Ossett Town Hall

Ossett Town Hall is a municipal building in the Market Place, Ossett, West Yorkshire, England. The town hall, which was the headquarters of Ossett Borough Council is a grade II listed building.[1]

Ossett Town Hall
Ossett Town Hall
LocationMarket Place, Ossett
Coordinates53.6800°N 1.5793°W / 53.6800; -1.5793
Built1908
ArchitectWalter Hanstock & Son
Architectural style(s)Renaissance style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official nameTown Hall
Designated6 May 1988
Reference no.1184149
Shown in West Yorkshire

History

After significant population growth in the second half of the 19th century, particularly associated with coal mining, the area became a municipal borough in 1890 and civic leaders, who had been operating out of rented premises in New Street, decided to procure a dedicated town hall for the area.[2] The site they initially selected at the corner of Bank Street and Illingworth Street was found to be unsuitable and instead they decided to make use of a site in the Market Place which had been occupied by the local grammar school before it moved to Park House, off Storrs Hill Road.[2][3]

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by the mayor, Alderman John Hampshire Nettleton, on 27 February 1906.[2] It was designed by Walter Hanstock & Son of Batley in the renaissance style, built at a cost of £22,000, which was financed by public subscription, and officially opened by the mayor, Councillor John Thomas Marsden, on 2 June 1908.[2][4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with twelve bays facing onto the Market Place with the end three bays at each end slightly projected forward and topped with ornately carved pediments containing oculi; the central section of two bays, which also slightly projected forward, featured a round headed doorway flanked by caryatids supporting brackets carrying a stone balcony; there were round headed windows on the first floor flanked by Ionic order pilasters with a pediment above containing a roundel depicting local industries and a two-stage clock tower with cupola and dome at roof level.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber and the public hall, which featured a large gallery.[1]

King George V and Queen Mary visited Ossett Market Place and talked to civic leaders outside the town hall in July 1912[5] and the young men of Ossett were called up at the town hall and billeted there during the First World War.[2] A war memorial in the form of a soldier with a rifle was installed outside the town hall in 1920.[6] The professional snooker and billiards player, Joe Davis, took part in a series of exhibition matches at the town hall in December 1948 to raise funds for local charities.[7]

An organ, which had originally been designed and manufactured by John Compton for the Rialto Cinema in Bebington in Merseyside in 1933, was recovered from the cinema on its closure and installed in the public hall in January 1970.[8] The opening concert was broadcast on the programme, The Organist Entertains, on BBC Radio 2.[9] The building served as the headquarters of Ossett Borough Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Wakefield District Council was formed in 1974.[10] A major programme of refurbishment works costing £2 million commenced at the town hall in March 2020.[11]

References
  1. Historic England. "Town Hall (1184149)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  2. Scriven, David. "Ossett Town Hall". Ossett.net. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  3. "Ossett Grammar School 1735-1969". Ossett.net. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  4. "Town Hall Centenary Celebrations held on 7 June 2008". Ossett Civic Trust. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
  5. "Ossett 1900-1999". Ossett.net. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  6. Historic England. "First and Second World War memorial approximately 50 meters southwest of town hall (1313237)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  7. "Ossett Snippets". Horbury and Ossett Family History. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  8. "Ossett, Town Hall". Cinema Organ Society. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  9. "About Ossett Town Hall". Organfax. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  10. Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
  11. "Ossett Town Hall in 'desperate need' of refurbishment as £2m works revealed". Wakefield Express. 17 March 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
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