Town Hall Centre, Clock Tower, Braintree, Essex

Image: © Trevor Wright Taken: 3 Jul 2009

Braintree Town Hall, now referred to as the Town Hall Centre, was a gift of William Julien Courtauld to the Town. The foundation stone was set in 1926 and the Town Hall opened in 1928. The Renaissance style Clock Tower has four faces, each with a clock face and bells sound on each quarter-hour. The figure on top of the bell tower includes the message ‘Hold to the Truth’. Two faces show the Braintree & Bocking coat of arms*. The pole visible in the bottom right of the image is the flagstaff. A view of the whole building is available in this image taken by Brenda Howard: Image and more information on the history of the building and its impressive interior is available in a Braintree District Council document here: http://www.braintree.gov.uk/NR/rdonlyres/F77C5868-D629-4459-8505-CD2440014352/0/braintree_town_hall.pdf *The following information on the Braintree & Bocking coat of arms is taken, and reproduced with corrections, from "Heraldry of the World": http://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/b/braintre.htm The arms were granted on March 21, 1927. The shield itself has no special origin, but the lions and fleur-de-lis (lilies) are derived from arms of two important families. The blue lions are taken from the arms of William of Santa Maria, Bishop of London. He granted Braintree the right to hold a market and fairs. This transformed Braintree from a country village to a market town. The lilies are taken from the arms of the Courtauld family, who were the first to establish an important manufactory in the town. The three spurs are also taken from the Courtauld arms, as is the motto "Hold to the Truth". The family used the French version, Tiens a la Verite. The crossed swords are the symbol of St. Paul, as the Bishops of London were for several centuries Lords of the Manor of Braintree. The patron saint of London is St. Paul. The new Braintree District Council arms were granted on October 15, 1974 and available on "Heraldry of the World" here: http://www.ngw.nl/int/gbr/b/braintree.htm

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