Hebden Bridge Town Hall
Hebden Bridge Town Hall
LocationSt George's Street, Hebden Bridge
Coordinates53°44′33″N 2°00′47″W / 53.7425°N 2.0131°W / 53.7425; -2.0131
Built1898
ArchitectSutcliffe and Sutcliffe
Architectural style(s)Jacobean style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameDistrict Council Offices, St George's Square
Designated21 June 1984
Reference no.1230338
Hebden Bridge Town Hall is located in West Yorkshire
Hebden Bridge Town Hall
Shown in West Yorkshire

Hebden Bridge Town Hall, formerly Hebden Bridge Council Offices, is a municipal building in St George's Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, England. The town hall, which is the meeting place of Hebden Royd Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.[1]

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with clothing manufacturing, Hebden Bridge became an urban district in 1894.[2] In this context the new civic leaders decided to procure a town hall: the site they selected was on the west bank of the Hebden Water.[3]

The new building was designed by a local firm, Sutcliffe and Sutcliffe, in the Jacobean style, built in ashlar stone and was officially opened on 11 May 1898.[4] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto St George's Street; the left hand section of two bays featured, in the right hand bay, an porch with an arch and a keystone on the ground floor and a mullioned and transomed window on the first floor. The central section featured a prominent oriel window on the first floor, while the right hand section featured a wide arched opening and a doorway to the former fire station, a five light mullioned and transomed window on the first floor and a three light window on the second floor. The central and right hand sections were surmounted by pedimented gables with oculi in the tympana.[1] Internally, the principal room was the council chamber, which featured wooden panelling, on the first floor.[1]

A war memorial, in the form of a brass plaque, to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who had died in the Second Boer War, was unveiled in the entrance hall of the building in 1902.[5]

The building continued to serve as the headquarters of Hebden Bridge Urban District Council and, from 1937, of Hebden Royd Urban District Council,[6] but it ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council was formed in 1974.[7] The building, which was subsequently underused, began to deteriorate: however, a not-for-profit entity, Hebden Bridge Community Association, was formed and went on to acquire the building on a 40-year lease (subsequently extended to 125 years), along with sufficient funds to carry out basic maintenance work, on 1 April 2010.[8]

With financial support from the European Regional Development Fund and Community Builders Fund, the community association then redeveloped an adjacent site to the southwest of the town hall which had been used as a car park.[9] The works, which were carried to a design by Bauman Lyons, involved the construction of a modern structure for community and business use: the new development which cost £3.7 million was named the Waterfront Hall and opened in August 2012.[10][11][12] The BBC Radio 4 programme, Any Questions? was broadcast from the new Waterfront Hall shortly after it opened.[13] Meanwhile, the town hall continued to serve as the meeting place of Hebden Royd Town Council.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Historic England. "District Council Offices, St George's Square (1230338)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  2. ↑ "Hebden Bridge UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  3. ↑ "Hebden Water and Hebden Bridge Town Hall". Being 42. 27 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  4. ↑ "Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion". Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  5. ↑ "Hebden Bridge Soldiers and Ambulance Volunteers". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  6. ↑ "No. 46223". The London Gazette. 1 March 1974. p. 2782.
  7. ↑ Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
  8. ↑ "Community to take over town hall". Yorkshire Post. 8 December 2009. Archived from the original on 13 October 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  9. ↑ "Hebden Bridge Town Hall". English Heritage. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  10. ↑ "Hebden Bridge shows off its new Town Hall". The Guardian. 13 August 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  11. ↑ "Bauman Lyons unveils Hebden Bridge town hall plans". Architects' Journal. 3 August 2010. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  12. ↑ "About us". Hebden Bridge Town Hall. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  13. ↑ "BBC's Any Questions? to be recorded in Hebden Bridge". Hebden Bridge.co.uk. 19 July 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  14. ↑ "Hebden Royd Town Council". Hebden Bridge Town Hall. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
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