| St Columb Major Town Hall | |
|---|---|
  Location of St Columb Major Town Hall in Cornwall | |
| Location | St Columb Major,Cornwall, England |
| Coordinates | 50°26′07″N4°56′24″W / 50.4352°N 4.9401°W /50.4352; -4.9401 |
Listed Building – Grade II* | |
| Official name | Town Hall |
| Designated | 10 February 1967 |
| Reference no. | 1144107 |
St Columb Major Town Hall is a historic building in the Market Place inSt Columb Major, a town inCornwall, in England. The building, which serves as the offices and meeting place of St Columb Major Town Council as well as a public library, is a Grade II*listed building.[1]
The current building was commissioned to replace an ancientmarket house, which consisted of a large room raised on arches.[2] The current building was designed in theneoclassical style, built inrubble masonry with anashlar stone front and sides, and was completed in 1848.[1] It originally accommodated monthly meetings of themagistrates' court, thecounty court, and other public meetings on the first floor, while the ground floor housed the regular meat markets.[3][4][5]
In 1913, a cinema known as "The Picture Palace" started showing silent films in the town hall; it became the "Town Hall Cinema" in the late 1920s and "Neath's Non-Flam Pictures" in the 1930s, before closing as a cinema in February 1945.[6]
Since local government re-organisation in 1974,[7] it has accommodated the offices of St Columb Major Town Council and been the venue for their meetings.[8][9] The building also accommodates the local public library,[10] which, since 2018, has been managed by the town council.[11]
The annualCornish hurling competition, which has been held onShrove Tuesday each year for some 500 years, starts with the silver ball being thrown up in the Market Place close to the town hall, and the two teams then compete to take possession of the ball and place it in their own goal.[12][13]
The design involves a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto the Market Place. It isrusticated on the ground floor and features five round headed openings withvoussoirs andkeystones. These openings originally allowed unfettered access to the market hall; however, two of the openings have been infilled with doorways withfanlights and three have been infilled with windows with glazing bars. Above the ground floor openings there are a series of rectangular panels. The first floor is fenestrated by five round headed windows, also with voussoirs and keystones. At the east end, there is a blocked doorway flanked by a full height arch which is surmounted by afrieze, a date stone inscribed with the date MDCCCXLVIII (1848), a single-stage clock tower and acupola. At the west end, there is a round headed doorway flanked by a pair of round headed windows. At roof level, there is a prominentcornice and a slate roof hidden behind aparapet. The building wasgrade II* listed in 1967.[1]
50°26′07″N4°56′24″W / 50.4352°N 4.9401°W /50.4352; -4.9401