WHEN Bolton Market Hall opened on December 19, 1855 it marked the beginning of Bolton's markets under municipal control.

It was hailed as the largest and finest Market Hall in the county.

A souvenir booklet produced for the centenary in 1955 included an account from Clegg's "Annals of Bolton."

It read: "The cost of carrying out this great improvement, including the approaches, was from £90,000 to £100,000, of which about £14,000 was set down to the formation of Knowsley Street with its bridge over the River Croal.

The building is in the form of a rectangular parallelogram, 294 feet five inches long by 219 feet nine inches wide, covering an area of 7,188 square yards or nearly 1 statute acres.

The principal facade in Knowsley Street consists of a centre portico of the Corinthian order with six columns upwards of 50 feet in height supporting a handsome pediment and having behind them a wall of rusticated masonry pierced by a wide and lofty archway commanding the entrance to the Markets, this archway being supported by the Arms of the Borough and groups of Architectonic Foliage.

The facades in Corporation Street and Rushton Street have each a centre of the Doric Order.

Internally, the building is divided into a nave, transepts and side aisles composed of ornamental cast-iron columns and girders and a gallery 12 feet wide runs all round the Hall.

The roof is of rough plate glass, weighing about 80 tons.

One of the most remarkable feats in the history of building construction was that, owing to subsidences which had taken place, fresh foundations had to be put in after the roof was on.

Mr T.G. Robinson of Leamington was the architect and the building, when finished, excited great admiration.

It was the first great outcome of the extensive scheme of local improvement inaugurated during the Mayorality and mainly through the influence of Mr Thomas Lever Rushton."