Today we will be looking at the Town Hall (and the Limes) as part of our series on Brilliant Builings.
After a significant growth in the population of Trowbridge, owed largely to the woollen cloth industry, a local board of health was established in Trowbridge in 1864 and in the 1880s, the board decided that the town needed a municipal building. The site the board chose was, at the time, occupied by a large private house known as “The Limes”. Before we look to closely at the Town Hall itself, it would be remiss to ignore the building that once stood on the same site. The site was originally known as Hall’s Place and is shown as being one of only 3 stone buildings in Trowbridge is the 16th century when Leland visited. The house was purchased by William Brewer in around 1673 from William Eggelston, one of the Langford family. The building was refronted in Georgian times and in 1812 it was bought by William Stancomb at which point it was known as The Limes.
The rear view of the Limes circa 1838
He lived there until his death in 1844, when his son, also William, bought the title Lord of the Manor of Trowbridge. William the younger owned the house but did not live there, rather he rented out the building. The house was rented to Mr Dicks who was the Postmaster and part of the building was used as the post office at the time. By 1880 the house was home to the Cole family and the grounds where being used as an unofficial town park. The grounds were purchased by Mr Walker and Mr Hayward to keep it available to the people of Trowbridge and the house was used by Mr Hayward as a place for his dentist and doctors practice. In 1884 the grounds opened as a test to see how the people would react to having a public park and subsequently a public subscription was raised to buy the park for the people at a cost of £1,337.
The Town Hall was commissioned and paid for by William Roger Brown, known commonly as Roger, to commemorate Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887. Roger Brown was a local mill owner and Justice of the Peace. The new building was designed by Alfred Samuel Goodridge of Bath in the Jacobethan style (revival style with elements of Jacobean and Elizabethan styles), built in ashlar stone at a cost of £20,000 – that’s around £2.2 million today!
Roger Browns wife laid the foundation stone for the building on 21st June 1887. In her speech, she declared that “a Town Hall will be erected for the benefit of the inhabitants of Trowbridge”. The building took several years to complete and was officially opened on 14th June 1889 by HRH the Duchess of Albany, Queen Victoria’s daughter-in-law.
For over 85 years, the Town Hall housed the local government in Trowbridge as well as the local Magistrates Court, Coroner’s Court and County Court. The first meeting of the Wiltshire County Council took place in the Town Hall after it was formed in 1889 and in 1894, the parish of Trowbridge became an urban district, with the town hall as its headquarters.
It also functioned as a public venue for a variety of cultural and civic occasions, everything from the public and private meetings of local societies to rehearsals and performances. Amongst the events hosted here were local amateur and semi-professional dramatic societies, choirs’ orchestras, professional theatre, music hall, early cinema and music concerts and dances.
The building has been owned by Wiltshire Council since the 1970’s and has been run by a charity, Trowbridge Town Hall Trust, since 2012.
