Middlewich Town Hall

The first municipal building in the town was a town hall on the Bull Ring which was designed in the Gothic Revival style and completed in 1844.[1] The building, which was a gift from the local lord of the manor, James France of Bostock Hall,[1][2] accommodated a butter market on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor.[1] It was used for petty session hearings once a month and also incorporated facilities for the local Literary and Scientific Institute as well as a public library.[1] Following significant population growth, largely due to the status of Middlewich as a market town, the area became an urban district with the town hall as its headquarters in 1894.[3]

Meanwhile, in 1897, the new council decided to commission a new technical school and public library for the town as part of celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The site selected, which was occupied by a private residence known as Naylor House, was donated to the council by the industrialist and member of parliament, Sir John Brunner.[4]

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Councillor Edward Howard Moss of Cheshire County Council on 2 October 1897.[5] It was designed in the Renaissance style, built with terracotta facings and officially opened by the Earl of Crewe in November 1898.[1][6] The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto Lewin Street; the third bay from the left featured a three-stage tower with a round headed doorway with a keystone in the first stage, a semi-circular balcony and a cross-window in the second stage and section with a Diocletian window and an oriel window surmounted by a dome making up the third stage. The first bay, which was gabled, featured a round headed window on the ground floor and a cross-window on the first floor while the other bays were fenestrated by cross-windows. Terracotta panels were installed on the front of the building to illustrate the town's industrial history and there was a central lantern at roof level. Internally, the principal rooms were the classrooms together with a library and a reading room.[5]

By the mid-20th century the old town hall had become dilapidated and the council decided to relocate to the building in Lewin Street, by then known as the Victoria Buildings.[7] The old town hall was subsequently demolished and the area redeveloped.[8] The Victoria Buildings ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Congleton Borough Council was formed in 1974[9] and, instead the Victoria Buildings, as Middlewich Town Hall, became the meeting place of Middlewich Town Council.[10][11]