Corn Hall Buildings

In the mid-19th century, a group of local businessmen decided to form a private company, known as the "Corn Hall Company", to finance and commission a corn exchange for the town. The site they selected, on the south side of the Market Place, was occupied by the Boothall, where wool trading had been conducted since the 16th century. The directors secured a 500-year lease over the site from the owner, Henry Bathurst, 4th Earl Bathurst, whose seat was at Cirencester Park. The building was designed by James Medland and Alfred Maberly in the Italianate style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1863. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing onto the Market…