[2] The site they selected was on the north side of the Market Place and the foundation stone for the building was laid by the 8th Marquess of Lothian on 6 October 1856.

[4] The 6th Battalion of the Norfolk Rifle Volunteers, which was raised on 23 September 1859,[6] used the building as its drill hall[7] and petty session hearings were held there once a fortnight in the 19th century.

[10] The building was the venue for important public events and, in 1899, it hosted the declaration of the result for the 1899 North Norfolk parliamentary by-election which was won by the Liberal Party candidate, Sir William Gurdon.

[11] After Forster's death in 1906, the building was acquired by the local parish council[12] and Sir Oswald Mosley held a gathering of the British Union of Fascists there in 1939.

[16] Items of interest in the town hall include a collection of material relating to the locally-born pioneer of anaesthesia, Joseph Clover.