Warsop Town Hall

Warsop Town Hall is a municipal building in Church Street in Warsop, Nottinghamshire, England. The building is home to Warsop Parish Council, and was formerly the offices of Warsop Urban District Council and the local offices of Nottinghamshire County Council.

Warsop Town Hall
Warsop Town Hall
LocationChurch Street, Warsop
Coordinates53.2063°N 1.1531°W / 53.2063; -1.1531
Built1933
Architectural style(s)Neoclassical style
Warsop Town Hall is located in Nottinghamshire
Warsop Town Hall
Shown in Nottinghamshire

History

Following significant population growth, largely associated with mineral quarrying, the area became an urban district in 1894.[1] In the early years, the clerk to the council, John Harrop White, was based in offices in Bank Chambers in Mansfield.[2][3] Shortly after the First World War, the council established its own offices:[4] it was in this building that a post mortem was carried out on the body of Samuel Fell Wilson, a Warsop grocer, wine merchant, and publisher of the Warsop and District Almanack, after he had been shot in the head and chest as he sat in his car outside Warsop Windmill on 23 September 1930.[5] In the early 1930s the council decided to commission more substantial offices: the site selected on Church Street had previously been occupied by a row of residential properties.[6][7]

The new building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £8,000 and was officially opened on 13 July 1933.[8] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage at the corner of Wood Street and Church Street. It featured a deeply recessed doorway flanked by pilasters and brackets supporting a wrought iron balcony; there was a French door on the first floor and the whole structure was surmounted by an open pediment with a clock in a hexagonal-shaped frame in the tympanum. The Wood Street elevation extended back ten bays with a pedimented section, which slightly projected forward, spanning the eighth and ninth bays, while the Church Street elevation extended back four bays with a pedimented section, which slightly projected forward, in the third bay. Internally, the principal rooms were a council chamber, a library and a maternity and child welfare centre.[8] The council chamber was fitted out with fine wooden panelling.[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 local seat of government when the enlarged Mansfield District Council which was formed in 1974.[11] Mansfield District Council subsequently rented the building out to Nottinghamshire County Council until 2011, when it agreed to grant possession to Warsop Parish Council, which had prepared a business plan,[12] with a 99 year lease at a nominal sum.[9] In September 2011, Nottinghamshire Police relocated their local neighbourhood police officers into premises in the town hall[13] and around the same time Citizens Advice also moved their staff into the building; however, following funding reductions, the Citizens Advice office closed in July 2014.[14] Some rooms were also rented out to local businesses.[9]

A building survey, carried out in July 2019, indicated that the building needed a major programme of refurbishment works costing £200,000.[6]

References

  1. "Warsop UD". Vision of Britain. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  2. Contracts. Vol. 45. The Oil & Colour Trades Journal. 1914. p. 822. Warsop UDC, about 4,500 gallons of Russian Rocklight Oil, for use in connection with the engines at the Waterworks and Sewage Disposal Works. Mr L. A. Westwick, Surveyor, White Hart Chambers, Mansfield and John Harrop White, clerk, Bank Chambers, Mansfield
  3. "The story of John Harrop White - one of Mansfield's most important residents". Nottinghamshire Live. 14 July 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  4. "No. 32105". The London Gazette. 29 October 1920. p. 10528.
  5. Lomax, S. C. (2009). Unsolved Murders in and Around Derbyshire. Wharncliffe Books. ISBN 978-1845631147.
  6. "Warsop Town Hall: Building Survey" (PDF). Warsop Parish Council. 31 July 2019. p. 5. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  7. "Ordnance Survey Map". 1900. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  8. "Warsop's New Council Offices". The Surveyor and Municipal and County Engineer. 7 July 1933. p. 14. Retrieved 24 March 2022. Arrangements have been made by Warsop Urban District Council, Nottinghamshire, for their new council offices, which have been erected at a cost of £8,000, to be formally opened on the 13th inst.
  9. "Warsop Town Hall 1933 to Present Day" (PDF). Warsop Parish News. Winter 2020. p. 4. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  10. "No. 45507". The London Gazette. 28 October 1971. p. 11669.
  11. Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70. The Stationery Office Ltd. 1997. ISBN 0-10-547072-4.
  12. Mayor rejects town hall fears. Chad, 25 March, 2009, p.19. Accessed 26 March 2020
  13. "Warsop officers move to new base". European Union News. 14 September 2011.
  14. "Warsop CAB to be slashed to phone service due to funding troubles". Mansfield and Ashfield Observer. 28 July 2014.
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