The Guildhall

Newport Guildhall is unique among medieval timber-framed Guildhalls in Shropshire. It was originally two adjacent buildings separated by a passage but which were possibly connected later by a corridor at first floor level. The site has been used for administration purposes since Anglo-Saxon times, when the area was known as the Bodlac or "Place of Edicts". Later it was known as the Moot and then the Common Hall.

No. 1 gable end to the street contains what was once an Open Hall. No. 3 was open on the ground floor with a hall on the upper floor. The two buildings were unified in 1557. In Victorian times a great refurbishment took place. A gable was erected at the end on No. 3 to match the existing one on No. 1. Shop windows were inserted with crown glass glazing. A fascia board with the name Wm. Gregari was brought here from an Inn which was demolished when the new Market Hall was built in 1860.,P. On entering the reception area immediately opposite you is a very large hearth inserted in the 16c. The stairs to the left are not original, they were constructed during re-furbishment for the Town Council in 1990. On some of the ceiling joists you can see small six petalled flowers in black and red. The heavy upright posts on the south wall were painted with a design in black of Tudor Roses, Acanthus and Pomegranate. A similar design was found on a shutter on the north wall.

The Council Chamber has a magnificent 15c ceiling, it is quatrefoil, pierced and cusped. This ceiling could be seen from the ground floor of what was originally an open hall. The intermediate floor was inserted in the 16c. The low beam with a slight curve on its underside marks where there was once a door way leading to a store area above the cells. This doorway may have been created in the 16c when the herring-bone timber gable was erected at the west end. There are slots in the low beam which indicate this was once a close-studded external wall and marked the end of the open hall, on the south wall there are some re-used timbers which were window frames in the 14c.

During renovations in 1911 the builder Mr Edwin Whittingham said the roof was divided into squares, and all magnificently carved. There was one long room on the first floor, and this stood upon an open undercroft, used for storing and displaying goods. Walls were erected around the undercroft in the 16c bricks used for the infill being of unusual design with points at either end. Mr Whittingham said the design was typical of an old Guildhall.

The Guildhall, 1 & 3 High Street, is a Grade II* listed building

Purchased by Boughey Trust and leased to the Town Council for a pepper corn rent, It was officially opened by Algernon Heber-Percy Esq. DL on 25 March 1995 following its restoration by Newport Town Council and English Heritage. Restoration design by Arroll & Snell Architects, Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Builders, William Onions Construction Ltd.