History and archaeology of the Moot Hall King st Alfreton

The following transcript was taken from the Glover's History of Derbyshire, volume 11 and describes in great detail the archaeology undertaken after the Moot Hall was demolished in 1914
The old court-house or Moot Hall at Alfreton
Written by WILLIAM STEVENSON
ORIGINAL PILLAR FOUND IN THE OLD COURT-HOUSE
All that was left of the Old Moot-Hall at Alfreton, occupying an island site in the market-place
The ordinary person would probably be ignorant that in the premises which was occupied by Mr J Redfern, there lay Hidden amid many 17th or 18th century additions the remains of the ancient Market-Hall or Court-House
Dr Pegge says Alfreton esteemed a barony or honour
And there may have been an earlier moot-hall than this one which probably served the further purpose of a market-hall for the chartered-market granted by Henry the 3rd in 1251, to Thomas de Chaworth of Marnhan Nottinghamshire and Robert de Lathom who were the joint lords
Thomas de Alfreton the last of that line died in 1241, and the manor then descended to his nephew Thomas de Chaworth and to Robert de Lathom who had married one of Thomas's sisters and co heiresses who sold his moiety to Chaworth
The building was partly of brick and partly of stone, its demolition has given the opportunity for a more accurate knowledge of its construction
The Hall proper, divested of the 17th and 18th century additions the object of which was to convert the premises to business or residential purposes proved to have been the northern or High Street portion, consisting of a frontage of 48 feet and 6 inches
It was a building of three bays in length, two of which, the west ones, were excavated possibly as a prison, in this underground apartment was a built-up stone column 3 feet wide and 2 feet thick, finished with a heavy cap-stone
The basement walls, 3 feet in thickness, were of quarry-faced stone capped by a chamfered plinth a few inches above the ground level, a south entrance had been in use to the end, but a blocked north one was plain near the centre on the market side the latter possibly the original
The basement was floored over with oak beams 14 inches by 14 inches and oak joists about 5 inches by 5 inches in section, some of the joists had been replaced by oak studs from half-timber walls or walls of post and panel two sheets of which, one being the remains of an outer south wall, survived at higher levels
The panels were formed of strong oak-riven laths tightly fitted into the grooved edges of the posts and thickly plastered on either side
The first chamber floor was of the same sized joists and timbers, three of the latter forming a centre line the full length of the building, into which the heavy joists were tennoned, three such beams called for four supports, of which the end walls of the building formed two, a third, or inner one towards the west, was an oak wrought and carved octagonal column, 1 foot and 3 inches in diameter, long hidden by being box-cased to prepare for which the column was reduced to a square, and so mutilated that a model, one-eighth full size has been necessary to show the original details, and its position standing on the ground floor beams and supporting those of the first floor
This model, together with the mutilated original, is here shown by photographic illustrations, which it is hoped may lead to an authoritative date being assigned to the great timbers of this building, enquiries already made, tend to prove that the details of this column are unique, but based architecturally on the Gothic periods
The second discovery was first floor longitudinal beams, some distance from the end walls, threw off secondary beams at an angle of 45 degrees, their trend being of corners of the oblong building, these could only be what the chamber story was originally an over wooden one, and that the office of these angular joists were to carry the upper corner posts, the whole thing a ground and an upper one of half-timber placed by a later one of double brick
An original story half-timber building was thus adumbrated chambers in the roof and floors, except in the basement, of plaster run upon reeds
It was hoped to find evidence of a second worked column, provision for such, after the manner of a respond, patent in the eastern stone wall of the basement
It was found that the brick period, following that of the wood had destroyed all evidence, the beam ends here being supported by a 14 inch wall................................
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