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Summary

Public library and hall, commemorating the dead of 1914-18 war, built in Tudor style in 1928-9, on the site of the Angel Hotel.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1384735: WAR MEMORIAL LIBRARY AND HALL

Other References/Statuses

• Old Listed Building Ref: 485193

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• LIBRARY (XX - 1928 AD to 1929 AD (Between))
• MEMORIAL HALL (XX - 1928 AD to 1929 AD)

Full description

Walls, S., 2010, The Materiality of Remembrance: Twentieth Century War Memorials in Devon, 336-7; TIV01-03 (Post-Graduate Thesis). SDV355902.

Tiverton War Memorial Hall, Remembrance Room and Memorial Hall Board.

Ordnance Survey, 2012, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV348725.

English Heritage, 2012, National Heritage List for England (National Heritage List for England). SDV348729.

Public library and hall, commemorating the dead of 1914-18 war. 1928-9 by Dixon and Bamsey of Tiverton. Concrete front, the walling of pink and yellow blocks resembling coursed squared rubble, the details yellow to resemble limestone. Rear wall of red brick. Slated roof. A pair of octagonal concrete chimneys at each end of ridge. Style: Tudor style. Plan: (room names as in 1929): central entrance hall and staircase; Hall of Remembrance, containing memorial plaques, to left, caretaker's flat to right. Assembly, concert or dance hall, with stage, to rear. Smaller assembly or social room in lower ground floor, together with kitchen servery. Library on first floor. Exterior: two storeys with semi-basement; single-storey hall at rear. Eight windows wide, the left end (with one upstairs window) splayed and containing the vehicle entrance in the ground storey. Remaining seven windows symmetrically arranged with projecting, one-window entrance porch in the centre. Windows have three mullioned-and-transomed lights, those to the ground storey with two rows of transoms and continued hoodmoulds. All the windows except those in the semi-basement have small rectangular leaded panes. Above the second-storey windows a moulded cornice and tall parapet. Porch carried out on two slightly bulbous Doric columns with matching half-columns against the wall face. From the columns spring round arches, front and sides, the taller front arch with keystone. Above the latter is a circular plaque carrying the town seal, its border with the inscription SIGILLUM OPPIDI DE TYVERTON. Flanking the plaque are the dates 1914 and 1918 and below it the words TIVERTON MEMORIAL. The porch is finished with a triangular gable and three ball finials. On each side of the upper storey is a niche with Tudor arch and hoodmould. Within the porch is a plank door with wrought-iron strap hinges. Vehicle entrance to left has a round arch springing from columns like those on the porch. To its right, on the corner, is a niche similar to those on the sides of the porch. On the plinth below the ground-storey windows left of the porch are three inscriptions dated 30 May 1928, accompanied respectively by the names LADY HEATHCOAT AMORY, KATHERINE MAUD LAZENBY JP, and MARJORIE LANSDOWN GREGORY. Interior: very simple. Open-well stair, probably of concrete, with iron balustrade and wooden handrail.
History: the Tiverton War Memorial scheme was inaugurated in April 1919. The Angel Hotel, which formerly occupied this site, was acquired and opened as a library on 11 November 1920. An appeal was then launched to raise £11,000 for a rebuilding. A watercolour of the proposed building was prepared by Mr Ogden, headmaster of the School of Art, who seems to have influenced its design; it was intended to match the early 17th century Chilcott's School and the Great House of St George in St Peter Street. Demolition of the former Angel Hotel (which projected further into the road than the present building) began on New Year's day, 1928, the stone-laying ceremony was on 30 May and the official opening on 3 April 1929. Architects were Capt Dixon and Mr CE Bamsey. Builders were Nicks Bros of Bradninch. Facade supplied by The Wharf Lane Concrete Co of Ilminster.

Imperial War Museum, 2014, War Memorials Archive, 45969 - 45972 (Website). SDV356253.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments: none recorded

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4408 - Archaeological Assessment of Proposed Redevelopment in St Andrew Street, Tiverton, Devon

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