Okehampton Town Hall

The first municipal building in the town was a medieval guildhall in Middle Row which itself was located in the centre of Fore Street. By the early 19th century Middle Row was in a dilapidated state and, in 1800, legislation was enacted giving authority to the borough council to demolish the whole street.^[2][3]

The current building was commissioned by John Northmore, an attorney to the Court of King's Bench.^[4] It was designed in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar granite and was completed in 1685.^[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Fore Street; the central bay featured a doorway flanked by pilasters supporting a canted bay window with an ogee-shaped roof on the first floor; there was a sash window with a cornice supported by consoles on the second floor. The outer bays were fenestrated with sash windows on all three floors. At roof level, there was a modillioned cornice which was broken to create an open pediment above the central bay.^[1] Internally, the principal room was a large wooden panelled reception room on the ground floor.^[1]

The building was acquired by the local member of parliament, John Luxmoore, in 1740.^[1] It then passed down the Luxmoore family until it was acquired by the borough council for use as a town hall in 1821.^[5] A carving of the borough coat of arms, finished in gold and silver leaf, was installed in the open pediment.^[6] Okehampton had a very small electorate and two dominant patrons, who in the 18th century were Thomas Pitt and the Duke of Bedford, which meant it was recognised by the UK Parliament as a rotten borough.^[7] Its right to elect members of parliament was removed by the Reform Act 1832^[8] and its borough council, which continued to meet in the town hall, was reformed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.^[9][10]

A classroom for teaching science and technology was established in the town hall in 1893.^[11] The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for much of the 20th century,^[12] but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged West Devon District Council was formed at Tavistock in 1974.^[13] It instead became the meeting place of Okehampton Town Council.^[14]

Works of art in the town hall include three paintings by Richard Caton Woodville Jr. depicting Saladin's cavalry charging the Crusaders,^[15] Napoleon and his marshals watching a battle^[16] and a 19th-century cavalry charge.^[17] There is also a portrait of an old man by Gaspar de Crayer entitled Memento mori,^[18] a painting by John Frederick Herring Sr. depicting a farmyard^[19] and a still life painting by Cornelis de Heem.^[20]

• Grade II* listed buildings in West Devon