{{Short description|Municipal building in Swaffham, Norfolk, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2024}} {{Use British English|date=April 2024}} {{Infobox historic site | name =Swaffham Town Hall | native_name = | image = Swaffham Town Hall.jpg | caption =The building in 2009 | locmapin =Norfolk | map_caption =Shown in Norfolk | coordinates = {{coord| 52.6467 |N| 0.6882 |E|type:landmark_region:GB|display=inline,title}} | location =London Street, Swaffham | area = | built =c.1810 | architect = | architecture = Neoclassical style | governing_body = | designation1 =Grade II Listed Building | designation1_offname = Town hall and attached front railings | designation1_date =17 January 1973 | designation1_number = 1269635 | website= }} '''Swaffham Town Hall''' is a municipal building in London Street in Swaffham, a town in Norfolk, in England. The building, which now accommodates the Swaffham Museum and the offices of Swaffham Town Council, is a Grade II listed building.<ref name="nhle">{{NHLE|desc= Town hall and attached front railings|num=1269635|access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref>
==History== The building was commissioned the brewer, John Morse, for use as his home. The site he selected was on the west side of London Street, adjacent to the White Hart Inn.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16.7&lat=52.6467&lon=0.6882&layers=6&b=1&o=100&marker=52.6467,0.6882 |title=Ordnance Survey Map|year=1900| access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref>
The building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in red brick and was completed in around 1810.{{efn|Thomas Morse (John's father) acquired the Swaffham Brewery in 1809 and John became the head brewer.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://de-codingthemorses.weebly.com/ |title=De-coding the Morses|first=Eric|last=Dore|year=2015|publisher=}}</ref> The house must have been completed shortly thereafter, as English Heritage says that it is early 19th century.<ref name="nhle"/>}} The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto London Street. The central areas of the bays were slightly projected forward, relative to the outer areas. The central bay featured a porch formed by a pair of Doric order columns and a pair of pilasters supporting an entablature with triglyphs and a cornice. The other bays on the ground floor were fenestrated by round-headed windows, while the first floor was fenestrated by sash windows with window sills and there were dormer windows at attic level. Internally, the principal room was the dining room with a pair of Doric order columns at the south end.<ref name="nhle"/>
In 1894, the local urban sanitary district board was replaced by a new urban district council.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/unit/10001500 |title=Swaffham UD|publisher=Vision of Britain| access-date=25 April 2024}}</ref> The council was initially based at the Shirehall<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39500|page=1690|supp=y|date= 25 March 1952}}</ref> but, in the early 1950s, civic leaders decided that they needed a dedicated building for their offices and meeting place. In 1955, the building was purchased by Swaffham Urban District Council to use as a town hall, with the dining room being converted into a council chamber.<ref name="nhle"/>
In the late 1950s, three PGM-17 Thor nuclear missiles were located near-by at RAF North Pickenham,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbTJ0WUEmWI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/VbTJ0WUEmWI |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=An RAF Thor Missile Station at North Pickenham, Norfolk |publisher=YouTube |access-date=16 December 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref> giving rise to protests by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/yoursfaithfullyb0000russ/page/272/mode/2up?q=Pickenham|page=272|title=Yours Faithfully, Bertrand Russell: A Lifelong Fight for Peace, Justice, and Truth in Letters to the Editor|last=Russell|first=Bertrand|publisher=Open Court|year=2002|isbn=978-0812694499|editor-last=Perkins|editor-first=Ray|author-link=Bertrand Russell|access-date=16 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvOpmGDIwocC&q=pickenham&pg=PA131|title=Against the Bomb: The British Peace Movement 1958–1965|last=Taylor|first=Richard K. S.|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1988|isbn=978-0198275374}}</ref> Considerable interest was generated in the British tabloid newspapers in December 1958, when the Russian news agency, TASS, telephoned the town hall to inquire about the protests: on this basis, the journalists concluded that the protests were communist-inspired.<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5nNkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA197 |title=Peace and Power in Cold War Britain: Media, Movements and Democracy, c.1945–68 |first= Christopher R. |last=Hill|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=978-1474279345|page=197}}</ref> The building was grade II listed in 1973.<ref name="nhle"/><ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5YiIzxJT5o8C&pg=PA254 |last1=Vesey |first1=Barbara |title=The Hidden Places of East Anglia |date=2003 |publisher=Hidden Place Travel Guides |isbn=978-1902007915|page=254}}</ref>
The building continued to serve as the offices of Swaffham Urban District Council for two decades, but ceased to be the local seat of government when Breckland District Council was formed in 1974.<ref>{{cite book|title=Local Government Act 1972. 1972 c.70|publisher=The Stationery Office Ltd|isbn=0-10-547072-4|year=1997}}</ref> Since then, it has accommodated the offices and meeting place of Swaffham Town Council.<ref>{{cite web |title=A trail around Swaffham |url=https://www.swaffhammuseum.co.uk/documents/A-trail-around-Swaffham-202206.pdf |website=Swaffham Museum |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref>
Works of art in the town hall include a landscape painting by Samuel John Carter, depicting horses drinking at a local farm.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/snailspit-farm-cley-road-swaffham-norfolk-2158 |title= Snailspit Farm, Cley Road, Swaffham, Norfolk|first= Samuel John|last= Carter|publisher=Art.uk| access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref>
==The museum== In 1986, '''Swaffham Museum''' opened in the building. It is an independent social history museum covering the town and surrounding villages. It has five galleries exhibiting local history and local geology as well as an Egyptology room about Howard Carter and the Ancient Egyptians, celebrating the centenary year of Howard Carter discovering the Tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922.<ref>{{cite web |title=Galleries |url=https://www.swaffhammuseum.co.uk/galleries |website=Swaffham Museum |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> There is also a display about the author, Captain W. E. Johns, who, after serving as a local sanitary inspector, created the fictional air-adventurer ''Biggles'',<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/norfolk/22568145.biggles-swaffham-sanitary-inspector/ |title= Biggles and the Swaffham Sanitary Inspector|newspaper =Great British Life| access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> and there are some items which belonged to Admiral of the Fleet Sir Arthur Wilson, 3rd Baronet, who served as First Sea Lord shortly before the First World War.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/norfolk/23601395.admiral-arthur-knyvet-wilson-norfolks-naval-hero/ |title= Admiral Arthur Knyvet Wilson: Norfolk's other naval hero| newspaper =Great British Life| access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref>
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist}}
Category:Local museums in Norfolk Category:Swaffham Category:City and town halls in Norfolk Category:Grade II listed buildings in Norfolk