Building record ADB 012 - Moot Hall

Moot Hall. C16 Town Hall of two storeys. Building was restored at the end of the last century. Fine wooden roof, the timbers are mainly original (S1).
Circa 1520-1540, timber framed, with brick nogging on the upper floor, which was inserted in 1654. The original timber arches on ground floor are a reminder of the fact that the ground floor was an open market (R1).
May 1997: Descheduled (S1).

The Moot Hall at Aldeburgh is one of the best preserved Tudor public buildings in Britain. Dating from the mid-16th century it originally contained no fewer than six small shops on its lower storey, together with a masonry-walled room that may have served as a gaol, and a spacious meeting hall with a further chamber on the first floor. Arrangements of this kind are typical of early market buildings, where the ground floor was let for commercial purposes to offset the cost of construction and maintenance, with courts and other public functions taking place above. The upper hall was reached by an external staircase in much the same manner as today, although the stair itself, along with both gables and much of the roof structure, was replaced in an extensive 19th century renovation. An open-sided polygonal market cross stood alongside the building in the 16th century, together with a large market hall and various small booths, and the Moot Hall (known in 1790 as the Town Hall) was probably intended to accommodate market courts as well as meetings of the town’s councillors (S2).