Building record 638/12/1 - The Moot Hall, Market Square

Moot hall and attached house. Mid C18th front of ashlar. South elevation of 1806. Red brick side elevation with channelled stucco ground floor on left. Old tile roof behind parapet. This replaced an earlier Moot Hall which was demolished in 1806. Remains of a WWII air raid shelter in the basement.

{1} Moot hall and attached house. Mid C18th front of ashlar. South elevation of 1806. Red brick side elevation with channelled stucco ground floor on left. Old tile roof behind parapet. Wide mullioned pediment. Brick end stacks. Double-depth plan. 2 storeys plus attic. 3-window range. Entrance on left end. Ground floor has 3 semi-circular headed windows with keyblocks. Gothick glazing bars. Side pilasters. 3 sashes with keystoned stone architraves to first and attic floors. Glazing bars. Clock. Painted rusticated ground floor. Doric porch flanked by round headed windows. 3 sashes to both first and attic floors have brick flat arches. Modillion cornice. Parapet. Interior not inspected.

{5} Basement air raid shelter under the Moot Hall. Entrance was via a brick surface structure at the front of the Moot Hall. Museum staff report a bricked-up door in the basement wall at the front of the building. No other signs of the basement's former use was observed. A cutting from The Daventry Express has a photo showing the shelter entrance.

{7} By this period it seems that a hall with two little shops blocked off the western entrance to the market. This hall was known as the Mothall and was presumably the place where sessions of the portmote court were held. Many of these specialised commercial precincts were named again in the 1571 survey. This listed the ‘Mote Hall in the market place’ with a cottage below; the stalls there for drapers and butchers, and the stalls in the street for ‘wgytconers, tanners, shoemakers and others, . The shambles with shops apurtaining to the beast market, the sheep market and the hogg market called the Pety Cury’
By the late 18th century the growing popularity of the market and fairs necessitated improvements. A plan for paving the High Street in 1788 provided for the pebbling of the Hog Market and indicated the need to replace the old Moot Hall which had fallen into disrepair and which, according to Baker, ‘admitted only a narrow and inconvenient entrance’ to the market place. In 1806 the different market precincts were relocated. From then on butchers’ meat was to be sold only on the site of the old butchers’ Shambles and Moot Hall. Cheese could be sold only on the market hill (market place) and the site of the Moot Hall.
The portmote court maintained by the lord of the Over Manor for the tenants of his burgage properties was presumably held in the Mothall. This building stood in the road at the western side of the market place. In the early 1380s it contained two shops, and in 1571 there was a cottage below. In later centuries it housed the Butchers’ Shambles and the toll house. By 1788 it had become dilapidated and, as it blocked the approach to the market hill, the decision was taken to purchase it and to raise money to build or purchase a new one. In 1806 the corporation and the lord of the manor agreed a price for the building, its site and the market tolls, and the old Moot Hall was demolished. A ‘respectable house’ was purchased on the north side of the market hill and ‘neatly fitted up’ for holding borough sessions and other corporate meetings. The cost of the transactions, together with the Act of Parliament which sanctioned them, was over £2,000.

{8} Moot Hall, Market Hill. Original Moot Hall stood between High Street and Market Hill - was knocked down in 1806. A house on the north side of Market Hill was purchased in 1806 for use as Moot Hall .The building is primarily of brick construction, but has stone facing on the frontage. The structure has an elaborate porch with 'Moot Hall' engraved in the stonework. The building is now utilised by the Tourist Information Centre and Museum. Film 1, Photo 3-7.
Fire Station, Market Place: Fire Engine was kept at Moot Hall on the Market Place.

{9} Photo possibly 1947;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 1/53 (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> Brown A.E.(Transcriber), 1788, Daventry High Street, (checked) (Map). SNN75721.

<3> Pevsner N.; Cherry B., 1973, The Buildings of England: Northamptonshire, p.173 (unchecked) (Series). SNN1320.

<4> List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), p.12 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN44900.

<5> Armishaw A., 2000, Defence Of Britain Report Forms, (checked) (Notes). SNN101503.

<6> Daventry Express, Down Memory Lane, (checked) (Newspaper cuttings). SNN108730.

<7> Ballinger J.; Foard G., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Daventry (Medieval/Post Medieval/ Industrial), Section 3.5.1.2 & 3.5.1.4 (Digital archive). SNN100501.

<8> Ballinger J., 1999, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Industrial Period, (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN4.

<9> Photographs of buildings in Daventry (Photographs). SNN112541.

<10> Migrated Defence of Britain Project database record originally compiled from various sources (Database). SNN112922.

<11> Historic England, Undated, Defence of Britain, DEB01 (Archive). SNN112947.

Record last edited

Mar 14 2023 11:05AM