Extensions Ashton Market Hall

Ashton Market Hall was brick built and had been extended through five main phases dated as 1830, 1851-2, 1867, 1881-2 and 1930. The phases of build and rebuild indicated that the market grew in all directions except west and the adaptations gave it its distinctive present day irregular five sided shape. The latter extensions had also meant that the building was extended upwards with new red brickwork raising the structure by several metres. An element of the importance granted to the structure was the addition of the two stage clock tower on the western elevation gave an indication of the building's importance in the town. This building's roof structure was an ornate and elaborate cast iron feature that had formerly indicated elements of the civic pride and opulence of the town's governors, the market hall traders and the people of Ashton. The building had elaborately decorated public entrances illustrated by the ornate stone surrounds to the exterior gateways of the 1830s,plus the finials, lion statuary and stone pediment features that had been added in the 1930s. The market hall provided evidence of the many changes in its life with the addition of fireplaces to several of the interior elevations, the building of arches that had been subsequently altered to include windows that were also later blocked with brickwork and the alteration of the ground surface and coverings from Yorkstone flags to asphalt and linoleum.

On 25 May 2005 a major fire gutted the Market Hall destroying the majority of the internal shopping units and offices within the market hall.. The cast iron roof structure also collapsed and the only remaining features left standing were the external structural walls and two of the older division walls within the shopping/stall area.

Reference     Mike Nevell University of Manchester Archaeological Unit