Town Hall And Market Hall With Attached Railings And Piers

The building comprises a town hall, market hall, and municipal buildings constructed in phases between 1838 and 1923. Designed by Weightman and Hadfield for the 12th Duke of Norfolk, it is built of ashlar millstone grit with ashlar dressings, featuring panelled stacks and a slate roof. The building is of Classical style and arranged in a T-plan.

The north front has 25 windows arranged 3:8:1:5:1:8:2, with a central, taller town hall block of 7 windows arranged 1:5:1. The ground floor features vermiculated rustication and a central five-bay open arcade with round arches supported by Tuscan Doric columns. Flanking the arcade are doorways with double doors, moulded ashlar surrounds, and bracketed hoods. Above the arcade are five round-headed sash windows with margin lights and bracketed cornices, accompanied by single, similar windows with glazing bar casements. A square clock turret, added in 1897, tops the structure, crowned with a circular cupola. Side wings feature shops, with numbers 7 and 17 retaining original shop fronts with console brackets and fascia boards; above, two windows are divided by plain pilasters. An end block on the right has a curved corner, featuring two shops separated by plain pilasters extending to the upper floors.

The south front of the municipal offices has 11 windows arranged 3:5:3, with a recessed five-window centre containing a doorway with overlight and flanking sashes set back behind Tuscan Doric columns in antis, with further sashes between similar pilasters. Above are five sashes topped by a parapet with a Vitruvian scroll motif, stepped at the ends. Projecting gabled wings have overhanging eaves and rusticated vermiculated quoins, with central two-storey panels featuring rusticated vermiculated surrounds and paired sash windows on each floor, alongside single sashes on each floor. All windows are sash windows with glazing bars. The left and right returns have two-storey facades of six and four windows respectively, beyond which are seven tall round-headed windows associated with the market hall. A tall rusticated vermiculated door surround marks a central opening to the left return.

The original Town Hall design included a lock-up prison with four cells. The listing also includes iron railings and boundary piers to the Market Ground. The interior of the building was not inspected.