Old Town Hall

Old Town Hall, Market Place

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1299877
Date first listed:: 29-Jul-1950
List Entry Name:: Old Town Hall
Statutory Address:: Old Town Hall, Market Place

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2003-02-14
Reference:: IOE01/10162/30
Rights:: © Mr Peter Briggs. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1299877
Date first listed:: 29-Jul-1950
Date of most recent amendment:: 15-Nov-1988
List Entry Name:: Old Town Hall
Statutory Address 1:: Old Town Hall, Market Place

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Old Town Hall, Market Place

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Wakefield (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SE 45672 21954

Details

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 6 September 2021 to reformat text to current standards

SE 4521 NE 8/30

PONTEFRACT MARKET PLACE (north-east side) Old Town Hall

(Formerly listed under Bridge Street)

29.7.50

GV II*

Market building with gaol at back and assembly room above. 1785. By Bernard Hartley I of Pontefract, Surveyor of Bridges to the West Riding of Yorkshire. Ashlar sandstone, Welsh slate roof. Three storeys, three x two bays with lower two-storey gaol range to rear right. Market Place elevation: three bays; ground floor has chamfered rustication with three segmental arches having plinths, impost band and dropped keystones; the left bay open, the centre bay with C20 glass shop front, the right bay with recessed infilling. Band forming base to giant order of fluted Tuscan pilasters, one at ends, paired to centre bay, which advances slightly and is pedimented. First-floor windows are sashes with glazing bars and sill band, with wrought-iron balcony in centre, and turned-baluster aprons to outer bays. Second-floor windows are half-size six-pane casements with projecting sills. Modillion cornice. Flag pole in front of pediment. Hipped roof. Central wooden clock tower with cupola with lead-covered dome and weather-vane.

Rear: one bay visible, matching front. Left return finely rendered, and scored as if ashlar; two bays; both ground-floor arches open; above, single pilasters, no openings. Rear wing, elevation to Bridge Street: ground floor door below deep over-light and window; two blind first-floor windows; all with voussoired wedge lintels. Interior: first floor assembly room has white marble fireplace with sleeping lion as centrepiece of fluted frieze and later cast iron grate; at left end, magistrates' bench with coat of arms on plaque above between consoles with dentilled cornice above, and C19 panelled front; segmental gallery above bench has wrought iron railings; ceiling cornice. At right end; full size plaster cast of John Edward Carew's bronze relief of 'the Death of Nelson' from. the column in Trafalgar Square, London, set behind cast-iron railings with spear finials and lotus standards.

Derek Linstrum, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, (1978), pp. 329-331.

Listing NGR: SE4567221954

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 342669
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Linstrum, D, West Yorkshire Architects and Architecture, (1978), 329-331

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.