Port St Mary Town Hall
| Port St Mary Town Hall | |
|---|---|
The building in April 2006 | |
| Location | The Promenade, Port St Mary |
| Coordinates | 54°04′40″N 4°44′19″W / 54.0778°N 4.7387°W |
| Built | 1898 |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical style |
Shown in Isle of Man | |
Port St Mary Town Hall is a municipal building on The Promenade, Port St Mary, Isle of Man. It accommodates the offices and meeting place of the Port St Mary Commissioners.
History
Following the implementation of the Local Government Act 1886,[1] Port St Mary became a village district with elected commissioners in 1890.[2] In this context, a group of local businessmen formed a company, to be known as The Port St. Mary Public Hall Company Limited, to finance and commission a dedicated town hall for the village.[3] A shipping clerk, Frank Strickland, was appointed secretary of the company.[4]
The site they selected for the new building, on the south side of The Promenade, had been occupied by the Chapel of St Mary (Manx: Keeill Moirrey) in the early medieval period.[5][6] They purchased it from a local landowner, John Sainsbury, in 1897. The building was designed in the neoclassical style, built in rubble masonry and was completed in 1898. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of five bays facing The Promenade. The central section of three bays, which was slightly projected forward, featured three tall sash windows with round heads flanked by pairs of Doric order pilasters supporting a pediment. The outer bays were fenestrated by sash windows. There were external staircases leading up to porches on both sides of the building, and there was a prominent Venetian window with a clock above on the northeast side. Internally, the assembly hall featured a sprung maple floor suitable for dancing and roller skating.[7][8]
The project was not a commercial success, and the hall was sold to the Port St Mary Commissioners, for use as their offices and meeting place, for £1,500 in November 1938.[7] The company which had developed the building was then dissolved in September 1939.[9] After the completion of an extensive programme of refurbishment works, the building was officially re-opened by the deemster, Percy Cowley, as Port St Mary Town Hall on 22 November 1939.[7] The assembly hall was subsequently made available for exhibitions, pantomime performances and film shows.[10][11][12]
In May 2023, the town hall featured an exhibition about the steamship SS Mona's Queen, which took part in the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940.[13] The ship was struck by a sea mine outside Dunkirk Harbour and sunk in two minutes.[14]
References
- ^ Local Government Act 1886 ss.6 & 7, Statutes of the Isle of Man vol. V p. 512
- ^ Belchem, John; Chiverrell, Richard (2000). A New History of the Isle of Man: The modern period 1830–1999. Liverpool University Press. p. 101. ISBN 978-1846313653.
- ^ "Port St Mary Public Hall Company Limited". I Museum. 20 April 1903. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Memorial notice: Frank Strickland". Manx Quarterly. 1 October 1916. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Keeill Moirrey Chapel". I Museum. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Chapel Gate, Site of St Mary's Chapel & Burial Ground (Keeill Moirrey)". Isle of Man Historic Environment Record. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ a b c Qualtrough, J. K. (2008). "Port St Mary" (PDF). Port St. Mary Commissioners. p. 7. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Aidrian Cain in Port St Mary". YouTube. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "The Port St Mary Public Hall Company Limited". Public Record Office, Isle of Man. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Isle of Man tourism glory days celebrated in exhibition". BBC News. 13 July 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Could your child be the official voice of a pantomime?". Three FM. 4 December 2025. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Isle of Man film festival to celebrate Pride month". BBC News. 26 June 2025. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ "Exhibition commemorates Manx ferry sunk at Dunkirk". BBC News. 31 May 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
- ^ Isle of Man Weekly Times, 8 June 1940 (newspaper report containing details of Mona's Queen's history, sinking and names and addresses of crew lost and saved)