History of Stratford Town Hall
The present Stratford Town Hall was built 1767 by Robert Newman and is one of the few buildings in Stratford constructed in stone. It is thought to have been designed by Timothy Lightholer who also designed the stone spire of the parish church. It replaced an earlier buiding which was partially destroyed in the Civil War following the explosion of three barrels of gunpowder, which had been stored in the building. It was originally open on the ground floor for use on market day. These arches were filled in and fenestrated in 1863.
The statue of Shakespeare above the door was commissioned in 1769 by the famous Shakespearean actor David Garrick to coincide with a three-day festival which he organised in Shakespeare's honour. The Town Hall, originally known as Shakespeare Hall, is the location of the first recorded public production of a Shakespeare play (Othello) in Stratford. This took place in the 1746 in the earlier Town Hall which was located here.
Limestone
The town hall is mainly constructed of Cotswold Stone, a limestone which has been widely used as a construction stone in buildings such a Blenheim Palace and Eton College.
Limestones are sedimentary rocks which are formed in a marine environment. Fossil shells are often found in limestones. Pure limestone can be made up completely of calcite, but if other material is being laid down as well, such as sand, then the limestone will be impure.
British Limestones
The three most important limestones in Britain are:
1. Carboniferous Limestone
This is a sedimentary rock and is usually light grey in colour. It can be easily split into blocks for use as building stone. Mostly, Carboniferous limestone is brittle and is generally only used as a building stone in those areas where it is found with great abundance. It is commonly used as a roadstone, but can also be used for cement making because it is often quite pure.
2. Jurassic Limestones
These are a pale brown or honey colour, much softer and more porous than the Carboniferous Limestone. A close look at a piece of Jurassic Limestone will reveal a composite of tiny grains with occasional fragments of shell or veins of calcite. These are often oolitic (meaning that they contain small round grains), and occur in beds a few metres thick. These are important as building stones. They are not usually strong enough to be used as roadstone, but are sometimes pure enough to be used for cement-making.
3. Cretaceous Limestones
These are the various chalks that dominate much of SE England, such as the North and South Downs. Chalk is a white, fine-grained porous rock, formed from the remains of planktonic organisms, and made up of very fine plates of calcite. Chalk is generally too soft to be used for building, but is used a lot in cement-making.
Care of Limestone
Cotswold stone, like other limestones, is affected by pollution often referred to as acid rain. It predominantly affects ashlar, smooth dressed stone and range work where the surface of the stonework decays due to chemical change and forms a dirty crust of sulphate. Nowadays this crust tends to consist of nitrates caused by fumes from diesel particulates, but originally it was due to the proliferation of coal and wood fires. This black staining is visible wherever walls are more sheltered and the rain can’t wash the pollution away.
Building with Limestone
Limestone is a rock which is formed in layers. When building with limestone one should ensure that the blocks are laid with their sedimentary bedding horizontal and not vertical. Laying the blocks wrongly may lead to flaking of the stone and weakness in the building structure.
Your tasks
To log this cache, you will need to complete the tasks below. You can use information from the cache page and your observations at GZ to do this. Please message us with the info (rather than post it on your log). You can log a find once we have been sent a message; there is no need to wait for a reply. We may delete your log if your answer is way off the mark.
- Go to the Town Hall and using the information given above and your observations, say which type of limestone has been used here. Describe the stone you can see (colour, texture, layers etc)
- Look at the front and the side of the building. Can you see any evidence of decay to the stone? (Flaking, staining etc). What do you think has caused this?
- Are there any blocks which have been laid with bedding vertical rather than horizontal? Why might this cause a weakness in the structure?
- As an optional extra, post a picture of yourself and/or your GPS at Stratford Town Hall