Grange Court is a Grade II* listedStructure of particular architectural and/or historic interest deserving of special protection. former market hall in Leominster, Herefordshire, built in about 1633 by the carpenter and mason John Abel.^[1] Originally known as the Butter Crosse, it stood at the top of Broad Street and housed the weekly butter market, selling chickens, eggs, and butter.

By the mid-19th century the market hall had become a hazard to traffic, and so it was dismantled. It lay in pieces in a builder’s yard until 1859, when it was bought by John Arkwright, who rebuilt it on its present site with some modifications, including enclosing the originally open ground floor, before leasing it to the Moore family.^[1][2]

The building remained a family home until 1939, when Leominster District Council made a compulsory purchase to save it from being dismantled and moved to South Wales to become the gatehouse to St. Donats Castle. It was subsequently used as council offices until 2008, when redevelopment began to turn the building into a Community, Enterprise and Heritage Hub.^[2]

Grange Court is now owned by the LARC Development Trust, who purchased it from Herefordshire Council for £1 as part of the council’s Asset Transfer programme.^[3]

Architecture

The two-storey timber-frame and plaster structure has a stone tile roof with gable, bellcoteShelter containing one or more bells., and weathervane dated 1687. The originally open ground floor sat under a jetty with enriched bressumerHorizontal load-bearing timber beam. boards, with timber columns supporting the floor above.^[1]