Description

SO 3288 BISHOP'S CASTLE C.P. HIGH STREET (west side)

12/52 The Town Hall
-
28/7/50
GV II*

Town Hall. Circa 1765 with mid- to late-C19 remodelling. Red brick
(English bond) with sandstone ashlar base and dressings (refaced with
cement render in C19), and slate roof, hipped to south. Rectangular
plan. Basement and 2 storeys. South front: rusticated basement
and end pilaster strips, ground floor moulded impost band, moulded
stone cornice, and central triangular pediment; central wooden cupola
consisting of square base with clocks. to south, east and west,
cornice, and octagonal bell-stage with Doric columns, frieze, cornice
and ogee lead cap with weathervane; flagpole at rear. First floor
Venetian window with plain architrave, ground floor round-arched
window with late-C19 cast iron glazing bars, moulded architrave,
and keystone; 2 circular basement windows with wrought-iron grilles.
5 bay east and west fronts; first floor glazing bar sashes with flush
frames and gauged brick heads with keystones, second and fourth to
east and that at right to west, blind; ground floor round-arched windows
with fluted keystones, continuous moulded impost band, and partly
blocked with late-C19 cast-iron glazing bars above; boarded double
doors to north in east and west fronts; public lavatories in former
lock-up in basement to south. Interior: entrance hall to north with
office above, and ground floor hall to south with Courtroom (probably
former Council Chamber) above; C18 L-shaped staircase in entrance
hall with landing, open string, heavy turned balusters (2 per tread)
moulded ramped handrail, and columnular newel posts; possibly C18
'bench' in Courtroom, 2 bays with pilasters and raised panels. Bishop's
Castle was a notorious 'rotten borough' before the 1832 Reform Bill
and was the smallest in England at its demise in 1967; the Town Clerk's
office in the Town Hall contains many old prints of the town, some
commemorative items, such as clocks etc., and also many of the old
borough records. B.O.E., p.76; Michael Moulder, A Shell Guide to
Shropshire, Faber and Faber, 1972.

Listing NGR: SO3234488950

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Bishop's Castle Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17539613

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  For the Record
• 
  The green guide for historic buildings: how to improve the environmental performance of listed and historic buildings
• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)