Assembly Rooms, Presteigne

In the early 1860s, a group of local businessmen led by the local member of parliament, Sir Richard Green-Price, whose seat was at Norton Manor, decided to form a company known as the "Presteigne Market Hall & Public Room Company" to finance and erect a new municipal building for the town:{{cite book|title=Presteigne Market Hall & Public Room Company share list, 1862-1866|publisher=Archives and Records Council Wales}} the site they selected in Broad Street{{efn|Broad Street, so called because of its significant width, had been the site of the medieval market.{{cite web|url= https://cpat.org.uk/ycom/radnor/presteigne.pdf |title= Historic Settlements Survey - Radnorshire: Presteigne| page=4|publisher= Clwyd Powys Archaeological Trust |access-date=15 June 2022}}}} had been occupied by the local post office and, before that, by the Black Lion Inn.{{cite web|url=https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/app/uploads/presteigne_town_info.pdf |title= Presteigne|publisher=National Trail| access-date=15 June 2022}}

The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Lady Mary Jones-Brydges on 23 October 1863.{{coflein|desc= Presteigne Market Hall |num= 32138| access-date=15 June 2022}} It was designed by Thomas Nicholson of Hereford in the Italianate style, built in red brick with stone finishings and the market hall was officially opened to the public on 1 November 1865.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M4Afx2aoNicC&pg=PA64 |title=Powys (Buildings of Wales Series)|page=64|first=Richard|last=Haslam|year=1979|publisher= Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-09631-6}} The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with four bays facing onto Broad Street; the left hand bay, which slightly projected forward, took the form of a three-stage clock tower with a doorway with a moulded segmental architrave in the first stage, a lancet window in the second stage and clock faces with ornamental stone surrounds in the third stage, all surmounted by a pyramid-shaped roof and a weather vane. The other three bays contained openings with voussoirs on the ground floor and round headed windows with voussoirs on the first floor. There were three bays finished in a similar style in Hereford Street and, at roof level, there was a wide cornice supported by brackets. Internally, the principal rooms were the market hall on the ground floor and the assembly rooms on the first floor.

In the early years of the life of the building, the assembly rooms were used for petty session hearings and the building was referred to as the "Town Hall".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7UaAQAAMAAJ |title= Presteigne, Past and Present|first= William Henry|last= Howse|year=1945|publisher=Jakemans|page=57|quote= The Market Hall stood on the site of the present assembly rooms. There was a public room above, which was probably used as the Town Hall (referred to several times in the old Sessional Minutes).}} However, the company which had developed the building got into financial difficulty from an early stage and, in 1882, ownership passed to Elizabeth Abley who, as the principal lender, held a mortgage over the building.{{cite web|url=https://www.midborderarts.com/history/ |title=History of Mid Border Arts| access-date=15 June 2022}} The borough council, which had not met for many years, was abolished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.{{cite book |title=Municipal Corporations Act 1883 (46 & 46 Vict. Ch. 18) |date=1883 |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1883/18/pdfs/ukpga_18830018_en.pdf |access-date=26 March 2023}}

Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Presteigne as a market town, the area became an urban district in 1894.{{cite web|url= https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10296420 |title=Presteigne UD|publisher=Vision of Britain| access-date=15 June 2022}} The new urban district council acquired the building in 1903 and used the assembly rooms as council offices and, following a decline in use of the market, converted the former market hall for storage of the local horse-drawn fire engine.{{Cite web|url= http://history.powys.org.uk/school1/presteigne/market.shtml |title= The old Market Hall and Assembly Rooms|publisher=Victorian Powys| access-date=15 June 2022}}

A cinema operated on the first floor of the building from 1934 until it closed in 1966.{{cite web|url= http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/48802 |title=Mid Border Arts|publisher=Cinema Treasures| access-date=15 June 2022}} The building subsequently accommodated a furniture shop and then, after a period of disuse, Mid Border Arts, which had been established in the Shire Hall in 1988, moved into the assembly rooms in 1992. An extensive programme of refurbishment works costing £95,000, carried out with financial support from the Arts Council of Wales, was completed in 1995.{{cite web|url= http://gotlottery.uk/arts-council-of-wales-mid-border-community-arts-ltd-4-1956 |title= Mid Border Community Arts Ltd|publisher=Got Lottery|access-date=14 June 2022}} The works included fitting out the ground floor for use as a public library{{cite news|url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/pictures/2008/10/16/this-weeks-pictures-from-the-past-9/|title=This week's pictures from the past|date=17 October 2008|newspaper=Shropshire Star| access-date=15 June 2022}} and the first floor for use as an arts centre.

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{{Government buildings in Wales}}

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Powys

Category:Government buildings completed in 1865

Category:City and town halls in Wales

Category:Presteigne