The Great Hall, Rochdale Town Hall, Lancashire
Address
Rochdale Town Hall, The Esplanade, Rochdale, OL16 1AZRecommended by
Highlight
A set of windows showing English monarchs in the Great Hall of Rochdale Town HallArtist, maker and date
Heaton, Butler & Bayne, c. 1866-71Reason for highlighting
The Great Hall of Rochdale Town Hall is a splendid space with a huge display of stained glass showing English monarchs from William the Conqueror to William IV. Each one is shown as a full-length figure, together with arms and attributes. An insight into the ambitions and political principles of Rochdale Corporation is given by their decision to include Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector, who stands between Charles I and Charles II. Also part of the hall’s decoration is a large mural depicting the signing of Magna Carta, by Henry Holiday. The scheme thus honours history and tradition while expressing a commitment to change and reform.
Together with the other work by Heaton, Butler & Bayne in the building, this is as grand and ambitious a programme of stained glass as can be found almost anywhere in the secular buildings of the Victorian age, by one of the leading firms of the period.
Artist/maker notes
Heaton Butler & Bayne, one of the leading Victorian stained-glass firms, was set up in the early 1850s by Clement Heaton (1824-1882), who was joined by James Butler (1830-1913) in 1855. The firm initially shared premises, and probably, expertise, with another stained-glass firm, Clayton & Bell. Robert Bayne (1837-1915) was with the latter firm but left to join Heaton and Butler in 1862. Bayne became the principal designer as the firm grew and flourished.
According to The Architect the scheme at Rochdale was ‘personally supervised’ by Clement Heaton, while Henry Holiday attributes the design work at Rochdale to Heaton in his autobiography. It is likely that other members of the firm, under Heaton’s oversight, must have been involved in the design work for such a large commission, but it is not clear which artist was responsible for the Great Hall glass..
Stained glass by the firm appears in churches all over England, and other civic commissions include that devised for the Plymouth Guildhall, lost during the Second World War. The scheme at Rochdale Town Hall is their largest surviving secular commission, and is said to have cost more than £10,000.
Sources:
The Architect, 21 October 1871
Reminiscences of my Life by Henry Holiday (Heinemann, 1914 p. 176)
Heaton, Butler & Bayne Un Siecle du Vitrail /A Hundred Years of the Art of Stained Glass by S.B.M. Bayne, (privately published, 1986)
Victorian Stained Glass by Martin Harrison (Barrie & Jenkins Ltd, 1980)
Other comments
Rochdale has one of the finest Victorian town halls in the country, designed by W.H. Crossland, and built in 1866-71 with a tower by the architect Alfred Waterhouse, to replace one destroyed by fire. Heaton, Butler & Bayne’s work includes wall paintings and decoration for the Great Hall, Borough Court, Magistrates’ Room, Mayoral Suite and Council Room as well as all the stained glass throughout the building. This includes magnificent displays of heraldry on the main stair, charming panels showing birds and biblical subjects in the Magistrates’ room and much other work.