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Penrith Town Hall

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21-463: Penrith Town Hall is a municipal building in Corney Square, Penrith, Cumbria , England. The structure, which was the headquarters of Eden District Council , is a Grade II listed building . The current building has its origins in a pair of identical, late 18th century, neoclassical style houses; the left hand building was once occupied by a local clinician, Dr Livingstone, and the right hand house

42-431: A balustrade ; there were two round headed windows on the first floor separated by a Corinthian order column and flanked by Corinthian order pilasters supporting a modillioned cornice and, at roof level, there was a blind dormer containing a panel bearing the coat of arms of the town. The fourth bay on the left, which was also elaborate and also slightly projected forward, featured a short flight of steps leading up to

63-581: A civil defence reporting centre was also established in the basement. The town hall continued to serve as the headquarters of the urban district council for much of the 20th century and remained the local seat of government after the enlarged Eden District Council which was formed in 1974. The museum moved out of the town hall to the Robinson's School Building in Middlegate in July 1985 and the public library moved out of

84-430: A contribution of £1,200 towards the cost of the construction to support the inclusion of a public library. Progress was temporarily delayed when it was thought, incorrectly, that the houses had been designed by Robert Adam : nevertheless, following the intervention of Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley , much of the interiors of the two houses was retained. The new structure was designed by the district surveyor, J. J. Knewstub, in

105-485: A doorway with a fanlight flanked by pairs of Corinthian order columns and, beyond that, Corinthian order pilasters supporting an entablature inscribed with the words "Town Hall" and a balustrade; there were two round headed windows on the first floor flanked by columns and pilasters supporting a modillioned cornice and, at roof level, there was a dormer window with a broken pediment and a pair of urns . The other bays contained three-light windows on both floors. Internally,

126-524: Is a coeducational selective grammar school in Penrith, Cumbria , England . The school currently has approximately 830 pupils. The current headteacher is David Marchant, who took over in September 2022. The headteacher from September 2004 to August 2015 was Chris Kirkup who was succeeded by Paul Buckland from September 2016. Each year group is split on to five forms that have usually 32 students each. Each form

147-410: Is identified by the academic year followed by the initials of the form tutor who is usually a teacher at the school (i.e. 7JB). Students are also divided into one of the school's four houses; Blencow, Strickland, Lowther and Tudor, which are mainly used for sport events. The school was established by a royal charter issued at Westminster on 18 July 1564. The charter was a response to a local appeal to

168-495: The Renaissance Revival style , built in red sandstone from Lazonby with buff sandstone dressings from Stanton Moor and was completed in 1906. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with six bays facing onto Corney Square. The second bay on the left, which slightly projected forward, featured a pair of round headed windows on the ground floor flanked by Corinthian order pilasters supporting an entablature and

189-473: The Crown, with the document saying the school was to be created 'in accordance with the humble petition of the beloved inhabitants of the town and parish of Penrith ... and of very many of our subjects of the whole neighbouring district'. The charter was sealed in the presence of Queen Elizabeth and bore a representation of the monarch on horseback on one side and sitting under a canopy on the other. The creation of

210-519: The chantry school of around £6. However, both the chantry and its school were dissolved under the Dissolution of Colleges Act 1545 and the land on which they were built reverted to the Crown. In 1564, under the charter of the grammar school, the lands of the dissolved chantry and school were restored back to the Lowther family, now headed by Richard Lowther . The new grammar school therefore inherited both

231-481: The grammar school became one of the first state schools in Cumbria to become independent of county council control. It is Cumbria's only true grammar school though some other secondary schools in the county use the word Grammar in their name they are actually comprehensive schools. In more recent times the school has struggled financially and have been issued a notice to improve by the government. The admission process

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252-682: The new council until June 2024, when the council moved its Penrith-based staff and services to Voreda House, a refurbished office building behind the town hall. Penrith, Cumbria Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.132 via cp1112 cp1112, Varnish XID 389682504 Upstream caches: cp1112 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 05:31:24 GMT Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Penrith Lowther   Tudor   Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (QEGS)

273-481: The principal room was the council chamber on the first floor. The new public library was established in a wing on the northwest side of the town hall at the same time that the main building opened, and the Penrith Museum , which had been founded in 1894, also moved into the town hall at that time. On 8 June 1920, the town hall was the venue for the coroner's inquiry into the death of the soldier, Percy Toplis , who

294-469: The railway station, in 1917. During the 1970's and 80's after the abolition of the eleven-plus the school had its own unique selection process where pupils would attend the first two years of their secondary education at Penrith's Ullswater High School or its predecessor schools then be recommended to move either to QEGS or stay at Ullswater. At one time during the mid 1980s Cumbria County Council considered merging QEGS and Ullswater. In response to this

315-541: The redevelopment of the town hall as a creative asset. However, in May 2021 the council also decided to grant the building community asset status, so giving the community the right to acquire the building if it ever came to be offered for sale. The building ceased to be the local seat of government on 1 April 2023, when Eden District Council was abolished and its functions transferred to the new authority, Westmorland and Furness Council . The building continued to house some offices of

336-565: The school was aided by the involvement of Sir Thomas Smith , the dean of Carlisle. A linguist and a diplomat, Smith was admitted to the Privy Council in 1571 and had been educated in classical scholarship at Padua , before lecturing on natural philosophy and Greek at Queens' College, Cambridge . As a renowned educationalist and classicist, Smith was keen to set up a grammar school in Penrith dedicated to Latin and Greek learning. The grammar school

357-516: The site of the former chantry school in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church and its annual endowment of around £6. It is possible that some time was needed to secure this funding before teaching could begin, as the first recorded master was elected by the governors in 1569, some five years after the charter's initial issuing. The school moved from these original premises in St Andrew's churchyard to its present site on Ullswater Road (A592), close to

378-679: The town hall to facilities previously occupied by the Queen Elizabeth Grammar School in St Andrew's Churchyard in 1992. The registrar's office also moved out of the town hall to the library, which then became an approved venue for weddings and civil partnership ceremonies, in 2015. After considering, in January 2018, a plan to erect a modern extension on a car park at the rear of the site, the council decided instead, in March 2021, to appoint consultants to develop an alternative proposal involving

399-524: Was alleged to have taken part in the Étaples mutiny and who later became known as the Monocled Mutineer ; the verdict of the jury was that his death in a gunfight with police was justifiable homicide . During the Second World War staff in the town hall administered the accommodation arrangements for the many thousands of people evacuated from the south east to Cumberland and Westmorland and

420-501: Was financed from the income of a former chantry school in Penrith, which was located near St Andrew's Church . This chantry and its associated school were founded by William Strickland , the bishop of Carlisle, in the early 15th Century. The school associated with the chantry was built on land belonging to the Lowther family, a local aristocratic family, who would later become the Earls of Lonsdale . The Lowther family made an annual endowment to

441-479: Was once occupied by the former East Indiaman commander, John Wordsworth, who was a cousin of the poet, William Wordsworth . Following significant population growth, largely associated with the status of Penrith as a market town, the area became an urban district in 1895. The new civic leaders decided to acquire the two buildings and to combine them into a single municipal structure. The Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist , Andrew Carnegie , made

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