Corn Exchange, Sudbury

File:Sculpture and sheaves of corn, Sudbury Library, Market Hill, CO10 - geograph.org.uk - 3807448.jpg

In the late 1830s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "Sudbury Market House Company", to finance and commission a purpose-built corn exchange for the town. The site selected, at the bottom of Market Hill, had been occupied by several properties including a chemist and druggist.{{cite web|url= https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/40ef7eea-74d1-42ad-b0fe-f3add85cdf88 |title=Deeds of the Corn Exchange Site|publisher=National Archives|access-date=19 June 2023}}{{cite web|url= https://www.sudburyfreemen.org/sudbury-freemen-surnames-beginning-with-g/ |title= Sudbury Freemen surnames beginning with G (Gunton)|publisher=Sudbury Freemen|access-date=19 June 2023}}

The building was designed by Henry Edward Kendall in the Baroque Revival style, built by Stephen Webb of Long Melford in brick with a stucco finish at a cost of £1,620, and was completed in October 1842.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=ZgxIAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA573 |title= History, Gazetteer and Directory of Suffolk, and the Towns Near Its Borders|first=William |last=White|year=1844|page=573}} The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Market Hill. The central bay featured a tall round headed opening, containing a doorway, a six-part window and a fanlight, with an architrave and a keystone. The outer bays were fenestrated by tall round headed windows with architraves and keystones. The bays were flanked by full-height Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature and surmounted by carvings of wheat sheaves. At roof level, there was a central panel inscribed with the words "Corn Exchange", which was surmounted by a pedestal supporting a sculpture carved in coade stone depicting a group of agricultural labourers, with sickles and wheat sheaves.{{cite web|url= http://www.racns.co.uk/sculptures.asp?action=getsurvey&id=619 |title=Resting Reapers|publisher= public monuments and sculpture in Norfolk and Suffolk| access-date=19 June 2023}} There was a balustraded parapet above the outer bays.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rckGwAACAAJ |title=History of Sudbury|first1=Charles George |last1= Grimwood |first2=S. A. |last2=Kay|year=1952|page=87|location=Sudbury}} The architectural historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, was impressed with the design, which he said "deserves a glance, if only to meditate on the early Victorian sense of security, superiority, and prosperity".{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=7nVNgRB7czwC&pg=PA454 |title=Suffolk (Buildings of England Series)| first1=Nikolaus|last1= Pevsner|first2=Enid|last2= Radcliffe|year= 1974|publisher=Yale University Press |page=454|isbn=978-0300096484}}

The use of the building as a corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=obn5AQAAQBAJ|first=T. W. |last=Fletcher|title= 'The Great Depression of English Agriculture 1873-1896' in British Agriculture 1875-1914 |location=London|publisher= Methuen|year= 1973|isbn=978-1136581182|page= 31}} Instead, it was used for concerts and public meetings: a rendition of The Messiah by George Frideric Handel was performed in the main hall in February 1886.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9FJBAQAAMAAJ&pg=PT456 |title=The Printers' International Specimen Exchange |volume= 7 |year=1886|publisher=Officer of the Paper and Printing Trades Journal}} The building acted as an air raid shelter during the Second World War.{{cite web|url=https://sudburysociety.org.uk/press-article-how-sudbury-came-close-to-losing-one-of-its-finest-buildings-by-anne-grimshaw/|title=How Sudbury came close to losing one of its finest buildings | first= Anne |last=Grimshaw|date=23 September 2021 |publisher=Sudbury Society|access-date=19 June 2023}}

However, by the early 1960s, the building had become dilapidated, and the owners were initially minded to sell it to Tesco, to facilitate the construction of a modern supermarket on the site. Following a successful campaign by the members of the specially formed Corn Exchange Preservation Association, led by a local solicitor, Andrew Phillips, to save the building from demolition, it was sold to West Suffolk County Council instead. After the completion of an extensive programme of works, undertaken by George Grimwood & Sons to a design by the county architect, Jack Digby, it re-opened as a public library on 24 September 1968.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jzxSAAAAMAAJ |title= New Uses for Old Buildings |first= Sherban|last= Cantacuzino |year=1975|publisher=Architectural Press |page=120|isbn=978-0851394992}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ribapix.com/corn-exchange-now-sudbury-public-library-sudbury-suffolk-the-entrance-front_riba62955 |title=Corn Exchange, Now Sudbury Public Library|publisher=Royal Institute of British Architects| access-date=19 June 2023}} The exterior of the building was restored in 1993,{{cite web|url= https://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/brit-land/food/page06.htm |title=1841 – Corn Exchange|publisher=Local History| access-date=19 June 2023}} and again in 2010.

• Corn exchanges in England
• Grade II* listed buildings in Babergh

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Category:Commercial buildings completed in 1842

Category:Sudbury, Suffolk

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Suffolk

Sudbury