[1] The first municipal building in Newport was an ancient buttercross which was erected to the southeast of St Nicholas Church.

[2] It was a simple structure designed in the neoclassical style with ten columns supporting a frieze and a roof which was pedimented at both ends.

[6] The new building was designed by a local architect, John Cobb Jr. of Chetwyn End, in the Italianate style, built in brick with a stucco finish and was completed in 1860.

At roof level there was a modillioned cornice, a balustraded parapet and a central clock supported by elaborately carved scrolls and garlands.

[11] The use of the corn exchange declined significantly in the wake of the Great Depression of British Agriculture in the late 19th century.