Kirton in Holland Town Hall

Statue of William Dennis

The town hall was commissioned and paid for by a local potato businessman, William Dennis, to commemorate the Coronation of George V and Mary.[1] The site he chose for the new building was open land on the south side of Station Road.[2] The foundation stone for the new building was laid in 1911.[3] It was designed by Henry Kidd in the Châteauesque style, built in red brick and was officially opened by Baroness von Eckardstein[lower-alpha 1] in August 1912.[5]

The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with seven bays facing onto Station Road. The central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a two-stage tower; there was a doorway flanked by pilasters supporting a foundation stone and a pediment in the first stage, two small pedimented windows in the second stage and a mansard roof and an iron crown above.[6] The second bays on both sides were fenestrated by pedimented bay windows while the other bays were fenestrated by pedimented sash windows. The building was subsequently extended with a four-bay extension to the left and a single bay extension to the right. Internally, the principal rooms were the main assembly hall and a smaller reception room, known as the Upsall Room, which became the meeting place of Kirton Parish Council.[7]

A statue to commemorate the life of the benefactor, William Dennis, was designed by Philip Lindsey Clark and was unveiled in front of the town hall in 1930.[8][9][10]

The Upsall Room and the entrance hall were refurbished in the early 21st century and the management of the town hall was transferred to a committee of local residents and users which was registered as a charity in 2007.[11][12] A recipe book was published by the town hall management committee in June 2011 to commemorate the centenary of the completion of the town hall.[13][14]