Alcester Town Hall

Today was an Open day at Alcester Town Hall, and as we were having a coffee nearby we decided to pop in. 
The original lower storey was built in 1618, as an open market hall for traders and had a colonnade of 18 pillars made of Cotswold stone (a bit similar to Chipping Campden if ever you have been there). The upper floor was added in 1641 and is most impressive. 
In Victorian times the ground floor was enclosed i.e. built in between the pillars.  It was extremely interesting to visit, made more so by the knowledge of a local chap who also happens to be an archaeologist.
I was very proud of myself for commenting that I thought that the horizontal beams (as seen above with "1641" carved )  would have originally been right the way across and that they had been cut off at a later date. The archaeologist congratulated me and said he only recalled one other person who had noticed, and that we were correct. The beams had originally been the full width of the room and had been cut off at both sides to leave a space in the centre  in order to give more height to the room. No-one knows when the beams were altered.
The Town Hall is still used for all sorts of meetings, performances and exhibitions.