[5][6][7] The secret ballot was first used in the United Kingdom, and the result announced at the town hall, on 15 August 1872 to re-elect Hugh Childers as MP for Pontefract in a ministerial by-election following his appointment as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

[10] The old Town Hall remained the meeting place of the civic leaders and magistrates until they moved into the assembly rooms in the early 20th century.

The elevation facing onto the marketplace has three bays, the middle one having been altered in the twentieth century by the installation of a glass front.

[1] The Nelson Room, which is situated on the first floor has a large white-marble fireplace with a sleeping lion centrepiece.

[1] At the opposite end is the full-size plaster cast of John Edward Carew's bronze relief of The Death of Nelson.