Following significant population growth, largely associated with its status as a market town, a local board was established in Ottery St Mary in 1850.

[4] In August 1862, shortly after the building opened, the town hall hosted a reception on behalf of the British Archaeological Association, which was presided over by the Justice of the Queen's Bench, Sir John Coleridge.

[4] A memorial, in form of a brick column surmounted by an orb and cross, which was intended to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, was erected to the immediate west of the town hall in 1897.

[11] Following extensive refurbishment works, the Ottery St Mary Heritage Society, which had operated through displays in a hotel since it was founded in 1999, moved into the old town hall.

[15] The museum's exhibits include material associated with the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the diplomat, Ernest Mason Satow, and the novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray.