Democracy came to Weston-super-Mare in 1842 with the election of Town Commissioners.

Democracy came to Weston-super-Mare in 1842 with the election of Town Commissioners. Before this date decision making had been in various hands - Churchwardens & Vestry, Poor Law Guardians, Lord of the Manor and other major land holders.

Those fledgling councillors were all local worthies and well established businessmen who felt meeting in public rooms at the Plough Hotel was not quite "the done thing". The old Plough stood in High Street between today's Burtons and Marks & Spencer. It was also an important terminus for the Bath stagecoach as well as a much favoured drinking den; hardly the sort of place for sensible decision making about "paving, lighting, watching, cleansing and otherwise improving the town".

Politicians quickly removed themselves to offices in the gas works, which stood on the site of today's Somerset House, though by 1848 they had moved yet again. This time councillors assembled in the disused Wesleyan Chapel at the back of the Plough Hotel, Methodists having moved to a more commodious building at the junction of Regent Street and St James Street (Barclays Bank). Chairman Mr F. Hutchinson Synge had purchased and refurbished the old chapel out of his own pocket and without so much as a whiff of an expenses claim.

That old chapel proved to be inadequate. Councillors wanted a purpose built Town Hall; one that would add dignity to the aspiring watering place of 3,000 people. This was a time of rapid growth in British towns, and middle-class merchant pride in civic institutions was on the rise. It was time to flaunt what you had. It so happened that Henry Davies, clerk to the council and a development entrepreneur had "concern" in a suitable plot of land. The public was outraged at Davies' self-interest and the rate burden of such a project and abuse flew blue through the air. The saga was resolved in 1858 when The Ven. Henry Law, Rector of Weston, offered to settle the bill on his own account and so Weston's second town hall was acquired at no cost to the ratepayer.

Last year the Town Hall, now a Listed Building, reached its 150th birthday, an occasion marked somewhat ironically by the removal of all floodlighting.

The oldest part of the building came from the pen of James Wilson of Bath who also designed Uphill's new St Nicholas' Church and the Villa Rosa. It was built in a vaguely Italianate style and housed offices, court and police cells. The barred cellar windows of the cells remain to this day. Can you spot them?

Forty years later the building proved inadequate to the growing bureaucracy. A �6,000 extension by Hans Fowler Price was added which included the current front portico with council chamber above. Much anger was generated when the council decided to add a tower (nearly all Victorian town halls had them), illuminated clock and bells. The Union Flag wouldn't rise beyond half-mast and in a mood of frugality VIPs who attended the ceremonial opening gong were charged 10p each for their refreshment! The four bells cast by Llewellyns of Bristol and each weighing six hundredweight are still in place but were silenced many years ago by office staff who found them noisily distracting. Perhaps one day the council might commission their restoration.

In 1929 the Oxford Street extension with a new dignified if somewhat gloomy council chamber was built in the Post Office Georgian style and during the 1970s a massive brick extension was added for the consolidated workings of Woodspring District Council.

Over time the original council of 18 elected Members has grown to 61 and to house this army of politicians the former public Assembly Rooms were converted into a commodious and airy new chamber for North Somerset's councillors. This part of the Town Hall once housed a substantial collection of marble busts, all of which mysteriously disappeared in the late 1940s. Clues to their whereabouts would be gratefully received.