Description

TIVERTON

SS9512 ANGEL HILL, Tiverton
848-1/6/110 (South side)
War Memorial Library and Hall

GV II

Public library and hall, commemorating the dead of 1914-18
war. 1928-9 by Dixon and Bamsey of Tiverton. Concrete front,
the walling of pink and yellow blocks resembling coursed
squared rubble, the details yellow to resemble limestone. Rear
wall of red brick. Slated roof. A pair of octagonal concrete
chimneys at each end of ridge.
STYLE: Tudor style.
PLAN: (room names as in 1929): central entrance hall and
staircase; Hall of Remembrance, containing memorial plaques,
to left, caretaker's flat to right. Assembly, concert or dance
hall, with stage, to rear. Smaller assembly or social room in
lower ground floor, together with kitchen servery. Library on
first floor.
EXTERIOR: 2 storeys with semi-basement; single-storey hall at
rear. 8 windows wide, the left end (with 1 upstairs window)
splayed and containing the vehicle entrance in the ground
storey. Remaining 7 windows symmetrically arranged with
projecting, 1-window entrance porch in the centre. Windows
have 3 mullioned-and-transomed lights, those to the ground
storey with 2 rows of transoms and continued hoodmoulds. All
the windows except those in the semi-basement have small
rectangular leaded panes. Above the second-storey windows a
moulded cornice and tall parapet.
Porch carried out on 2 slightly bulbous Doric columns with
matching half-columns against the wall face. From the columns
spring round arches, front and sides, the taller front arch
with keystone. Above the latter is a circular plaque carrying
the town seal, its border with the inscription SIGILLUM OPPIDI
DE TYVERTON. Flanking the plaque are the dates 1914 and 1918
and below it the words TIVERTON MEMORIAL. The porch is
finished with a triangular gable and 3 ball finials.
On each side of the upper storey is a niche with Tudor arch
and hoodmould. Within the porch is a plank door with
wrought-iron strap hinges.
Vehicle entrance to left has a round arch springing from
columns like those on the porch. To its right, on the corner,
is a niche similar to those on the sides of the porch. On the
plinth below the ground-storey windows left of the porch are 3
inscriptions dated 30 May 1928, accompanied respectively by
the names LADY HEATHCOAT AMORY, KATHERINE MAUD LAZENBY JP, and
MARJORIE LANSDOWN GREGORY.
INTERIOR: very simple. Open-well stair, probably of concrete,
with iron balustrade and wooden handrail.
HISTORY: the Tiverton War Memorial scheme was inaugurated in
April 1919. The Angel Hotel, which formerly occupied this
site, was acquired and opened as a library on 11 November
1920. An appeal was then launched to raise »11,000 for a
rebuilding.
A watercolour of the proposed building was prepared by Mr
Ogden, headmaster of the school of art, who seems to have
influenced its design; it was intended to match the early C17
Chilcott's School and the Great House of St George in St Peter
Street (qqv).
Demolition of the former Angel Hotel (which projected further
into the road than the present building) began on New Year's
day, 1928, the stone-laying ceremony was on 30 May and the
official opening on 3 April 1929. Architects were Capt Dixon
and Mr CE Bamsey. Builders were Nicks Bros of Bradninch.
Facade supplied by The Wharf Lane Concrete Co of Ilminster.

Listing NGR: SS9538212492

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 16 June 2017.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26664548

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

• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 1: The City of London: City of London v. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)