For a building that was erected in two distinct stages it is surprisingly symmetrical with each half of the building flanking a central entrance. It would appear that the original plans allowed for later expansion.
Sale lies about 8 kilometres south west of the City of Manchester. Before the Industrial Revolution Sale was mainly farmland and owes its later development to Manchester.
Its fortunes started to change in 1765 when the Bridgewater Canal was built to connect Manchester to Runcorn and the canal passed through the centre of Sale. In fact the town hall is built next to the canal.
It was the arrival of a railway in 1849 that connected Sale to Manchester that really drove Sale's prosperity and the ease of travel to the industrial city turned Sale into a dormitory town for people who worked in Manchester.
Under the Local Government Act 1888 Sale became an urban district of the administrative county of Cheshire. The local board was replaced by Sale Urban District Council in 1894. The parish of Ashton upon Mersey became an urban district in 1895.[41] In 1930, the Ashton upon Mersey UD was merged into Sale UD under a county review order.
In December 1933, Sale Urban District submitted a petition to the Privy Council in an attempt to gain a charter of incorporation. At the time, Sale UD had the largest population and highest rateable value of any urban district in the country. The petition was successful and on 21 September 1935 Sale UD was granted borough status, and became the Municipal Borough of Sale. Following the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the Municipal Borough of Sale was abolished. Sale became an unparished area of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, a local government district of the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester. The town's education, town planning, waste collection, health, social care and other services are administered by Trafford Council.
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The town hall was built in 1915 and then extended during the Second World War, re-opening in July 1940. However because of its proximity to Manchester Sale was bombed heavily in December and the Town Hall was badly damaged by incendiary bombs. Sale is now part of the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford and this picture on a Trafford council website shows the shell of the town hall after the bomb damage.
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The town hall is a red brick building surmounted with a distinctive clock. There is no sign of a clock in the bomb damage photo and I don't know whether it was destroyed in the bombing or whether the town hall didn't have a clock then.
The town hall wasn't repaired until 1952 and the clock was installed at that point.
The right hand wing of the town hall was built first and has the following 2 stone plaques on it.
SALE URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL
THIS STONE WAS LAID ON MAY 9. 1914
BY
JAMES MCDONALD Esq.
CHAIRMAN OF THE
PUBLIC OFFICES COMMITTEE
| ERNEST JONES Esq. J.P. | D. HALIEWELL |
| CHAIRMAN | CLERK |
THIS BUILDING
WAS FORMALLY OPENED
BY
ERNEST JONES Esq. J.P.
CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL -
DECEMBER 4th 1915
The later extension has the following 2 stone plaques on it.
BOROUGH OF SALE
THIS STONE WAS LAID ON MAY 5 - 1937
BY
ALDERMAN J. PALEY PARRISH
CHAIRMAN OF THE
PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE
| ALDERMAN TOM HOWE J.P. C.C. | J. W. L. FOULKES |
| MAYOR | TOWN CLERK |
THIS EXTENSION
WAS FORMALLY OPENED BY
THE MAYOR
ALDERMAN G. F. GORDON J.P. C.A.
2nd JULY 1940