The historian, Agnes Strickland, speculated that it may have been built as a hospital for the wounded from the battle.

[4] After the earlier building had been demolished in 1816,[5] a third town hall, which was also used as a school, was built to the east of St Edmund's Church and was completed in around 1817.

[6][7][8] The current town hall was commissioned by a hotelier, Thomas Bokenham, as a private house in around 1810.

[10] The building was acquired by the borough council and, by the late 19th century, was operating as a town hall.

[11] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the Market Place; in the left hand bay, there was a doorway with a rectangular fanlight flanked by pilasters supporting an entablature and a modillioned cornice.