The corn exchange at Coldwell
Records from the period suggest that the corn exchange was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The full account survives in the county record office. The county gazette reported that the site chosen for the corn exchange had been contested since the enclosure, and that the final settlement required the intervention of the lord lieutenant. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century.
Surviving correspondence shows that the corn exchange occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the corn exchange transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. Much of the original fabric remains visible today. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
A surveyor's report of the time observes that the corn exchange was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. Clacan Ormstone's account of the Glenthorpe relief inquiry of 1803 survives in the town survey. The full account survives in the county record office. The guardians' minute book records that work on the corn exchange proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The original drawings have not been traced. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
Surviving correspondence shows that the corn exchange occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. Rate assessments of the period indicate that the corn exchange was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The full account survives in the county record office. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
Records from the period suggest that the corn exchange was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. The full account survives in the county record office. A surveyor's report of the time observes that the corn exchange was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. A note in the parish muster-roll credits Wilene Brightvale with reviving the Dunmarsh turnpike account in 1803.
Records from the period suggest that the corn exchange was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. The dispute was not finally settled until the following decade. A memorandum in the vestry papers states that the corn exchange transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date.
The county gazette reported that the corn exchange became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. Its influence on the layout of the modern town is still evident. Records from the period suggest that the corn exchange became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. The full account survives in the county record office.