The Pepperpot

The Old Town Hall

Old Town Hall, popularly know as the Pepper Box or Pepperpot, was in use for the official meetings of the Borough Council until 1908 when more convenient buildings were erected in Bridge Street. It is still the appointed place for more important public announcements such as Royal Proclamations.

The present building dates only from 1814, but it stands on a site, which has been the focal point of all local government in this district for well over a thousand years. It is a somewhat smaller building than its predecessor, which had fallen into disrepair. As there were no public funds available for meeting the cost of a new building, local residents raised the necessary money by subscription, and the work was constructed from the design of Mr Perry, a local architect. The total sum raised by subscription was £783 7s. 2d., to which was added £81 19s. 6d. from the sale of the older building. It was stipulated that any place erected should be open to the use of the Lord of the Manor, which clearly indicates that the old market house on this site was used for manorial purposes.

The upper storey, used formerly as the Council Chamber, rests upon a number of open arches, which provided a covering for the market place. From the roof rises a small square turret housing the town clock, and above this is a bell-cote formed by a number of columns supporting a cupola, the whole being surmounted by a gilded weather vane. It is constructed of red brick, covered with stucco.

Eighteenth-century prints show that it reproduces most of the characteristics of the earlier building, which was constructed at least as early as the 15th Century. This was a timber-framed structure having an open market place below and a courtroom above. Here, as now, was the Common Pump, and here, too, were the stocks, facing Church Street, and the lock-up. The town records show clearly that the maintenance of the clock and bell was a matter of very great importance. The Ordinances drawn up in 1620 for the governance of the town contain the following provision:

That forasmuch as the Use of a Clock in the said Towne is very necessary for the Inhabitants thereof for the keeping of Fitt and ordinary Hours for their Apprentices Servants and Workmen That the Warden and Assistants and such as have born office in the said Town . . . may as Occasion requireth from time to time make assessments for the keeping amending and mainteyning of the said Clock to be taxed upon all the Inhabitants which are Housekeepers in the said Town according to their Ability.

The considered legal opinion of the Solicitor General given in 1726 was that this article authorised the levy of a rate for the paying of a man to serve as Bellman and Bedle in the town and for the repair of a Fire Engine. It seems probable that the bell was, therefore, used for sounding the fire alarm when necessary. Doubtless also it served as a warning for the closing of alehouses at nine o'clock in the evening in accordance with another article of the Ordinances.

The old clock was sold in 1813 for £3; the replacement clock was constructed in 1814 by Stedman, a local craftsman who had his workshop in the Mint; this now resides in Godalming Museum. John Smiths of Derby installed the present electronic clock mechanism in the early 1980's. The bell now in use dates from 1792.

The continuity of the market house had a special significance, for the market and fair tolls and the rents paid for the use of the Market House provided almost the only source of town revenue from the time of Queen Elizabeth's Charter of 1575 down to 1825.

Here was held the Court of Pie Powder, which dealt summarily with differences arising from bargains and contracts, and with disorders within the fair or market. Its jurisdiction was limited to cases, which arose and were determined the same day; it met from hour to hour as summoned by the steward's order, and a jury could be hastily empanelled from among those present. It seems clear that the Market House was taken over for use as a Town Hall after the grant of the town's charter, but it had been used as a Court House before this. In a deed of 1532 it is referred to as the Hundred House. The lord of the manor of Godalming was also lord of the hundred of Godalming.

The Hundred as an organised institution of local government and police dates from the 10th Century, and possibly originated much earlier in some grouping of sub-divisions of the shire that sent a hundred members each to the host. It took its name from its place of meeting, usually the most easily accessible spot in the hundred, and the early moots, or meetings, were held in the open air. It is not impossible, therefore, that this site may have witnessed gatherings for the transaction of local business in quite primitive times, long before the manor of Godalming came under its lord.

The early lock-up, or town prison, was naturally enough a small affair. When ampler accommodation was required the Court Room itself was used. Ninety-eight French prisoners of war captured during the Belle Isle Expedition of 1761 were lodged here by George Beauclerk, Colonel of the 19th Regiment of Foot, who paid fifteen shillings for the storing of the regimental baggage and seventeen shillings for the prisoners.

The old market house was also the inevitable centre of social life as well as of municipal affairs. Here the bonfires were lighted and firework displays given on Illumination Night (5 November), which commemorated both the frustration of Guy Fawkes and the triumphal landing of William of Orange. Travelling companies of actors are recorded as having paid half-a-guinea in 1781 and again in 1801 for the hire of the building.

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