Totnes Town Council

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The Guildhall

OPENING TIMES FOR 2012

2nd April to 31 October

Monday - Friday 10.30am - 4.00pm

ADMISSION
Adults: £1.25 Children 30p

FREE to Totnes residents

We are able to open the Guildhall to visitors thanks to our many volunteers. New volunteers are always welcome and needed! If you are able to help out with a couple of hours a week please let us know on 01803 862147.

A Brief History of the Guildhall

After the Norman occupation of Totnes in 1069 the town and its contents became the property of Judhael who, by 1088, had established a Benedictine priory with monks from Angers in Brittany. Land adjacent to the church, including that on which the Guildhall now stands, was developed and the site of the Guildhall became the refectory, kitchen, bakery and brewery. It is now thought that the building was largely rebuilt at some time in the 15^th century and that little of the original Norman structure still stands.

The priory ended with King Henry VIII in 1536 and the dissolution of the monasteries. The property was stripped of valuables and left derelict. The building and the land were first acquired by a triumvirate of wealthy merchants through purchase and negotiation with the crown and latterly by Walter Smythe in 1542. Part of the deal involved handing over the built part of the estates within the walled town boundary to the town, via the crown, keeping the land outside for Walter Smythe himself. It fell to Edward VI to grant a charter formally gifting the land to the town in 1553 to use as a Guildhall and prison along with the establishment of the King Edward VI Grammar school. A week later he died from tuberculosis. Three pieces of original Tudor plasterwork can still be seen: the royal crest over the ceremonial chair and a crest over the public gallery in the downstairs room, together with a Tudor rose in a corner of the Council Chamber.

The grammar school was adapted from priory domestic buildings adjoining the east of the Guildhall. This was rebuilt in 1630 before the school moved to a new location at the Mansion in Fore Street in 1887. The old school building was then demolished and a new police station and gaol was built adjacent to the Guildhall. Parts of the original Tudor building were incorporated in the Victorian structure, including the architraves above two of the windows.

Meanwhile the Guildhall served as the meeting place of the Guild of Merchants and the town council as well as housing the town gaol. In 1611 a separate structure was built in front of the church and used as a meeting room for the merchants, financed by Richard Lee. The Guildhall was then converted into a courthouse in 1624 and used as a Magistrate's court where petty sessions were held. This court was in use until a new court was built alongside the current police station on the Ashburton Road in 1974.

Separate gaols for men and women occupied the rear of the court by 1572 with an administration area in between. These prisons were dark, cold and particularly repugnant, being described as “noisome and contagious,” prompting several worthy Totnesians to recognise the need to modernise. So in 1624 it was remodelled. It included a curved wall protruding into the courtyard in front of the Guildhall which contained a small area for washing and exercise. This was demolished in 1897 at the same time as the canopy at the front was added, supported by the pillars robbed from in front of the church – the building that Richard Lee had built to replace the meeting room for the Guild of Merchants and which was demolished in 1887.

Despite all efforts to improve the prison it was still being described as a filthy hole. The new police station built on the site of the old Grammar school opened in 1893 and dispelled these inhumane conditions. Prisoners could then be walked the short distance along a corridor to the dock of the Magistrate’s Court. This building still retains the three small cells as storage and office space for the Town Council staff. Council meetings are still held in the upper chamber containing the two tables reputedly used by Oliver Cromwell and Lord Fairfax during the civil war. It sports the colourful plasterwork commemorating the remodelling in 1624 looking like it had just been completed. The small room adjacent is the Mayor’s Parlour for the robing and disrobing of civic dignitaries for formal events.

The lower chamber is kept as it was before 1974 as the Magistrate’s Court and the walls flanking the 1553 coat of arms support the list of town Mayors since 1359. From 1360 there is an ominous seventeen year gap and it has been suggested that plague decimated the town for this period, though this is by no means proven.

Beyond the main body of the courtroom the old prison cells can still be viewed with the women’s cell area having been used as the town mortuary after 1893.