Shire Hall is a Grade II listed building in the Somerset local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 July 1975. Government building. 5 related planning applications.
Shire Hall
- WRENN ID
- eternal-terrace-dawn
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Somerset
- Constituency
- Taunton and Wellington MP: Gideon Amos (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 July 1975
- Type
- Government building
- Address
- Shire Hall, Taunton
- OS grid reference
- ST 223 242
- Coordinates
- 51.01277, -3.1077
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Shire Hall is a large Gothic building located on a hill, set back from the street. Designed by W B Moffat, it was constructed between 1855 and 1858 in the Perpendicular style. The south front features a central gabled entrance that projects from a cross range at the rear, with gables rising above crenellated parapets and three turrets on each side. The building is made of white lias with Ham stone dressings and has slate roofs. It is mostly two storeys high, with attics in the turrets and gables. Architectural details include buttresses, crenellated parapets, and one, two, and three light windows with traceried heads. The entrance front has a projecting oriel with openwork parapets, supported by an archway that surrounds the main entrance. Attached shafts lead to brackets under a balconette, flanking the heavily moulded segmental entrance arch. Above the massive double doors, there is a heraldic device and parchment scrolls. An oculus with stellar tracery is located in the gable, and a subsidiary wing in a similar style is positioned to the left.
Local climate
Shire Hall receives an average of 820 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 52% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 57% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 58% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 5 applications
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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