[1][2] The new building, which was designed in the Victorian style, was built in red brick with stone dressings at a cost of £7,000 and was officially opened by the first chairman of local board of health, James Ashworth, in September 1880.

[3][4] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with five bays facing onto Rochdale Road; the central bay, which was built of stone and slightly projected forward, featured a round headed doorway on the ground floor flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature bearing the town's coat of arms; there was an eight-light window on the first floor and a pediment above with a clock tower at roof level.

The clock, which was designed and manufactured by Gillett and Bland,[5] and the bell were a gift from Dr and Mrs John Kershaw,[6] who also financed the local cottage hospital.

[7][8] The clock tower was inscribed on three sides with Latin mottos: "Tempus Fugit" (time flies), "Sic Labitur Aetas" (so the years pass by) and "Finem Respice" (have regards to the end).

[9] On 26 November 1884, a gangmaster, who was protesting at those provisions of the Factory Acts that prohibited children under 10 years old from working in mills,[10] placed a gunpowder-based explosive device in a cellar underneath the town hall.