| Chipping Sodbury Town Hall | |
| Coordinates: | 51.5385°N -2.3932°W |
| Location: | Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury |
| Built: | 1858 |
| Architecture: | Perpendicular Gothic style |
| Designation1: | Grade II Listed Building |
| Designation1 Offname: | Town Hall |
| Designation1 Date: | 29 July 1983 |
| Designation1 Number: | 1129244 |
Chipping Sodbury Town Hall is a municipal building in Broad Street, Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire, England. The building, which is used as an events venue and also as the meeting place of Chipping Sodbury Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.
The original building on the site was a guildhall which dated back to the 15th century.[1] [2] Following the dissolution of the chantries in 1547 and a brief subsequent period of private ownership, the site was acquired by the town and restored. It was then re-fronted in 1738[3] and re-modelled with a new façade, designed in the Perpendicular Gothic style and built in rubble masonry with ashlar stone dressings, in 1858.[4]
The design of the new façade involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Broad Street; it featured an arched doorway with a hood mould flanked by two-light mullioned windows on the ground floor, a six-light mullioned window on the first floor and a gable above. The gable contained an ogee-shaped panel with a crest and was surmounted by a pinnacle. Internally, the principal room was the main hall which was the meeting place of the bailiff and the burgesses.[5] The building contained a large chest, made of oak with iron straps, which was known as the parish coffer and was used for storage of valuable documents: it also dated back to the 15th century.[6] [7]
The borough council, which had not met for many years, was formally abolished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.[8] In 1894, on the formation of Chipping Sodbury Rural District Council,[9] the bailiff and burgesses resisted transfer of the town hall to the new council and it passed instead, on the instructions of the Charity Commissioners, to the Town Lands Charity.[10] Following local government re-organisation in 1974, the building became the meeting place of the newly formed Sodbury Town Council.[11] After an extensive programme of refurbishment works, which included a new stage in the main hall and new catering facilities, the building re-opened in 1981.[4]
The building continued to be used as an events venue and performers in the 21st century included the singer, Jacqui Dankworth, who gave a concert in the town hall in October 2016,[12] the Chipping Sodbury Music Society who performed a 70th anniversary concert in December 2017[13] and the boxer, Frank Bruno, who gave a talk there in January 2018.[14]