It was built on the foundations of a previous building and basement rooms are from that former use as a malt barn.

The town needed a public building as the Corn Exchange, which had stood in the market place, burnt down in 1898.

[1] In 1918 it was a scene of celebration when war hero John Daykins VC was honoured at the hall.

[3][4] It was at the town hall that, in a by-election in March 1965, the future leader of the Liberal Democrats, David Steel, was declared elected, aged just 25, as the youngest Member of Parliament in the UK House of Commons.

[6] The hall was run and owned by the local council but in 2015 the costs of ownership became onerous[7] and it and the management of many other public buildings in the borders were transferred to a trust.