WITHOUT question it is the jewel in Rochdale's crown, the shining centrepiece of its heritage.

The borough has rightly taken pride in its magnificent Gothic Town Hall which for generations has been the envy of many around.

A symbol of the town's industrial might in the late 19th century, the Grade One listed building is now seen as one of its greatest treasures.

Inbetween it has been at the centre of so much activity, moving with the times without losing its sense tradition or history.

But it has not been an easy journey and the building has had to survive disaster and controversy along the way.

It was in 1859 that Rochdale Council began to consider building a Town Hall.

Since the incorporation of the borough it had held its meetings in the Smith Street rooms of the Board of Commissioners.

For the next few years debate raged among councillors about the most suitable site.

Some prefered Townhead House in Yorkshire Street, others the Wellington Hotel while cases were also put forward for Mr Kelsall's old house on The Butts, The Orchard grounds, Wet Rake and a plot bordered by South Parade, King Street, Fleece Street or Packer Street.

Eventually they settled on a plot of land know as the Wood estate, which was bought from the Vicar of Rochdale for £4,730 in 1864.

That same year a sub-committee was formed which visited other towns in the area that had recently put up municipal buildings.

It recommended Rochdale should spend £25,000 on its Town Hall, but the Council decided that was too much and fixed a budget of £20,000.

A prize of £100 was offered for the best design and 27 sets of plans were sent in. The chosen ones were drawn up by William Henry Crossland of Leeds.

John Bright laid the cornerstone on 31 March 1866 and the building work began.

The next five years saw a series of alterations to the designs - usually making them more elaborate - leading to delays and extra costs.

As the budget spiralled ever higher so the amount of criticism heaped on the project and the man leading it, Alderman George Leach Ashworth, increased.

Finally, on 27 September 1871, with the budget having swallowed up £155,000, the Town Hall was officially opened.

Though much had been said about the amount of money spent on it and the suitability, or not, of the site the end result blew away all arguments.

Its Gothic architecture led to it being likened to medieval town halls of Europe.

The east of the building contained the municipal offices and mayor's apartment while to the west end of the building were the police station and petty sessions courts.

Extending the width of the building was the council chamber but the crowning glory was undoubtedly the Grand Hall.

Accessed by the grand staircase at the entrance, the hall was described as one of the best in the country.

Indeed, those who saw it declared it to: "challenge comparison for Westminster Hall for its noble hammer beam roof and with the House of Lords for richness of decoration."

Another special feature of the building were its magnificent stained glass windows.

While those on the staircase represented the coats of arms of Great Britain, Rochdale and Lancashire the windows in the main hall depicted portraits of kings and queens of England and Oliver Cromwell. There were also windows dedicated to Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Another major feature was the impressive fresco representing the Magna Carta Council at Runnymeade by Henry Holiday.

The clock tower and spire stretched 240 feet into the sky and was finished off with an impressive carving of George and the dragon.

Inside the tower a set of 12 bells was installed to play 14 tunes - a different one each day for a fortnight.

The tune would be played three times at the hours of three, six, nine and 12.

It was believed the tunes included 'The Easter Hymn', 'Rule Britannia', 'St Patrick's Day', 'Auld Lang Syne', 'Yankee Doodle', 'God Save The Prince of Wales' and 'Home Sweet Home.'

With the costs soaring only the 134ft base of the tower was made of stone, the 106-foot spire being constructed of wood.

Rochdale could now wallow in some pride at the magnificence of its Town Hall, but there were early teething problems.

The bells were often silent due to mechanical problems.

In early 1882 dry rot was discovered in the spire. Mr Platt, the borough surveyor and other experts concluded that it would have to be demolished as far as the stone tower and rebuilt.

The Council eventually agreed to the work and a contractor was hired for the job in early 1883.

But on 10 April disaster struck as the spire and part of the tower was burnt down.

For a while there was a fear that they would not be replaced.

However a total of £17,900 was paid out by the insurance societies for the work to be done.

On the recommendation of Mr A Waterhouse, architect of Manchester Town Hall, the old tower was completely removed and a new one built a few feet away from the original site,

It was built entirely of stone, although this time only reached 190ft and was connected to the Town Hall by a bridgeway.

When the new clock was installed it had five bells put in, the troublesome system of the old tower being abandoned.

All the work was completed in time for the tower to be opened on 20 June 1887 - Queen Victoria's jubilee day.

Fully restored, the Town Hall was firmly at the centre of many varied aspects of Rochdale life.

Not only was it home to the council and its officers, but also offered sumptuous surroundings to many a social gathering.

It also allowed the town to give famous - and not so famous - visitors a warm welcome.

The building was also often the focus of Rochdale's celebrations, both national and local.

A number of Prime Ministers have spoken within its walls, including Lord Rosebery, Arthur Balfour, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and Herbert Asquith.

Of the few visitors who weren't made welcome were the Suffragettes, including their leader, Mrs Emily Pankhurst.

The many people who spoke at the Town Hall included famous names such as George Bernard Shaw, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Lord Baden Powell.

Religious figures also used it as a platform, including various Bishops and the Archbishop of York, Dr Cosmo Gordon Lang.

Music was also a regular feature with the Great Hall hosting concerts from such as the famous tenor Sims Reeves.

Sir Charles Halle brought his orchestra to play there on numerous occasions and there have been performances from top musicians such as Frederick Dawson, York Bowen and Mark Hambourg.

In 1913 the entertainment facilities were enhanced still further with the installation of an organ.

That same year King George V and Queen Mary visited Rochdale and came within yards of the Town Hall - but didn't have time to venture inside.

Similarly in 1938 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth made it as far as The Esplanade, though their whistle-stop tour itinerary did not have room for a look inside the building.

Although the Queen did enter the building on a solo visit in 1948 it was not until Queen Elizabeth II visited in 1954 that a reigning monarch was welcomed over its threshold.

Apart from repairs to the bells in 1929 little work needed to done to the Town Hall for many years.

When the Second World War broke out the familiar frontage was covered in sandbags and a debate ensued as to whether or not to remove the stained glass windows in case of bombing.

It was decided to keep them in place as it was unlikely they would be able to remove them without damaging them.

As an alternative photographs were taken of them and tinted to provide a guide if repair work was needed.

Thankfully they were never needed and the building marched into peacetime unscathed.

Despite its age it was still ground-breaking, on 13 February 1958 hosting the first televised election, Jack McCann being elected after defeating Ludovic Kennedy.

Inevitably, however, the march of time - literally in this case - led to a large modernisation project.

In January 1964 the clock was deliberately stopped for the first time in 86 years so the manual winding mechanism could be replaced by an electrical one.

Until then every day of the year - including Christmas day - a porter had climbed the 157 steps to carry out the hour-long winding operation.

Ironically that very year, as it moved further into the modern age, the Town Hall's future seemed to be threatened.

Moves were debated to move all council departments out of the building and into new municipal offices being planned for the town centre.

With a new police station and courts planned, too, there were fears the architectural masterpiece would be left as a glorified function room.

Whatever its future, though, it had the admiration of the celebrated poet and author John Betjeman.

He was in Rochdale in 1966 to review the council's town centre redevelopment scheme as a member of the Royal Fine Art Commission.

But he was more interested in admiring the Town Hall, describing it as: "One of the most splendid Gothic Revival buildings of Britain."

Despite threatened upheaval the grand old building reached its centenary in 1971 still at the centre of council affairs.

To celebrate the landmark it was given a £12,500 facelift and floodlit.

Even so, the following decade proved to be a traumatic one for the Town Hall and its many supporters as it began to show its age.

By June 1974 the organ in the Great Hall was in urgent need of repairs.

In November of that year the bells fell silent when it was discovered that one of them was loose and in danger of collapsing into the framework of the tower.

Hasty repairwork allowed them to chime again early in the new year.

Also in 1974 a BBC outside broadcast unit arrived to film inside the old building for 'Days of Hope' a series starring Alun Armstong about the rise of a Yorkshire MP in the 1920s.

The BBC had picked the Town Hall because parts of its interior were similar to that of the House of Commons.

It was the start of numerous visits over the last few decades by film crews and countless Westminster scenes in TV drama have been staged in Rochdale.

The royals also became regular visitors with the Duke of Edinburgh, Princess Anne and Lord Mountbatten dropping in during visits to the town.

A cause for concern in 1976 was the fresco in the Great Hall, with the plaster beginning to come away from the wall.

As the cost of restoration work continued to rise some questioned whether it was worth it.

One of the more bizzare suggestions in the early 1980s was to turn the building into a supermarket!

Despite this the Town Hall is still very much part of Rochdale life and has been slowly but surely upgrading its facilities in recent years.

There was a £200,000 upgrade in 1990 and four years later, during more improvement work, the building showed it still had a few secrets.

Workmen installing a new bar next to the Great Hall discovered a ceiling painting dating back decades.

A five-year maintenance and restoration scheme was launched in 2000, covering all aspects of the building.

Even now it is a constant battle to keep a step ahead of the ageing process.

But the jewel is still there - and still shining as brightly as ever.

Old rivals who still lock horns over council business

THE building of the Town Hall became a battleground for two of Rochdale Council's most distinguished members.

Championing the cause of what is now arguably the town's greatest landmark was Alderman George Leach Ashworth.

But the most implacable opponent to the plan was Alderman Edward Taylor, who preferred the money to be spent on a much-needed sewage system for the town, which he had taken on as a personal crusade.

Indeed such was his opposition that he boycotted the opening ceremony.

Their monumental clash was preserved for posterity in unlikely fashion inside the very subject of their rivalry.

In committee room three at the Town Hall there are two wood-carved figures near the ceiling, on opposing walls.

On one side is Alderman Ashworth holding a model of the Town Hall while across the room from him is Alderman Taylor, shaking his fists.

Six into four adds up to a whole lot of trouble

THERE were red faces when six councillors found themselves in a jam after getting their sums wrong at the Town Hall.

In January 1976 Councillor A J Cleasby, chairman of the town centre redevelopment committee and five colleagues stepped into the lift to get to the conference room on the second floor - ignoring the notice indicating the maximum load was four people.

They paid the price when the lift became jammed four feet from the second floor and they had to be helped to climb out. Ironically, the land committee had already sanctioned a £4,500 plan for a new one.

HE WAS sure a phone was ringing - but senior Town Hall porter John Royle couldn't work out where.

He and Mrs Judith Clark, central services manager in the chief executive's department, went on a hunt in January 1991 to try and track it down.

Eventually, in a padlocked box fixed to the ceiling of the cellar, they found four 1950s-style telephones which were still connected and in full working order.

Mrs Clark, who was also responsible for the town's emergency planning, said: "The phones were installed by the Home Office for civil defence purposes in 1953, when the cellar was an emergency planning base, but they never had to be used. I suspect they were strapped to the ceiling to stop people using them when dances were held in the cellars."

Hitler had eye on our pride and joy

THE Town Hall has had countless admirers in its 135-year history, though the attentions of some would be most unwelcome.

For example, had the Nazis been triumphant in the Second World War then Rochdale's Gothic masterpiece could have ended up being relocated in Berlin.

An American professor of archaeology had a hobby in collecting and collating every word Adoph Hitler said during his rise to power.

He discovered that the Fuhrer had a plan to dismantle the Town Hall brick by brick and rebuild it in the German capital.

It seemed his particular interest was in the building's stained glass windows.

Before the war the world's leading authority on stained glass windows had told Hitler the finest ancient glass was in York Minster but for more modern glass there was none finer in the world than in Rochdale.

Thankfully he never got his hands on our pride and joy.