The
Unofficial Website
Rotherham Town Hall
This building was the West Riding
Courthouse erected on in the 1930s. This was the site of the former cattle market which moved elsewhere in 1926 and a whole raft of other old buildings between the Crofts and Talbot
Lane were demolished to make way for it. The courthouse and police station moved to a new site at the Statues in the early 1980s and the building was purchased by Rotherham Council. The
facade was kept but the interior was much altered to form the new Rotherham Town Hall which opened in May 1985.
Rotherham Town Hall is a working building and as such is only open for visits on Town Hall Open Days which occur about once a year. It is actually worth a visit - there are lots of interesting bits to see.
The robes of the Mayor and Mayoress, the Macebearer and so on are kept on display unless they are in use. The other regalia of office like the mayoral chains and the mace are kept in locked display cupboards in the Town Hall and brought out for special occasions, school visits and special visitors. The mace is the symbol that the mayor holds Royal Authority and that he is the Queen's representative in the town. At one time mayor's were also chief justices of the peace but I don't think that this applies any longer. Rotherham's mace was made in 1902 by T&J Bragg of Birmingham to a design by John Mason's Jewellers in gilt on silver.
The official weights and measures belonging to the town of Rotherham are kept here. These weights and measures are sealed and certified to be correct weights and are the standards by which all the personal weights and measures of the shopkeepers in the town are assessed. I think that there may well be better methods about these days. However in older times these were regularly taken round various grocer's shops and the personal weights checked against them to prevent cheating by short measures. How did they do this you ask? A favourite way was to drill a hole in the bottom of your personal weights, seal the hole with wax and paint over it to resemble the original lead or brass. A little cheating could and did get you a long way. In the Middle Ages there were severe penalties for shopkeepers found selling short measures - ear cropping was one of them I think. Hence the Baker's Dozen meaning thirteen. Since bread was the main staple of the lives of most people, short changing the bread supply was a most heinous crime and bakers used to add an extra loaf to the dozen so they could not be accused of it.
The Town Hall is now available for conferences, weddings and meetings with room for 60-90 people. Tel. 01709 833731.
Town Hall Photographs (6 images)
Begin presentation or click a picture to see a larger view.
Rotherham's Previous Town Halls
Rotherham has had previous town halls. The Mediaeval Town Hall was situated in the thick of things next to the Sheep Market in the area that is now part of the Market Street redevelopment. I can actually remember a picture, an engraving, of a two storey building with stocks and stalls in front of it. The building was still in existence in the 1770s but had ceased to be the Town Hall. Of course it has now gone.
A new Town Hall was built on Jesus Gate (Effingham Street area) to replace the old town hall in 1739. It cost between £500 and £600 and was on a site between the old Manorial Bakehouse at the entrance to Little Church Yard. It was a two storey building; the entrance was on the first floor with notable flights of steps up to it. The main hall was used for the Quarter Sessions, assemblies and balls. From 1775 the Earl of Effingham held his Manor Court here and it was also used for meetings of the Feoffees. Rotherham Grammar School was situated on the ground floor. This building too has disappeared under later redevelopment.
From 1871 Rotherham's Town Hall was based in set of buildings in Howard Street used as offices by the Local Board. In 1895 the Council acquired the temperance hall, mechanics institute and bank adjacent to the offices. These were remodeled into a new town hall and assembly rooms. The building is still in existence though it is now a 'shopping mall'.
In the 1980s the Town Hall first moved to Elliott House and then to its present site in the Crofts.
