Description

DURSLEY MARKET PLACE ST 7598 5/44 Town Hall 23.6.52 GV II*

Town hall and market. 1738. Roughcast with limestone ashlar dressings; plain tile roof. Arcaded market undercroft beneath upper floor town hall. Round-arched arcading to ground floor; keyed arches with impost blocks and cylindrical columns with moulded top and base. Five-bay arcading to north and south sides, 2-bay at ends, one arch being blocked in south-west corner for internal stone staircase to hall. Continuous string course above arcade. Sash fenestration to hall, all 12-pane with plain beaded architraves and bull-nosed sills. Elaborate coat-of-arms of Escourt family on south side at central window position with pediment over supported on console brackets and with fluted pilasters below; moulded panel below sill. Shell-hooded niche at east end between sashes with imposts to architrave; painted statue of Queen Anne in niche. Hipped roof with 3 hipped dormers to each side; single hipped dormer at each end, all with small-paned casements. Central open-sided octagonal cupola on square base, containing bell and having gilded ball finial with weathervane above small leaded dome. Row of tubular cast-iron columns along centre-line of building within covered market. Interior of town hall room not inspected but said to be very plain and altered in C20. The anachronistic use of the statue of Queen Anne (George II was on the throne in 1738) was probably in gratitude for her special grant without which the church tower would not have been rebuilt. Scheduled Ancient Monument No 371. (A. Best et al, An Historical Survey of Dursley, 1985; D. Verey, Gloucestershire: The Cotswolds, 1979)

Listing NGR: ST7561798124

External Links

• Town Hall at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q17538168

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

• 
  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Listed Buildings and Other Heritage Assets
• 
  Cork: City and County (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Ireland)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings