Tyldesley Town Hall

Tyldesley Town Hall is a municipal building in Elliott Street, Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, England. Initially the local Liberal Party Club, the town hall went on to become the meeting place of Tyldesley Urban District Council.

Tyldesley Town Hall
Tyldesley Town Hall
LocationElliott Street, Tyldesley
Coordinates53.5140°N 2.4643°W / 53.5140; -2.4643
Built1881
Architectural style(s)Victorian style
Shown in Greater Manchester

History

In the late 19th century both the main political parties decided to establish clubs for their members in the town: the site the Liberal Party selected was open land at the corner of Elliott Street and Well Street,[1] while the site the Conservative Party selected was open land on the corner of Shuttle Street and Stanley Street.[1][2]

The Liberal Party building, which was designed in the Victorian style, was built in red brick and was officially opened by the local mill owner and future member of parliament, Caleb Wright, on 6 January 1881.[3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Elliott Street; the central bay featured a doorway on the ground floor, there were mullion windows on the first and second floors and on all floors in the other bays. There was a date stone, displaying the year 1880, in the middle of the front elevation at roof level. Internally, the principal room was the main assembly hall.[4]

Meanwhile, the local health board had established its offices in Lower Elliott Street, where it had also erected a fire station and a works depot;[5] however, civic leaders decided that they needed more substantial premises after the area became an urban district in 1894.[6] In line with the rise of the Labour Party and the decline of the Liberal Party across the country, local membership of the Liberal Club fell and the club got into financial difficulties. The local council decided to acquire the premises from the Liberal Club for £2,000 and converted it into a town hall in 1924.[3] The council also acquired a fine portrait of Sir Thomas Tyldesley, a Royalist commander who served during the English Civil War, and arranged for it to be installed inside the building.[7] King George VI and Queen Elizabeth drove past the waving crowds on the steps of the town hall on 18 May 1938.[8]

The building continued to serve as a meeting place for Tyldesley Urban District Council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council was formed in 1974.[9] Since then, apart from being used as a venue for councillors' surgeries and as a closed-circuit television control centre for the town centre, the town hall remained vacant.[10]

Following an announcement by English Heritage in September 2019, that Wigan Council would receive funding to create a Heritage Action Zone in Tyldesley,[11][12] Wigan Council announced, in November 2019, a programme of improvement works to the town hall costing £1.5 million. The proposed works were intended to enable Tyldesley Library to relocate from its current aging premises in Stanley Street into the town hall,[13] as well as to enable space to be created in the town hall for a café, a drop-in surgery and other facilities for community groups.[10][14]

References
  1. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1850. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  2. "Old Tyldesley Conservative Club building set to be turned into 17 apartments to give site 'new lease of life'". Leigh Journal. 31 May 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  3. Lunn, John (1953). "A Short History of the Township of Tyldesley". Tyldesley Urban District Council. p. 139.
  4. "Meeting of Liberals in the Tyldesley district". The Guardian. 9 April 1895. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  5. Lunn, John (1953). "A Short History of the Township of Tyldesley". Tyldesley Urban District Council. p. 129.
  6. "Tyldesley UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  7. "Remember Sir Thomas". Bolton News. 4 September 2001. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  8. Turner, Hannah (1 April 2011). "The 1938 Royal Visit" (PDF). Past Forward. p. 5. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  9. Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
  10. "Plan to spend £1.5m bringing Tyldesley's town hall 'back to life' approved". Manchester Evening News. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  11. "Tyldesley to receive boost through Heritage England fund". Leigh Journal. 16 September 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  12. "Multi-million-pound deal is great news for worst of Wigan's forgotten historic buildings". Wigan Today. 18 September 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  13. "Tyldesley Library to move into town hall after £1.5m refurbishment plans approved". Leigh Journal. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  14. "Investment pledged to restore historic Tyldesley building". About Manchester. 25 November 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
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