The Shirehall is a Grade II listed building in the Breckland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 17 January 1973. Former shire hall, flats.
The Shirehall
- WRENN ID
- shifting-stair-hyssop
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Breckland
- Constituency
- South West Norfolk MP: Terry Jermy (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 17 January 1973
- Type
- Former shire hall, flats
- Address
- The Shirehall, 1-16, Beech Close, Swaffham
- OS grid reference
- TF 821 086
- Coordinates
- 52.64498, 0.69059
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Shirehall is a former shire hall, now converted into 7 flats. It was built in 1839 by John Brown and underwent conversion in 1989-90. The building is constructed of stuccoed brick with gault-brick lower attachments and features a slate roof.
The exterior is two storeys high with a three-bay entrance on the east gable. This entrance has a full-height recessed bay flanked by arched niches on either side, and there are two 3/6 unhorned sash windows on the first floor, all adorned with architraves. Four pilasters with capitals separate the bays. The entrance bay contains glazed doors from 1990. Above, there is a pediment decorated with block mutules and the arms of Norfolk County Council. The roof is hipped, and there are two stacks on the wall planes at the north and south returns. The returns feature single-storey extensions with a five-by-one window range, fitted with 6/6 unhorned sash windows under gauged skewback arches, also with hipped roofs. The first floor of the main block has returns that are lit by five 6/6 arched and unhorned sash windows.
The interior has been floored and altered, with a 20th-century staircase inserted.
Local climate
The Shirehall sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 720 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 82% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 94% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 29 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 68% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- Sale history — 47 transactions since 1995
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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