The blue plaque is located on the wall of Town Hall in Congleton.
The plaque is inscribed as follows;
"CONGLETON CIVIC SOCIETY
TOWN HALL
BUILT 1864 -67
ARCHITECT E.W.GODWIN
FIGURES ON FACADE REPRESENT
QUEEN VICTORIA, EDWARD 1
&
HENRY DE LACY."
The town hall located on High Street is a Grade II* listed building.
The description given by Historic England reads as follows;
"1864-6. Architect, E.W. Goodwin. Built of stone in Gothic style. 2 main storeys plus dormers in slated roof. Arcaded ground storey. Moulded arches and colonnettes to 1st storey windows. Central tower with battlements and pyramidal roof in two stages separated by clock. 3 statues to front with carved supports and hoods. Interior has exposed stone walls. Principal rooms altered." Source: (
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Two previous town halls had occupied this site.
The present town hall building was designed by the architect E.W Godwin in 1864. It is built in Victorian Gothic Style and was completed in 1866. The building has a fine assembly hall with a hammer-beam roof and a gallery in the upper storey. The statues of Queen Victoria, Henry de Lacy and Edward I were set over the frontage but after becoming badly weathered only the statue of Queen Victoria remains as the others were removed for safety reasons during renovations of the building.
The earliest mention of a ‘Town Hall’ in Congleton was a ‘Moot Hall’ in the 15th century. The Ancient half-timbered, black and white framed hall was replaced in 1804-5 when the Corporation built a new brick and stone hall, with four stone columns which supported a covered passageway.
The new building was known as the Guildhall was fronted by a colonnade and piazza made up of four columns. There was a large room where municipal business was transacted, a room for the imprisonment of debtors, a jury room and two arched dungeons.
A set of steps leading from the present council chamber to lower regions appears to have survived from these earlier incarnations and is now protected by hardened glass.
In 1823 Sir Edmund Antrobus, a major benefactor of the town whose name survives in Antrobus Street, paid for the addition of a market hall and an assembly room to the neo-classical building.
Until the Local Government re-organisation in 1974 Congleton Town Hall was owned and managed by the Congleton Urban District Council (responsible for Congleton Town only). In 1974 it transferred to Congleton Borough Council.
In 1996 a major refurbishment costing £975,000 saw most of the interior brought back to its original design. In 1998 the Congleton Town Hall Trust was established in to operate the facility at community level however financial resources and local politics conspired against it and the management was reverted to the Borough Council.
The Town Council was created in 1980 to represent the people of Congleton town. There are 20 Councillors, representing two wards, and they are elected every four years (next election May 2023) to serve on the Council.
In January 2007 Congleton Town Council moved its offices back to the Town Hall, this time leasing two rooms on the first floor. Later in the year it took over the second floor and converted storage space into two modern, fully DDA compliant offices. The ownership and freehold of the Town Hall transferred to the Town Council on 2nd June 2008.
The Town Hall today is a busy venue for weekday conferences, training sessions and public enquiries and provides accommodation for both private and public events.
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"Edward William Godwin (1835-1886)
Edward was born in Bristol, the son of a prosperous currier and leather cutter; after being educated at Exton School, Highbury, London, he returned to Bristol and was articled to William Armstrong, City Surveyor, Architect and Civil Engineer -- with the emphasis very much on the "engineer." So little was known of architecture in this office that Godwin was largely self-taught and become responsible for the architectural commissions undertaken by the office at an unusually early age.
Indignant at the lack of recognition paid to his part in this work, in 1854 he set up his own practice and after a slow and not very promising start he won the competition for the design for Northampton Town Hall in 1861. The time when little work had been forthcoming had been profitably employed in making the acquaintance of William Burges and studying and analysing Ruskin's Stones of Venice. Godwin's early designs are predictably in the neo-Gothic style, with all the furniture and fittings designed to match.
The designs for Congleton Town Hall, Dromore Castle, Glenbegh Towers and the additions to Castle Ashby are all inspired by the European Gothic tradition." SOURCE: (
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