Assembly Rooms, Broad Street

In the early 1860s, a group of local businessmen led by the local member of parliament, Sir Richard Green-Price, whose seat was at Norton Manor, decided to form a company known as the "Presteigne Market Hall & Public Room Company" to finance and erect a new municipal building for the town: the site they selected in Broad Street had been occupied by the local post office and, before that, by the Black Lion Inn. The foundation stone for the new building was laid by Lady Mary Jones-Brydges on 23 October 1863. It was designed by Thomas Nicholson of Hereford in the Italianate style, built in red brick with stone finishings and the market hall was officially opened to the public on 1 November…