Tavistock Guildhall

An abbreviated article from Tavistock’s Yesterdays Vol 13 written by the late Gerry Woodcock and published with the kind permission of Norma Woodcock.

In one of his acts of generosity, the last Abbot of Tavistock, John Peryn, made a gift of property and money to a Philip Williams, "in consideration of his good and trew services to us". The property was "our howse, next to the Yeld Halle". The year was 1537. The mention of the "Yeld Halle", or Guildhall, is possibly the first documentary reference to a building which, at that time, was a novel addition to the Tavistock landscape. Built by one of the town's guilds, probably the prestigious Jesus Guild, it occupied a prominent position in whatis now the middle of Bedford Square. Escaping the fate that befell most of the nearby monastic buildings after the dissolution of the abbey in 1539, the Guildhall survived until the middle of the nineteenth century. Its primary function was that of a courthouse. Justice in the town had been traditionally dispensed under the skies. The Guildhall was to provide it with its first identifiable, permanent home. The building was, however, over its life of more than three centuries, to offer also facilities for a range of public and civic activities during a period when the town lacked suitable meeting places other than the churches.

The role played by the Guildhall over the years in the history of Tavistock receives occasional mention. For example, in 1644, in the middle of the Civil War, prisoners-of-war from the parliamentary army were confined there, and, reportedly, treated badly and half-starved. Later in that turbulent century the building featured as the civic headquarters of the town during the brief period in the 1680s when Tavistock was an incorporated borough. Here, in state, sat the mayor and corporation, exercising their powers of local self-government. An oaken panel displaying the arms of Tavistock and dated 1684, which originally formed part of the mayor's seat, remained in the Guildhall, and was later transferred to the town hall, from where it sadly disappeared at some point in the middle of the twentieth century.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the inadequacies of the Guildhall were the subject of growing concern. In an age when public interest in a range of political and social issues was heightened, the need for an adequate venue for meetings became more pressing. The Guildhall was small and inconvenient. Moreover, the state of the fabric, of the pavement around it, and of the gutter running under it, were the subjects of frequent complaint. The recipient of such grumbles was the Duke of Bedford's steward, as the Duke owned the building. For a conscientious steward like John Benson, the state of the old edifice provided him with a succession of headaches throughout the 1830s and 1840s. The magistrates were concerned about the state of the attached prison, familiarly the ‘Clink’, and they highlighted that ‘there is no provision for warming it in winter, and that the privy is in a corner of the apartment’. Benson wearily responded: "I am not aware that the prison at the guildhall is any worse than it has been heretofore. The building altogether is so, certainly, from the effects of time, but if within any moderate number of years a new guildhall and prison is to be built it would be very injudicious to expend much in making an alteration of the present building". In 1841 he noted that, after a storm, ‘The old guildhall has got several large holes in it’.

In April 1845 the clerk to the Tavistock magistrates, Robert Luxton, was requested by the Home Office to furnish details of the Guildhall as part of a national survey of the condition of local courthouses. He observed that the building was the property of the Duke, and that no rent was payable. Of the state of repair, he wrote: ‘The Guildhall comprises one room only, and is very inconveniently constructed for the purpose of holding petty sessions, as the magistrates can scarcely deliberate upon a case without being heard by some of the spectators. It is also in a very dilapidated state’. It was now clear that the building was inadequate in each of its three roles, as courthouse, assembly room, and prison. Benson pressed his master to agree to a replacement. The seventh Duke accepted the argument. A careful search was made to try to identify an existing building that could be adapted to serve as the new Guildhall, and the town mill at Parkwood was examined with this in mind, but it was finally decided that a new purpose-built construction was unavoidable. The Duke thereupon signed a cheque for £4000*. The old Guildhall was demolished. For many years thereafter two surviving features, iron cell-doors could be found doing useful service, one in the oven of William Johns' Duke Street bakery and the other guarding Kilworthy House's wine cellar. The old site was cleared and, a few yards away, a new Guildhall was built, and formally opened on Thursday 28 September 1848. It occupied a site where, for centuries, from the eleventh century onwards, the monks had operated their mill. The new construction was described at the time as comprising ‘an extensive room in which the court is held, a magistrates' room and other apartments, under which is the Bridewell comprising six cells, a dwelling for the police superintendent, a fire engine station etc’. Contemporaries also noted that it was erected, not only on the site, but ‘in imitation of the style’, of the old monastic buildings. A few years on, and it was to provide both a backdrop to the statue of its creator and a complement to another part of his architectural legacy to Tavistock, the town hall.

In the twentieth century ownership was transferred to Devon County Council. As the century drew to a close the centuries-long tradition of locally administered justice was ended with the abrupt closure of the court in 2000. The Guildhall, a fine and proud building and a significant part of our community heritage, was left to await its twenty-first century fate.

Alex Mettler

Tavistock Heritage Trust

*On an ‘average wages’ basis, the £4,000 paid by the Duke is equivalent to c.£2.5 million today.

In March 2018 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £817,800 towards a total project cost of £1,645,007 to conserve the Guildhall and provide a World Heritage Site Interpretation Centre. The centre (scheduled to open in July 2020) will be run by Tavistock Heritage Trust in partnership with Tavistock Town Council.