British Legion Hall

The British Legion Hall, formerly St Catherine’s Guild Hall, is a building of group value, dating to the late 16th and early 17th centuries, with refurbishment in 1709, and further internal alterations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Constructed of coursed blocks of granite ashlar, with granite stone rubble patching to the rear, the building has granite stacks, the original 1 with an ashlar chimney shaft. The roof is thatched to the main body, with slate to the outshots.

The hall is set back slightly from the High Street, facing north-east, and is now open to the roof. It originally had an end stack at the south-east end, and an inserted rear corner stack at the right end. Formerly, a through passage was located towards the centre, and there was originally an external doorway on the first floor, the structure of which has now been removed. The front has a regular, though not symmetrical, four-window facade. Most windows are original granite three-light windows with ovolo-moulded mullions, containing central iron casements and leaded glass, with rectangular and diamond panes. Ground floor windows have hoodmoulds with relieving arches. The front doorway, a granite Tudor arch with a hollow-chamfered surround and sunken spandrels, contains an old plank door with studded coverstrips. This doorway is original, although some adjacent blocking suggests a possible relocation for the sake of symmetry, positioning it directly below the blocked first-floor doorway. A shield-shaped plaque set high on the wall between the first floor left windows bears the date 1709. The roof runs across the front, fitting between the adjoining buildings. Rear outshots are secondary. While most of the first-floor windows appear to occupy original embrasures, they now contain 20th-century casements without glazing bars.

The interior is a product of late 19th and early 20th-century modernisation, with the removal of the first-floor structure and internal partitions. Fireplaces contain late 19th and early 20th century chimneypieces and grates. The roof is not accessible, but the feet of straight principals suggest A-frame trusses, likely related to the 1709 refurbishment. The building’s exceptionally attractive granite facade contributes to a pleasing group with other listed buildings opposite the Church of St Michael, and particularly the neighbouring Three Crowns. The Guild House of St Catherine was founded here in 1200, and the building appears to have been intended as a church house. In 1876, the ground floor was used as a poor house, and the first floor as a school.