Old Town Hall, Clitheroe
Municipal building in Clitheroe, Lancashire, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Old Town Hall, sometimes referred to as the Moot Hall, is a municipal building in Church Street, Clitheroe, Lancashire, England. The structure, which was the meeting place of Clitheroe Borough Council, is a Grade II listed building.[1]
| Old Town Hall, Clitheroe | |
|---|---|
Old Town Hall, Clitheroe | |
| Location | Church Street, Clitheroe |
| Coordinates | 53.8732°N 2.3905°W |
| Built | 1820 |
| Architect | Thomas Rickman |
| Architectural style | Gothic Revival style |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Town Hall |
| Designated | 30 September 1976 |
| Reference no. | 1072374 |
  Shown in Lancashire  Location in Ribble Valley | |
History
The first municipal building in Clitheroe was a moot hall built on Church Street in about 1610.[2] It contained prison cells with barrel vaulted ceilings which were cut out of solid rock and were used to accommodate petty criminals on their way to imprisonment in Lancaster Castle.[3] In the early 19th century borough officials decided to demolish those parts of the old moot hall which were above ground and to erect a new structure on the same site.[4]
The new building was designed by Thomas Rickman in the Gothic Revival style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1820.[5] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto the Church street; on the ground floor, there was an arched doorway flanked by colonettes in the left hand bay and lancet windows in the other bays.[1] Between the storeys there were five armorial shields, on the first floor there was a central three-light window with lancet windows in the outer bays and, at roof level, there was an octagonal spire with a weathervane, which was 62 feet (19 m) high.[6] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber which featured leaded windows and was accessed by a spiral staircase.[2] The prison cells were retained, in situ, from the older building.[2]
The quarterly assizes and the magistrates' court hearings were held in the building from about 1825[6] and the town became a municipal borough with the building as its headquarters in 1835.[7] It was at the town hall that David Shackleton was elected unopposed as the Labour Member of Parliament in the 1902 Clitheroe by-election; he was only the third Labour MP ever to be elected to the UK Parliament.[8]
The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the borough council for much of the 20th century[9] but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Ribble Valley District Council was established in 1974.[10] The district council was initially based at offices in Clitheroe Castle[11] before moving to purpose-built offices in Church Walk in the late 1970s.[12] Clitheroe Town Council, which was established in 1974, chose to establish its offices on the opposite side of the road in the former borough treasurer's office, No. 9 Church Street, rather than using the old town hall.[4] However, the town council continued to use the old town hall for its annual mayor-making ceremonies.[13] An extensive programme of refurbishment works was carried out in the late 1980s, enabling the town hall to be integrated into the Clitheroe Library: the council chamber was subsequently used as an events venue for lectures and concerts[4] and the prison cells were used for storage purposes.[2]
Works of art in the former council chamber include a portrait by the Australian painter, James Peter Quinn, of the local historian and author, William Self Weeks.[14][15]