Corn Exchange, Sudbury

A view of the sculpture

In the late 1830s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "Sudbury Market House Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built corn exchange for the town. The site selected, at the bottom of Market Hill, had been occupied by several properties including a chemist and druggist.[2][3]

The building was designed by Henry Edward Kendall in the Baroque Revival style, built by Stephen Webb of Long Melford in brick with a stucco finish at a cost of £1,620, and was completed in October 1842.[4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Market Hill. The central bay featured a tall round headed opening, containing a doorway, a six-part window and a fanlight, with an architrave and a keystone. The outer bays were fenestrated by tall round headed windows with architraves and keystones. The bays were flanked by full-height Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature and surmounted by carvings of wheat sheaves. At roof level, there was a central panel inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange", which was surmounted by a pedestal supporting a sculpture carved in coade stone depicting a group of agricultural labourers, with sickles and wheat sheaves.[5] There was a balustraded parapet above the outer bays.[6] The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, was impressed with the design, which he said "deserves a glance, if only to meditate on the early Victorian sense of security, superiority, and prosperity".[7]

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.[8] Instead, it was used for concerts and public meetings: a rendition of The Messiah by George Frideric Handel was performed in the main hall in February 1886.[9] The building acted as an air raid shelter during the Second World War.[10]

However, by the early 1960s, the building had become dilapidated, and the owners were initially minded to sell it to Tesco to facilitate the construction of a modern supermarket on the site. Following a successful campaign by the members of the specially formed Corn Exchange Preservation Association, led by a local solicitor, Andrew Phillips, to save the building from demolition, it was sold to West Suffolk County Council instead.[10] After the completion of an extensive programme of works, undertaken by George Grimwood & Sons to a design by the county architect, Jack Digby, it re-opened as a public library on 24 September 1968.[11][12] The exterior of the building was restored in 1993,[13] and again in 2010.[10]

• Corn exchanges in England
• Grade II* listed buildings in Babergh