Corn_Exchange,_Haverhill

Corn Exchange, Haverhill

Corn Exchange, Haverhill

Commercial building in Haverhill, Suffolk, England

The Corn Exchange is a commercial building in Withersfield Road in Haverhill, Suffolk, England. The structure, which is currently vacant and deteriorating, is a Grade II listed building.[1]

Quick Facts Location, Coordinates ...

History

The first corn exchange in the town was erected in the High Street just to the south of St Mary's Parish Church in 1857.[2][3] However, in the mid-1880s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, to be known as the "Haverhill Corn Exchange Company Limited", to finance and commission a new and more substantial corn exchange for the town.[4] The site they selected was the forecourt of the old livestock market.[5][6]

The new building was designed by Frank Whitmore in the Renaissance Revival style, built in red brick and completed in 1889.[7][8] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Withersfield Road. The central bay featured a short flight of steps leading up to a round-headed opening with voussoirs and a keystone flanked by Doric order columns supporting an entablature, inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange", and a balustrade. The other bays were fenestrated by a bi-partite round headed windows on the ground floor. The first floor was well set back in relation to the ground floor and was fenestrated by a tri-partite segmentally headed window with an architrave and a keystone. There was a gable above which was surmounted a double ogee-shaped pediment.[1] The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, was unimpressed with the design which he described as being "of little merit".[9]

The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century.[10] Instead, it was used as a community events centre,[1] before being acquired by St Felix Catholic Church for use as their social club. St Felix Catholic Church then sold the building to a developer to fund a new church in Princess Way in 2006.[11] However, the new owner failed to maintain the building and, after it remained vacant and deteriorating for over a decade, St Edmundsbury Borough Council served a notice on the owners, in May 2017, demanding that repairs be carried out.[12] Haverhill Town Council subsequently considered acquiring the dilapidated building but, in October 2017, abandoned its plans to do so after the owner's lenders decided to block any proposed sale.[13]

See also

References

  1. [1]
    Historic England. "Corn Exchange (1375531)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  2. [2]
    "Timeline: Haverhill". Visitor UK. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  3. [3]
    Historic England. "2 and 4, High Street (1375516)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  4. [4]
    Kelly's Directory of Suffolk. Vol. 11. 1896. p. 152.
  5. [5]
    "Haverhill" (PDF). Suffolk County Council. p. 8. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  6. [6]
    "Haverhill From the Iron Age to 1899". St Edmundsbury. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  7. [7]
    Brown, Cynthia; Haward, Birkin; Kindred, Robert (1991). Dictionary of Architects of Suffolk Buildings, 1800-1914. Ipswich. p. 196. ISBN 978-0951770306.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. [8]
    "Queen Street Haverhill Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan" (PDF). West Suffolk Council. 1 September 2008. p. 7. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  9. [9]
    Pevsner, Nikolaus; Radcliffe, Enid (1974). Suffolk (Buildings of England Series). Yale University Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0300096484.
  10. [10]
    Fletcher, T. W. (1973). 'The Great Depression of English Agriculture 1873-1896' in British Agriculture 1875-1914. London: Methuen. p. 31. ISBN 978-1136581182.
  11. [11]
    "Haverhill – St Felix". Taking Stock: Catholic Churches of England and Wales. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  12. [12]
    "You've been served - crumbling Haverhill Corn Exchange to be saved by St Edmundsbury Borough Council". Cambridge News. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
  13. [13]
    "Frustrated Haverhill Town Council drops plans to buy Corn Exchange". Suffolk News. 17 October 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2023.
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