Old Town Hall, Dunwich

The Old Town Hall is a former municipal building in St James's Street in Dunwich, a village in Suffolk, England. Currently operated as holiday accommodation, it is a Grade II listed building.^[1]

Old Town Hall
The building in 2008
Location	St James's Street, Dunwich
Coordinates	52.2774°N 1.6311°E / 52.2774; 1.6311
Built	c.1705
Architectural style(s)	Tudor style
Listed Building – Grade II
Official name	Old Town Hall
Designated	16 January 1984
Reference no.	1198313
Shown in Suffolk

History

The first town hall in the town was a medieval structure which may have dated back to the time that King John visited the town and presented a charter in 1216.^[2] It may well have also served as the headquarters of the local merchant's guild.^[3] Following some coastal erosion, it was rebuilt on a new site in 1663.^[4] However, the town was devastated by coastal flooding in 1702: St Peter's Church was so badly damaged that it had to be dismantled, and the town hall was destroyed.^[5][6][7]

Civic leaders decided to re-erect the whole town, including the town hall, some 0.25 miles (0.40 km) inland to protect it from the continuing coastal erosion.^[8] The new town hall was designed in the Tudor style, built using timber frame construction techniques and completed a few years later, probably about 1705. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of two bays facing onto St James's Street.^[1] The town archives were locked in an ancient iron chest, made in The Netherlands and kept in one of the rooms in the building.^[9]

Dunwich had a very small electorate and, as most of the town had disappeared under the sea, it was recognised by the UK Parliament as a rotten borough.^[10] Its right to elect members of parliament was removed by the Reform Act 1832,^[11] and its borough council, which met in the town hall, was reformed under the Municipal Corporations Act 1883.^[12] The assets of the corporation, including the town hall,^[13] were transferred to a specially formed entity, the Dunwich Town Trust, with the lord of the manor, Colonel St John Barne of Sotterley Manor, becoming the first chairman of the trust in 1889.^[14] The town hall was subsequently converted for residential use and currently operates as holiday accommodation.^[15]

Architecture

The building has a timber-framed core, with red brick external walls, with the facade being plastered, and a pantiled roof. It has two storeys and an attic, with two windows on each floor, and a single dormer window in the attic with wide bargeboards. The windows are in the Gothic style, with diamond lattice lights. There is a two-storey extension to the right, linking it to the next house, with a 20th-century door.^[1][16] It was grade II listed in 1984.^[1]