The Guildhall


The Windsor Guildhall is the town hall of the town of Windsor, in the English county of Berkshire. It is situated in the High Street, about 100 metres from Castle Hill, which leads to the main public entrance to Windsor Castle. It is a Grade I listed building. The Borough of Windsor possessed a guildhall from early times. A deed of 1369, now in the possession of Eton College, refers to the "gildaule", and a charter of 1439 states that "pleas happening in the said borough...shall be pleaded and holden in the guildhall there, before the mayor and bailiffs for the time being". Norden's map of 1607 shows a market house in the location of the present guildhall: the main part of it is raised on wooden pillars to allow the space beneath to be used as a covered corn market.

The historic purpose of the building combined both the commercial (through the system of guilds) and administrative (through the offices of the mayor and town councillors). There has also been a judicial aspect to its role as, historically, the mayor automatically held the post of chief magistrate of the borough. Windsor had the right to hold Quarter Sessions until 1971 and so the guildhall was also used as a courtroom. In 1974, with the formation of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, the two towns' councils were merged and, since then, the guildhall has been used more for ceremonial events, although committee meetings are still held there.

On 9 April 2005, the Guildhall was thrust into the view of the world's media as it was the location of the marriage of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles, being the nearest place to the castle that is licensed to hold weddings. On 21 December 2005, it also hosted one of the first same sex civil partnership ceremonies to be held in England, that of Sir Elton John and David Furnish.



Source & More Information: Wikipedia, Windsor Guildhall, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windsor_Guildhall




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