Bamford & Norden October 2020

From The Archives
THE OLD TOWN HALL TOWER
Due to the extraordinary increase in
industrial wealth of the town in the
18th and 19th century it was felt that
Rochdale should have a formal town hall
to recognise the fact.
Before the middle of the 19th century the
town had used a number of buildings for
its civic activities, a study by Maxim in
1959 suggesting that council business had
been held on Blackwater Street and at a
Law Commissioner office on Smith Street.
With the town’s Charter of Incorporation
in 1856 Rochdale became a municipal
borough and pressure was on for a proper
town hall, one proposal coming forward in
1858 to house the Gas Company in it with
gas profits going towards its building. A
number of sites were suggested amongst
them Town Head House, Butts House, Wet
Rake, the house of a Mr Kelsall on Smith
Street where the Wellington now stands,
The Orchard (being the Byron family manor
where Newgate is now) and an area called
The Wood. The latter was voted for and the
Woods Estate was purchased from the Vicar
of Rochdale for the site for £4,730.
Originally the Town Hall was intended to
house an Exchange, the entrance hall long
being known by that name as well as a
Free Library, Art School, Fire Station and
a residence for a Police constable, which
didn’t happen. For guidance in 1863 a
committee from Rochdale visited Halifax,
Leeds and Preston looking at the costs of
such buildings and then undercut them all
with a proposed budget of £20,000. The
eventual cost rose to £154,755 although
Councillor George Leach Ashworth thought
it worth it, writing ‘we cannot have beauty
without paying for it.’ And certainly,
Rochdale Town Hall, designed by W H
Crossland was to be a magnificent example
of the medieval gothic based on the style
of Belgian cloth halls. The Lord Mayor
alongside Councillor Ashworth was there
in 1871 to perform the opening ceremony
five years after John Bright had laid the first
cornerstone.
But the town hall tower we see today was
not the original one. The first tower, much
taller, was a painted and gilded spire with
a wooden frame of 240 ft on top of which
stood a ring of trumpeting
angels below a symbolic 12ft
statue of St George and the
Dragon which, including its
lead covering, weighed 30 cwt
(or 1500 Kilograms). At one
point when the statue was in
need of repair Joseph Smith
(Rochdale’s version of Fred
Dibner) climbed to the top
up the lightning conductor
fastened to St George in order
to carry it out. In the original
tower was a carillon of 12
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