It brought together the various agents who sold oats, beans and all kinds of grain on behalf of the farmers and was built around a courtyard which was open to the sky.

The central section of seven bays featured a hexastyle portico formed by Doric order columns supporting an entablature, a frieze decorated by paterae, a cornice and a parapet.

[7] The old corn exchange was largely demolished and replaced by a far larger building designed by Edward I'Anson in the Italianate style and completed in 1882.

[4] The use of the buildings as corn exchanges declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century.

[10] It too was demolished and rebuilt in 1973; but the corn exchange continued trading "cereals of every kind, pulse vegetables, flour, seeds, animal feeds and fertilisers".