Llanidloes Town Hall (Welsh: Neuadd y Dref Llanidloes) is a municipal building in Great Oak Street, Llanidloes in Powys, Wales. The structure, which is the meeting place of Llanidloes Town Council as well as the home of the Llanidloes Museum and the Llanidloes Public Library, is a Grade II listed building.[1]
| Llanidloes Town Hall | |
|---|---|
| Native name Neuadd y Dref Llanidloes (Welsh) | |
_(cropped).jpg) Llanidloes Town Hall | |
| Location | Great Oak Street, Llanidloes |
| Coordinates | 52°26′55″N 3°32′22″W / 52.4486°N 3.5395°W |
| Built | 1908 |
| Architect | Frank Shayler and Thomas Ridge |
| Architectural style(s) | Arts and Crafts style |
Listed Building – Grade II | |
| Official name | Llanidloes Town Hall |
| Designated | 10 April 1989 |
| Reference no. | 8258 |
  Shown in Powys | |
History of the building
editThe building was commissioned following of a request from the local Free Church Council who believed the town needed a public library and a temperance hotel, although the concept was significantly adjusted to create a new market hall and a new meeting place for the borough council, who had previously met in the Old Market Hall. The site was paid for by the borough council and the cost of construction was paid for by the descendants of David Davies of Llandinam who had served as a member of parliament and had been involved in the construction of the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway, which had opened in 1859.[2]
The building was designed by Frank Shayler and Thomas Ridge in the Arts and Crafts style, built in Cefn stone from Minera and was officially opened on 20 April 1908.[1] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Great Oak Street; it was arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held. The openings on the ground floor were flanked by columns and imposts supporting moulded arches. On the first floor, the central bay featured a three-light window, in a style influenced by Norman Shaw, with a wrought iron balcony in front and a cross-gable containing a four-light mullioned window above. The other bays on the first floor were fenestrated by three and four-light mullioned and transomed windows. At roof level, there was a central clock-tower surmounted by a bellcote with a weather vane, and the cross-gable was flanked by dormer windows. Internally, the principal rooms were the market hall on the ground floor and the council chamber and offices on the first floor.[1]
Shayler was a notable architect of the Arts and Crafts movement and the architectural historians, Robert Scourfield and Richard Haslam, have described it as "one of the best examples of his work".[3] A war memorial, in the form of stone plaque, intended to commemorate the lives of local service personnel who died in the First World War was paid for by the former mayor, Alderman Richard Jerman, and installed in the first opening on the left in the early 1920s.[4]
The building served as the meeting place of Llanidloes Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be local seat of government when the enlarged Montgomeryshire District Council was formed in 1974.[5] Instead the council chamber became the meeting place of Llanidloes Town Council[6][7] and, in 1995, the Llanidloes Museum relocated from the Old Market Hall, where it been originally established, to the ground floor of the town hall. In 2000, the town council made an additional room available to the museum thereby doubling its space[8] and, in 2017, the local public library relocated to the town hall as well.[9]
Llanidloes Museum
editThe museum, which was established in 1930, holds a local history collection with items associated with the chartist riots of 1839, the construction of the Llanidloes and Newtown Railway and items relating to the local woollen and mining industries.[10][11]
References
edit- ^ a b c Cadw. "Llanidloes Town Hall (8258)". National Historic Assets of Wales. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ "Obituary: David Davies". Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald. 25 July 1890. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ Scourfield, Robert; Haslam, Richard (2013). Buildings of Wales: Powys; Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire and Breconshire (2nd ed.). Yale University Press. p. 170.
- ^ "Llanidloes". Imperial War Museum. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
- ^ "Welcome". Llanidloes Town Council. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ "Councillors set to meet in Powys town for first time in two years". Powys County Times. 23 April 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ "Llanidloes Museum". Powys Council. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ "Llanidloes' library will be moving to the town hall after a town council decision". Powys County Times. 28 July 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ "Celebrating five Powys museums with a difference". Powys County Times. 30 October 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
- ^ "Llanidloes Museum". About Britain. Retrieved 17 May 2022.