Old_Town_Hall,_Dunwich

Old Town Hall, Dunwich

Old Town Hall, Dunwich

Municipal building in Dunwich, Suffolk, England

The Old Town Hall is a former municipal building in St James's Street in Dunwich, a village in Suffolk, England. The building, which is currently operates as holiday accommodation, is a Grade II listed building.[1]

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History

The first town hall in the town was a medieval structure which may have dated back to the time that King John visited the town and presented a charter in 1216.[2] It may well have also served as the headquarters of the local merchant's guild.[3] Following some coastal erosion, it was rebuilt on a new site in 1663.[4] However, the town was devastated by coastal flooding in 1702: St Peters Church was so badly damaged that it had to be dismantled, and the town hall was destroyed.[5][6][7]

Civic leaders decided to re-erect the whole town, including the town hall, some 0.25 miles (0.40 km) inland to protect it from the continuing coastal erosion.[8] The new town hall was designed in the Tudor style, built using timber frame construction techniques and completed a few years later, probably about 1705. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of two bays facing onto St James's Street.[1] The town archives were locked in an ancient iron chest, made in The Netherlands and kept in one of the rooms in the building.[9]

Dunwich had a very small electorate and, as most of the town had disappeared under the sea, it was recognised by the UK Parliament as a rotten borough.[10] Its right to elect members of parliament was removed by the Reform Act 1832,[11] and its borough council, which met in the town hall, was reformed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.[12] The assets of the corporation, including the town hall,[13] were transferred to a specially formed entity, the Dunwich Town Trust, with the lord of the manor, Colonel St John Barne of Sotterley Manor, becoming the first chairman of the trust in 1889.[14] The town hall was subsequently converted for residential use and currently operates as holiday accommodation.[15]

Architecture

The building has a timber-framed core, with red brick external walls, with the facade being plastered, and a pantiled roof. It has two storeys and an attic, with two windows on each floor, and a single dormer window in the attic with wide bargeboards. The windows are in the Gothic style, with diamond lattice lights. There is a two-storey extension to the right, linking it to the next house, with a 20th-century door.[1][16] It was grade II listed in 1984.[1]

References

  1. [1]
    Historic England. "Old Town Hall (1198313)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  2. [2]
    Cooper, Ernest R. (1939). "The Dunwich Charter of King John, of 1215" (PDF). Dunwich Trusts. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  3. [3]
    Comfort, N. A. (1994). The Lost City of Dunwich. Terence Dalton. p. 39. ISBN 978-0861380862.
  4. [4]
    "Dunwich" (PDF). Suffolk History Explorer. p. 11. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  5. [5]
    Gardner, Thomas (1754). An Historical Account of Dunwich, Anciently a City, Now a Borough. p. 94.
  6. [6]
    Froude, James Anthony; Tulloch, John (1878). Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country. Vol. 17. J. Fraser. p. 527.
  7. [7]
    Abbott, S. F. (1883). The History of the Ancient City of Dunwich, Suffolk. George S. Cook. p. 15.
  8. [8]
    Jobson, Allan (1975). Suffolk Miscellany. R. Hale. ISBN 9780709149989.
  9. [9]
    Thackeray, William Makepeace (1883). The Cornhill Magazine. Vol. 47. Smith, Elder & Co. p. 178.
  10. [10]
    "Parliamentary Reform Bill, For England". Hansard. 30 May 1832. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  11. [11]
    "The History of Politics: The Rotten Boroughs of England". Julia Herdman Books. 18 April 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2019.
  12. [12]
    Municipal Corporations Act 1883 (46 & 46 Vict. Ch. 18) (PDF). 1883. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  13. [13]
    "Dunwich Town Records". National Archives. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  14. [14]
    "Dunwich Town Trust" (PDF). Charity Commission. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
  15. [15]
    "The Old Town Hall". Suffolk Secrets. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  16. [16]
    "Dunwich Conservation Area Appraisal" (PDF). East Suffolk Council. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
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