Carmarthen Guildhall (Welsh: Neuadd y Dref Caerfyrddin) is a municipal structure in Guildhall Square, Carmarthen, Wales. The guildhall, which was the headquarters of Carmarthen Borough Council, is a Grade I listed building.[1]
The building was commissioned to replace a 16th-century guildhall which, by 1765, had become very dilapidated and had to be demolished in 1766.[2] Some £4,000 towards the cost of the new building was donated by the future local Member of Parliament, John Adams.[3] The foundation stone for the new building was laid on 10 April 1767:[2] it was designed by Sir Robert Taylor in the neoclassical style, built in rubble masonry and completed in 1777.[1]
The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto Guildhall Square; it was originally arcaded on the ground floor, so that markets could be held, with assembly rooms on the first floor.[1] The ground floor was rusticated with Tuscan order columns supporting an entablature and a balustrade, while the first floor featured three large arched recesses containing Venetian windows surmounted by stone voussoirs with blind panels above.[1][4]
A double curving flight of steps to the assembly hall was added in 1811, an extension to the rear incorporating jury rooms and offices was completed in 1829 and a large portico, replacing the flight of steps, was added to a design by W. H. Lindsey in 1862.[1] A projecting clock turret and a weather vane in the shape of a cockerel were also added in 1862.[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the courtroom and the grand jury room on the first floor and the office of the magistrates' clerk on the ground floor.[5]
Following his decision to vote against the First Reform Bill, the local Member of Parliament, John Jones, was attacked and injured in rioting at the guildhall on 29 April 1831 during a general election; polling in the constituency had to be postponed until August 1831 when Jones was successfully re-elected.[6]
A war memorial, designed by E. V. Collier and W. D. Jenkins and intended to commemorate the lives of service personnel who had died in the Second Boer War, was unveiled outside the guildhall by Major-General Henry Mackinnon on 27 April 1906.[11][12]
The building was the main location for undertaking public business for the borough[5] and remained as such until the borough officers and their departments moved to the municipal buildings in John Street in the first half of the 20th century.[13] The guildhall was also the venue in July 1966 for the acceptance speech given by Gwynfor Evans, the first politician elected to represent Plaid Cymru at Westminster.[14][15] After HM Courts and Tribunals Service decided to cease using the building as a courthouse, Carmarthenshire County Council took ownership of the building in summer 2016.[16] Scenes from the television series, Keeping Faith, were filmed in the building in October 2017,[17] and a programme of refurbishment works, which involved the conversion of the ground floor into a restaurant and cafe, was carried out at a cost of £1 million and completed in 2019.[18]
Works of art in the guildhall include a portrait by Martin Archer Shee of General Sir Thomas Picton.[19] Following revelations about Picton's links to slavery, Carmarthenshire County Council agreed to install an appropriate information plaque alongside the portrait.[20] There are also portraits by Thomas Brigstocke of General Sir William Nott[21] and of the local Members of Parliament, John Jones of Ystrad[22] and David Morris.[23][24]
Carmarthenshire is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as the "Garden of Wales" and is also home to the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
Carmarthen is the county town of Carmarthenshire and a community in Wales, lying on the River Towy 8 miles (13 km) north of its estuary in Carmarthen Bay. The population was 14,185 in 2011, down from 15,854 in 2001, but gauged at 16,285 in 2019. It has a claim to be the oldest town in Wales – Old Carmarthen and New Carmarthen became one borough in 1546. It was the most populous borough in Wales in the 16th–18th centuries, described by William Camden as "chief citie of the country". Growth stagnated by the mid-19th century as new settlements developed in the South Wales Coalfield.
Laugharne is a town on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Tâf.
Gwynfor Richard Evans was a Welsh politician, lawyer and author. He was President of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru for thirty-six years and was the first member of Parliament to represent it at Westminster, which he did twice, from 1966 to 1970, and again from 1974 to 1979.
Pontyberem is a village and community situated in the Gwendraeth Valley halfway between Carmarthen and Llanelli in Carmarthenshire, Wales. As of the 2001 Census, the population was recorded as 2,829, reducing to 2,768 at the 2011 Census.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1858 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1843 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1844 to Wales and its people.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1831 to Wales and its people.
John Hinds was a Welsh businessman and politician. At the December 1910 general election Hinds was chosen as the Liberal candidate for the seat of West Carmarthenshire, holding the seat until its abolition in 1918.
John Jones "of Ystrad" (1777–1842), was a Welsh politician, MP for Carmarthen from 1821 to 1832.
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1811 to Wales and its people.
The name Rhyd-y-gors or Rhydygors has been associated with two historic sites near the market town of Carmarthen in Southwest Wales. The first was the Norman Rhyd-y-gors Castle and the other was Rhyd-y-gors Mansion, home of the Edwardes family.
This is a list of High Sheriffs of Carmarthenshire. Carmarthenshire was originally created by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. It became an administrative county in 1889 with a county council following the Local Government Act 1888. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county of Carmarthenshire was abolished on 1 April 1974 and the area of Carmarthenshire became three districts within the new county of Dyfed : Carmarthen, Dinefwr and Llanelli. Under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Dyfed was abolished on 1 April 1996 and the three districts united to form a unitary authority which had the same boundaries as the original Carmarthenshire but remaining in the shrievalty of Dyfed.
Shoni Sguborfawr or Sioni Ysgubor Fawr (1811–1858) was a Welsh criminal, most notable for his part in the Rebecca Riots and his subsequent attempts to blackmail fellow rioters.
David Davies, also known as Dai'r Cantwr, was a Welsh poet and lay-preacher. He was convicted and sentenced to transportation to Australia for his actions during the Rebecca Riots.
Thomas Brigstocke was a Welsh portrait painter. He studied art in London, and then spent eight years in Italy before returning to England. In the 1840s he visited Egypt, where he painted portraits of Mohammed Ali Pasha and his family.
County Hall is a municipal facility on Castle Hill in Carmarthen, Wales. The building, which is the headquarters of Carmarthenshire County Council, is a Grade II listed building.
The Shire Hall is a municipal building in Carmarthen Street, Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The structure, which was used as a courthouse for over a century, is now the meeting place of Llandeilo Town Council.
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