Brackley Town Hall Re-opens

Author: Linda Carter

From: About My Area

Published: 5th September 2018

Two years after the doors of Brackley Town Hall were closed to the public, the project to restore the building has been completed. The building will be officially re-opened by His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester on Tuesday 11th September 2018. Accompanied by both the Lord Lieutenant and the High Sheriff of Northamptonshire, and in front of an audience of Councillors Past Mayors and representatives from the groups and companies who have delivered the project, The Duke will unveil a plaque to mark the occasion.

The project, largely funded by a grant of over £2 million from the National Lottery’s Heritage Lottery Fund, has seen every stone, timber and roof tile inspected and repaired or replaced. The clock was removed and renovated by Smith of Derby and the bells removed – one of which had to be replaced with a newly cast bell made at Taylors Bell Foundry in Loughborough – the mechanism renovated or replaced and the bells rehung to ring once more. A new lift and staircase have been introduced, and stained glass windows, shown on an old photograph of the building, have been re-introduced to the first floor based on designs submitted by local residents and interpreted by stained glass artist, Rachael Aldridge.

The whole project has been photographed by a group of volunteers, with regular updates available on the restoration website, and their work will culminate in an exhibition shown when the building re-opens to the public for Heritage Open Days on 14th – 16th September 2018.

Brackley Town Mayor, Councillor Mark Morrell, said ‘we are pleased that so many people are able to join us for this historic occasion, made possible by everyone who regularly buy their lottery tickets, and hope that when our residents have the opportunity to see the transformation of the Town Hall they will know that we have a building fit to last for the next hundred years’.

To learn more about the project please sign up to the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/BrackleyTownHallRestoration or visit the website at https://brackleytownhall.org.uk/.