Old Town Hall
The Market Hall known as the Old Town Hall
The large building to the right, now known as the Old Town Hall, was originally built as a market hall. The Market Place used to be a thriving area back in the 16th and 17th centuries, with people buying and selling goods such as livestock, vegetables and flour. This meant that it was sometimes a difficult place to display goods, because it was often a noisy, wet and muddy part of the town on market day.
At the end of the 16th century, Sir Edward Hext, who was a local magnate, built a market house as a gift to the town of Somerton. The building was a dry place where it was easier to sell goods such as flour, corn, vegetables and fruit.
The need for such a market house was eventually reduced, as the market in Somerton became less and less popular, and the use of the building changed to that of an assembly room. It remained an assembly room for Somerton clubs and residents for many years, up until 1982, when a private developer internally reconstructed it for use as offices.
This building, although known locally as the Old Town Hall was never actually a town hall in the strict sense.