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

• Historic England Listing
• 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

• 
  Liverpool: Pevsner City Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: City Guides)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide