Moffat Town Hall
{{short description|Municipal building in Moffat, Scotland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox historic site
| name = Moffat Town Hall
| native_name =
| image = Moffat Town Hall (geograph 5682538).jpg
| caption= Moffat Town Hall
| locmapin =Scotland Dumfries and Galloway
| map_caption =Shown in Dumfries and Galloway
| coordinates ={{coord| 55.3333 |-3.4452|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}}
| location = High Street, Moffat
| area =
| built = 1827
| architect = Walter Newall
| architecture = Neoclassical style
| designation1 =Category B Listed Building
| designation1_offname = Town Hall, High Street, Moffat
| designation1_date = 3 August 1971
| designation1_number = LB37927
| website=
}}
Moffat Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The structure, which is used as community events venue, is a Category B listed building.{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB37927|desc= Town Hall, High Street, Moffat |access-date=25 July 2022}}
History
In the early 1820s, a group of local businessmen decided to form a company known as the "Moffat Bath Company" to finance and commission a new bath house for users of the sulphurous spring in the town. Users of the spring had already included the poet, Robert Burns, and the biographer, James Boswell.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rn8KAQAAMAAJ |title=Scotland|page=189| first1=Rob|last1= Humphreys|first2= Donald |last2=Reid |year= 2002|publisher= Rough Guides|isbn=978-1858288734|quote=One disappointed customer suggested they [the baths] smelt of bilge water, but they were good enough for Robbie Burns and James Boswell, who came to "wash off the scurvy spots".}} The plan was to take advantage of increasing demand by piping the sulphurous water down from the spring to a tank, and then on to the new bath house in the centre of the town. The new building was designed by Walter Newall in the neoclassical style, built in coursed whinstone with ashlar dressings and was completed in 1827.{{cite web|url=http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=201802|title=Moffat Assembly Room and Baths|publisher=Dictionary of Scottish Architects |access-date=25 July 2022}}
The design involved a broadly symmetrical single-storey main frontage with seven bays facing onto the High Street with the end bays projected forward as pavilions. The central bay, which was also projected forward, contained two tall casement windows flanked by Doric order pilasters supporting an entablature, a frieze with triglyphs, and a pediment with a panel inscribed with the word "Baths" in the tympanum. The connecting sections were fenestrated with sash windows with architraves. The left hand end bay was pilastered and infilled, while the right hand end bay took the form of a Doric order portico. Internally, the principal rooms were the baths themselves, which were at the back of the complex, and a large assembly room, which was at the front of the complex and was used by the burgh council as its meeting place from an early stage.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQoQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA235 |title= A Guide to the Healthiest and Most Beautiful Watering Places in the British Islands|year=1864|publisher= Adam and Charles Black |page=235}}
The building was acquired by the commissioners of burgh property in 1897 and then transferred to the burgh council itself for a nominal sum in 1966.{{cite web|url=https://www.askins-little.co.uk/projects/larger-works/Moffat-Town-Hall-Moffat/2.html |title=Moffat Town Hall|date=4 May 2016 |publisher=Askins and Little| access-date=25 July 2022}} It then continued to serve as the meeting place of the burgh council for much of the 20th century but ceased to be the local seat of government when the enlarged Annandale and Eskdale District Council was formed in 1975.{{cite web|url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1973/65/contents|title=Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973|publisher=Legislation.gov.uk|accessdate=29 March 2021}}{{cite web|url= https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10361114|title=Moffat Burgh|publisher=Vision of Britain| access-date=24 July 2022}}
The Moffat Town Hall Redevelopment Trust, a charity which was formed in 2008,{{cite web|url= https://www.tnlcommunityfund.org.uk/funding/grants/0030100357 |title= Moffat Town Hall Redevelopment – Project|publisher= National Lottery Community Fund| access-date=24 July 2022}} acquired a 21-year lease over the building from Dumfries and Galloway Council in November 2012.{{cite news|url= https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/moffat-town-hall-revamp-extension-2594201 |title= Moffat Town Hall revamp and extension plans approved|date=5 March 2010|newspaper=Daily Record| access-date=24 July 2022}}{{cite news|url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10307665 |title= Moffat town hall scheme secures support|date=14 June 2010|newspaper=BBC| access-date=24 July 2022}} The trust went on to commission a programme of refurbishment works costing £600,000. The work, which was financed by Historic Scotland and Dumfries and Galloway Council, involved stripping away external paintwork, repairs to the masonry and repointing of the cement, and was completed in 2013.{{cite web|url=https://www.moffattownhalltrust.org.uk/about/ |title=About Moffat Town Hall|publisher=Moffat Town Hall Redevelopment Trust| access-date=24 July 2022}}{{cite news|url= https://www.itv.com/news/border/update/2013-03-12/600k-refurb-for-moffat-town-hall/ |title= £600k refurb for Moffat town hall|date=12 March 2013|newspaper=ITV| access-date=24 July 2022}}{{cite web|url= https://www.dgleader.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/98_Moffat_Town_Hall_Redevelopment_Final_Report.pdf |title=Dumfries and Galloway Leader Programme: Final Report|publisher=Moffat Town Hall Redevelopment Trust| access-date=24 July 2022}}
A plaque to commemorate the life of Lieutenant Samuel Wallace of the Royal Field Artillery, who was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Gonnelieu in France during the First World War, was dedicated at the town hall on 20 November 2017.{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OrPNDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22&pg=PT663 |title= Victoria Crosses on the Western Front, 20th November 1917–23rd March 1918; Cambrai to the Battle of St Quentin|first=Paul |last=Oldfield |year= 2017|publisher=Pen and Sword|isbn= 978-1473885004}}