmen comply with the Weights and Measures Act 1824.[9] The building also accommodated the local tourist information office at that time.[10]
After the museum and tourist information office moved to New Street in 2004, the moot hall operated as an Indian restaurant from May 2006[11] and then saw a variety of commercial uses before being converted to become a children's nursery in January 2020.[12]
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