Library

CAMELFORD MARKET PLACE, Camelford SX 1083 - 1183 8/76 (1/3) Library (previously listed as Town - 19.1.52 Hall) GV II

Townhall erected over market house, now library, exhibition hall and meeting room. 1806. Financed by John, 6th Duke of Bedford. Slate stone rubble with dressed quoins and dressed stone arches to window openings. Rag slate roof with hipped ends. Rectangular plan with internal partitions altered. Originally the market house on the ground floor with a central entrance on the front and the town hall above with a staircase to a doorway at the rear where the ground is at a higher level. Ground rises to left and to rear. 2 storeys. Symmetrical 3 window front faces onto Market Place; 5 semi-circular headed windows; the window frames replaced in circa mid C20, the central window in an earlier blocked door opening. First floor has 3 semi-circular windows with horned sashes with intersecting glazing bars. Lower side on right has a C20 glazed door with a Venetian window above, the central horned sash with intersecting glazing bars. The higher side on the left has a C20 door on the ground floor and a Venetian window above with stained glass window with Camelford arms. The wall above has been partly rebuilt. The rear elevation has 4 blocked round headed openings on the ground floor and a central double flight of steps which lead up to the first floor entrance with a C19 timber porch with flat roof and moulded cornice. 2 sash windows with round headed arches and intersecting glazing bars to right and left. Timber cupola on roof with clock and weather vane. This cupola originally had 2 bells dated 1807 and 1699. Interior : remodelled in circa mid C20. Bell from cupola in entrance inscribed 'W. Prideaux Mayor, 1699'. The Charter of Camelford was confirmed in 1259 and the rotten borough was created in 1552 to bolster the Earl of Northumberland's government. The rotten borough was abolished in 1831. Kelly's Directory, 1910. Polsue, J. Lake's Parochial History of the County of Cornwall 1872 Volume I.

Listing NGR: SX1057483738