ABC of Chippenham: Yelde Hall

The Yelde Hall is one of the oldest and most striking of Chippenham's buildings and you've seen glimpses of it already, filed under T for Tourism and Q for Quaint. It also has a version of U for Unity and Loyalty: the badge you can see at the top of the building over the steps to the right is an older version of the town's coat of arms.

Yelde is another form of the word Guild, showing that it was an important building in the town: the place where much of the Chippenham's business and justice was administered until the town council moved to its current premises down the high street in 1841.

In the 1500s it was rented to the town's bailiff and burgesses, though the building itself is believed to date back the the 1400s. Don't be fooled by the date on the building above the coat of arms: this is believed to date one of the earlier renovations of the building in 1776.

The Yelde Hall has 2 floors and several rooms. Upstairs was used as the council chamber and the large hall to the side possibly as a storage barn when it wasn't being used as a meeting place or courtroom. Beneath the council chamber was the Blind House aka the town's gaol.

Over the years the hall has had many other uses. A 16th century petition to Elizabeth I shows it was also the local community centre and church hall (St Andrew's church is just over the road); when the town council moved out in 1841 it served as an armoury for the Chippenham Company of Volunteers. Then the town's fire brigade used it as its headquarters from 1910/11 until it moved to a new premises in Dallas Road in 1945/6 (the sources I've used give slightly different dates for when these last two events happened).

In 1963 it re-opened as the town's museum and even today the upstairs room shows a representation of the council chamber as it might have been in 1816. The rest of the museum is now housed in larger premises in the Market Place nearby and the Yelde Hall's current incarnation (since 2003) is to serve as Chippenham's Tourist Information Centre.

This is for ABC Wednesday (post delayed owing to Hampton Court coverage last week) and forms my penultimate post about Chippenham in this themed series.

Comments

  1. Roger Owen Green11 July 2011 at 10:05

    I do like the design of that building.

    I'm also very fond of the word 'penultimate'.

    ROG, ABC Wednesday team

    ReplyDelete
  2. petoskystone11 July 2011 at 12:38

    still standing since the 1400s'...wow!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carol Michel11 July 2011 at 12:49

    I always marvel at how old some buildings are in England. You just won't find a building from the 1400's around here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. VP11 July 2011 at 14:02

    ROG - I like the word penultimate too!

    Petoskystone - it's been fascinating looking at the old pictures of the Hall whilst researching this piece - very different in some of them!

    Carol - how old is the oldest building in your part of the world? I remember going to an outdoor museum when we were in Indianapolis is 1992 which had a number of the state's old buildings re-erected on site and people dressed in the costume of the time. It was a fascinating tour!

    Looking forward to seeing you in Seattle :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Esther Montgomery13 July 2011 at 15:42

    Nearly there! After z what will you do? Numbers, colours, start again with A?

    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  6. VP15 July 2011 at 07:43

    Esther - you have your answer for Z! What happens next is yet to be determined ;)

    ReplyDelete

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