The 1780s

The Mayoral Chain

Isaac Jenks was Mayor of Wolverhampton from 1872 until 1873. He was born in Sedgley in 1816 and at the age of 12, began an apprenticeship at the Shrubbery Iron Works, owned by George and Edward Thorneycroft. Isaac then worked for Solley Brothers at Great Bridge Iron Works and learned the process of converting puddled, or malleable iron into puddled steel.

In 1857 he founded the Minerva Iron and Steel Works in Horseley Fields, and soon opened Beaver Ironworks, also in Lower Horseley Fields.

He was a very successful, self-made businessman who became one of the most wealthy ironmasters in Wolverhampton. By the early 1870s, his ironworks were producing up to 80% of the total UK steel exports to the USA.

Isaac Jenks was a staunch Wesleyan Methodist, and when he became Mayor of Wolverhampton on November 9th, 1872, the Corporation attended Darlington Street Methodist Church to hear a sermon. He had a kind and benevolent disposition, a quiet and unassuming man, who gave freely to good causes, particularly those assisting the building of places of worship.

Isaac Jenks, JP.

On the 14th April, 1873 he gave the gold chain and badge of office that would be worn by future mayors at council meetings and civic functions. It is of Greek design, weighs 30ozs. and cost £250. He lived with his wife Rebecca, 2 sons and 3 daughters at Morley House on Dunstall Hill.

A New Town Hall

By the mid 1860s the old Town Hall in North Street had become out of date and could no longer cater for the council’s needs. In April 1865, during a meeting of the council, Alderman Fowler proposed that a new and larger town hall was a necessity. There was a large and unused piece of land behind the building that cost £7,000 and could be used as part of the site for a larger town hall, which would include a council chamber and a magistrates' court. After a long discussion it was agreed that the old Town Hall should be demolished and that architects would be invited to send-in designs for a good building, costing no more than £15,000. As an incentive, the winner would receive £100 and the runner-up would receive £50.

The Town Hall and the Retail Market.

The competition was advertised in many journals and a committee was appointed to consider any plans that were submitted and to report on the matter to the council. There were nineteen entries. The committee favoured a French Renaissance design by Ernest Bates, an architect from Manchester, which would cost £17,000. Mr. Robinson, also from Manchester, sent a design for a cheaper building that would cost £15,750. The council accepted Mr. Robinson’s design, but before the contract was signed, Mr. Robinson discovered that alterations and additions had been made to his plans, so he refused to sign the contract and withdrew. The council then accepted Mr. Bates’ design, which was put out to tender. The lowest tender for £17,200 came from the local builder, Philip Horsman, which was accepted. A further sum of £1,000 was then added to the contract price, for which Mr. Horsman agreed to provide Caen stone for the front of the building.

The foundation stone was laid by the Mayor, Alderman Moses Ironmonger, who afterwards gave a banquet in the Exchange Building to honour the occasion.

The building would contain a spacious council chamber, the Mayor's parlour, the magistrates' court, the quarter sessions court, the Town Clerk's office, the council offices, meeting rooms, the police barracks, prison cells and the fire station.

The Town Hall took two years to build and was officially opened by Lord Wrottesley, on the 19th October, 1871.

A marble statue of George Benjamin Thorneycroft, the first Mayor of the Borough was erected in the entrance hall in 1878. It had previously been placed over his vault in the cemetery, where it had stood for twenty years. After a thorough clean, it was moved to the new Town Hall.

Moses Ironmonger, JP.

When the building came into use, a number of problems were discovered. The acoustics in the council chamber were awful, due to a bad echo which made it almost impossible to hear what people were saying. When the statement of the cost of the new building was presented to the council by the committee, Councillor William Highfield Jones stated that “it was clear that a large amount of money had been literally wasted, the new Town Hall had cost double what it ought to have done. In the next place, the building had been so badly constructed that a prisoner in custody for a serious offence had actually been able to scale the walls of the exercise ground and get clean away in broad daylight.” He also said that “the Borough police court and the quarter sessions court were so badly designed in regard to their acoustic properties that the magistrates, the Recorder, and jury were not able to hear the evidence of witnesses brought before them.”

The Town Hall in about 1900.

The members of the Council all complained about the miserable echo at Council meetings and press reporters bitterly complained that they could not correctly report the speeches. Many experiments were tried to improve the acoustic properties of the Council Chamber including the hanging of flags on the walls. Eventually canvas sheeting was placed below the existing ceiling, which improved the sound, but was very ugly. It remained there until the building was remodelled in 1903. The building was Grade II Listed on the 16th July, 1949.

Another early view of the Town Hall.