The Town Hall

The Town Hall is a building in the Queen Anne style, constructed from grey stone with red brick quoins and some limestone ashlar dressings. It features a tall slate hipped roof and a timber clock turret topped with a leaded ogee cap. The building has two tall storeys and three bays, with arched openings on the ground floor and large cambered-headed openings on the first floor. The ground floor arcade includes ashlar plinths and imposts, red brick quoins on the piers, and moulded ashlar arches with keystones. The red brick quoins extend above the impost level at the outer angles, and the keystones support a moulded ashlar cornice that projects forward as a balcony over the centre. This balcony is supported by ashlar brackets and features iron patterned railings. The central arch leads through a carriageway, while the side arches have shopfronts with a recessed centre door between windows, all topped with large semicircular leaded overall fanlights.

On the upper floor, the space is divided by piers with red brick quoins beneath a large coved cornice. There is a moulded stone sill course that breaks forward over the piers, and tall cambered windows with keystones are framed by moulded ashlar surrounds. The windows are subdivided by painted timber mullions and transoms into a basic 4-light system, which is further divided by a major transom into a top section of eight square leaded lights and a longer lower section with small paned glazing. The centre two top lights are combined with applied fanlight tracery in a rectangular panel, and the centre window has double doors leading to the balcony.

The tall roof features triangular vents on the sides and a central cupola with a leaded base. The timber clock stage has corner posts and scrolled key blocks above the clock faces, leading to an open top bell-stage with corner posts, a cornice, and a square leaded ogee dome. The finial has a vane and is initialled JBH, representing J B Harford, who funded the building.

Inside, the through passage has three stilted lunette lights on each side. The lower rear range is two-storey with two hipped roofs and six cambered-headed windows in brick surrounds on the first floor. The rear of the main roof features a large hipped eaves dormer. The main hall was refitted in the mid-20th century as a magistrates court and now has a suspended ceiling.