Brackley’s crowning glory is the beautiful and imposing Town Hall, commissioned in 1704 by the Egerton family (4th Earl of Bridgewater). Originally, the ground floor was open to allow markets to take place. At the time, lace, wool and corn were popular trades and regular markets and meetings would take place beneath the enclosed upstairs. The upstairs room was used as a place of law with a jury room and also for council business, elections, political events and social events such as balls, much as it is used today!

It is believed that the Town Hall could have been based upon a design by Sir Christopher Wren. Wren’s protégé, Christopher Kempster, had designed the County Hall in Abingdon in the late 1600s when he was working with Wren. Brackley’s new Town Hall, which Kempster started some 20 years after Abingdon, shares striking similarities with his Abingdon design. It is thought both are based upon a design by Wren.

The Town Hall has hosted some notable events, including a sermon by the founder of the Methodist Movement, John Wesley, who said of his encounter: “The congregation was large and attentive but seemed to understand me no more that if I had been talking Greek.”

In 1876 the downstairs arcade was filled in to create an indoor space and in 1883 the great-great Nephew of Scroop Egerton, who commissioned and paid for the original building, expanded the building considerably. Whereas the original building had four bays, the new building had five. Pillars were introduced downstairs, the stone at the front was moved to the sides to accommodate a grander new stone entrance. The clock tower was also moved to accommodate the new dimensions.

An external fire escape was added in 1913 due to fear that only one staircase in the building was insufficient.

The Town Hall has recently undergone a multi-million pound refurbishment to make it ready to face the next three centuries with the same confidence and style it has the last 300 years.