Flint Town Hall

View of the current town hall shortly after it was built in 1840

The first municipal building in Flint was a half timbered town hall which was completed in the early 16th century.[2] After the old building became dilapidated, civic leaders decided to demolish it and to erect a new town hall, financed by public subscription, in its place.[2]

The new building was designed by John Welch in the Gothic Revival style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £1,734 and was completed in February 1840.[3] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the Market Square; the central bay, which was projected forward, originally featured an arched doorway on the ground floor; there was a Venetian window with a balcony and a wrought-iron balustrade on the first floor, and an archway, a stepped gable and a stone finial above.[1] The central bay was flanked by full-height castellated turrets.[1] The outer bays were represented by the side elevations of two lean-to wings.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the council chamber, which featured a hammerbeam roof made from timbers recovered from the first town hall, and the mayor's parlour.[1] The mayor's parlour was decorated at the expense of one of the burgesses, Ross Mahon, by fifteen panels, painted by Joseph Hall and depicting the Fifteen Tribes of Wales.[1]

After significant population growth, largely associated with Flint's status as a market town, the area became a municipal borough, with the town hall as its headquarters, in 1835.[4] The building also continued to be used for judicial purposes: both the county court and petty session hearings were held there.[2] Six stained glass windows, designed by a Mr Drewitt depicting the six monarchs who had granted the town its charters, were installed in the council chamber in 1886.[2] Representatives of the 384th (Royal Welch Fusiliers) Anti-Tank Regiment, Royal Artillery attended the town hall to receive the freedom of the borough in August 1947.[3]

The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the Flint Borough Council for much of the rest of the 20th century,[5] but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged Delyn District Council was formed at the civic offices in Holywell in 1974.[6] The town hall subsequently became the meeting place of Flint Town Council.[7] An extensive programme of refurbishment words, which included restoration of the façade of the building, to a design by Donald Insall Associates, was completed in 2015.[8]

Works of art in the town hall include portraits by Thomas Leonard Hughes of King Richard II,[9][lower-alpha 1] and of Sir Roger Mostyn, 1st Baronet.[10] Richard II surrendered to Henry Bolingbroke at Flint Castle in August 1399, promising to abdicate the throne if his life was spared,[11] while Mostyn defended Flint Castle on behalf of the Royalists against the besieging Parliamentary forces in August 1646 during the English Civil War.[12] There is also a painting by Hector Giacomelli of a scene from William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice.[13]