Yelde Hall

The Yelde Hall
Chippenham
The Yelde Hall
The Yelde Hall
Location within Wiltshire
Coordinates 51°27′29″N 2°06′50″W / 51.45804°N 2.11387°W / 51.45804; -2.11387Coordinates: 51°27′29″N 2°06′50″W / 51.45804°N 2.11387°W / 51.45804; -2.11387
Type Drill hall
Site history
Built 1450
In use 1450-Present

The Yelde Hall is a public facility in Chippenham. It is a Grade I listed building.[1]

History

Town arms from 1776 on the Yelde Hall

The building was built in around 1450[2] and was originally used as a jail (in the cellar), as a courtroom (on the ground floor) and as a council chamber (upstairs).[1] The building bears a carving of the town arms with the inscription "JS 1776": the initials refer to John Scott who was the bailiff at that time.[2] The town council and burgess relocated to the Town Hall in the first half of the 19th century.[2]

The building became the offices of the Chippenham Savings Bank in 1822 and then became the drill hall for the Chippenham Volunteer Rifle Corps in 1846.[2] The unit evolved to become B Company, 2nd Volunteer Battalion, The Wiltshire Regiment in 1881 and B Company, 4th Battalion, the Duke of Edinburgh's Wiltshire Regiment in 1908.[3][4] The regiment relocated to the Little Ivy in 1911.[2] The building was also used as the headquarters of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry at this time.[3][5] The yeomanry moved its headquarters to Trowbridge in 1920.[5]

The Fire Brigade used the east end of the building from 1870 and then almost the whole building from 1911 to 1945.[2] After some restoration work in the 1950s, the building served as the Chippenham Museum from October 1963 until it relocated to the Market Place in 1999.[2]

The building then became the North Wiltshire Tourist Information Centre in March 2003[6] although that concern relocated to the Town Hall in February 2012.[7] It underwent a refurbishment in March 2012 and re-opened to the public as an extension of the Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre in April 2012.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 "The Yelde Hall and the Council Chamber". British listed buildings. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "History of the Yelde Hall". Chippenham Council. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  3. 1 2 "Chippenham". The Drill Hall Project. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  4. ↑ "2nd Wiltshire Rifle Volunteer Corps". Regiments.org. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
  5. 1 2 "The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (Prince of Wales's Own)". Archived from the original on 23 October 2007. Retrieved 8 March 2013.
  6. ↑ Chippenham Town Council (1989). Emma King, ed. The Town Guide of Chippenham, Wiltshire. London: EJ Burrow.
  7. ↑ "Chippenham tourist centre to relocate". Gazette and Herald. 9 January 2012.
  8. ↑ "Historic Chippenham hall to re-open". Gazette and Herald. 28 March 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2017.
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