Trowbridge Town Hall

Plaque on the left of the doorway to the town hall

After significant population growth, largely associated with the cloth industry, a local board of health was established in Trowbridge in 1864.[2] In the 1880s, the local board decided that the town needed a municipal building and a wealthy cloth merchant, Sir William Roger Brown, offered to pay for it to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria.[2] The site the board selected was occupied by a manor house known as "The Limes".[2]

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Lady Brown on 21 June 1887.[3] The new building was designed in the Jacobethan style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £20,000 and officially opened by the Duchess of Albany on 14 June 1889.[3] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Market Street; the central bay featured an arched doorway flanked by brackets supporting a balustrade; there was a pair of mullion windows on the first floor and a tall Italianate style clock tower with a spire above.[1] In the left hand bay there was a giant round headed window with tracery on the first floor and a shaped gable above, while to the right there was a large oriel window with a shaped gable above.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the courtroom, which was used as a venue for petty sessions,[2] the council chamber and the ballroom.[4] The building was also equipped with police cells for people facing trial and an area to the rear of the town hall was landscaped to create a "Sensory Garden".[5]

The area became an urban district with the town hall as its headquarters in 1894[6] and King George V and Queen Mary visited the town hall on a visit to the county and surrounding area in November 1917.[5][7] Performers in the ballroom in the 1960s included the rock bands, Rod Stewart and the Soul Agents, in December 1964,[8] The Who, in April 1965[9] and Small Faces in August 1965.[9] The building continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district council for much of the 20th century[10] but ceased to be the local seat of government after the enlarged West Wiltshire District Council was formed in new offices at Bradley Road in 1974.[11][12][13] The town hall was subsequently used as a magistrates' court until 2003,[14] and it continued to be used as the venue for coroners' inquests into the deaths of military personnel.[15][16] In 2011, a group of residents formed the Trowbridge Town Hall Trust to help restore the building,[17] and, since then, it has been used for exhibitions and community events.[5]

Works of art in the town hall include a bust by Edward Sheppard depicting the benefactor, Sir William Roger Brown,[18] as well as portrait of him by an unknown artist.[19]