[2] By 1848, the old market hall had become very dilapidated and the local lord of the manor, Charles Trefusis, 19th Baron Clinton of Heanton Satchville, offered to replace it with a more substantial structure.
[3] The new building was designed by Alfred Norman of Devonport in the Italianate style, built in limestone rubble masonry and was completed in 1850.
There was a three-stage tower surmounted by a prominent bell turret at the southeast corner of the building and, at roof level, there was a modillioned cornice.
[5] A clock mechanism with illuminated faces was manufactured by J. W. Benson of Ludgate Hill and installed in the second stage of the tower in 1871.
[6] Charles Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton attempted to sell the town hall as part of an effort to rationalise his estate in 1905, but he withdrew the property from sale after it failed to achieve its reserve price.