It was in this building that, in 1877, the member of parliament and future Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, gave a speech exhorting the government to remove all obstacles preventing unemployed people from securing work.

[6] The current building was designed by Charles Ponting in the Renaissance style, built by R. Hillier in red brick with hamstone dressings at a cost of £11,000 and was officially opened by the mayor, Thomas Free, on 8 October 1902.

[12] The Nobel-prize winner, William Golding, recounted in one of his essays how his mother, Mildred, accompanied by his father, Alex, campaigned for women's suffrage on the steps of the town hall in the years just before the First World War.

[14][15] In July 1944, two parties were held in the town hall, one for officers and one for other-ranks, to celebrate the return to billets in Wiltshire of the 3rd Battalion of the US 506th Infantry Regiment after taking part in Operation Overlord.

[21] Following the completion of an extensive programme of refurbishment works in 2004,[12] the building re-emerged as a significant public events venue in the town: recent performers have included the singer, Steve Knightley, in February 2022[22] and the band, Megson, in April 2022.